FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS: APPLYING TO GRAD SCHOOL IN
MATHEMATICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
Q. Do you ever admit students in Spring or Summer?
Q. What supplementary materials
do I need send along with my application, and where?
Q. Do I need to take the Mathematics subject GRE?
Q. What are your minimum required GRE scores?
Q. What are your minimum required TOEFL scores?
Q. How long are TOEFL scores valid?
Q. What should I write in my personal statement?
Q. What percentage of your graduate
students receive financial support?
Q.
What are the duties of a Teaching Assistant (TA)?
Q. Does my undergraduate degree need to be in
Mathematics?
Q. What math courses should I have taken?
A. Almost all of our new students are admitted for Fall semester. (Most of our finishing students graduate in Spring or Summer, so Fall is when we have money coming available for assistantships. Also, many of our courses are geared to starting in the Fall.) For full consideration for assistantships, applications should be received by January 1.
Q. Do you ever admit students in Spring or Summer?
A. We occasionally admit a student for Spring semester, if some support money becomes available (such as when a current student unexpectedly graduates in December). Decisions on Spring admissions are made in November. We never admit students for Summer.
Q. What supplementary materials do I need
send along with my application, and where?
A. Along with your online application to the UGA Graduate School, you need to submit (or have submitted on your behalf) the following:
2 copies of your official transcript/academic record from each institution you have attended, sent directly from the institution to the Graduate School
official GRE scores (verbal, quantitative, analytical writing), sent directly to the Graduate School by ETS
official TOEFL or IELTS scores, if required, sent directly to the Graduate School by ETS
3 letters of recommendation, submitted electronically via the link provided to the recommenders by the Graduate School when you filed your online applicaion. (Hardcopy letters are being phased out, although still permitted in Fall 2007; mail these to the Mathematics Department.)
personal statement, mailed to the Mathematics Department.
Q.
Do I need to take the Mathematics subject GRE?
A. No. However, if you do take it, we will look at your score in making our admission decision.
Q.
What are your minimum required GRE scores?
A. We don't have minimum scores on the GRE. Our admissions decisions are made using a combination of factors, including GRE scores, GPA, mathematics coursework and grades, letters of recommendation, and your personal statement. No one factor is decisive. However, here are the 10th percentile levels of the GRE scores of our current graduate students (as of Fall, 2007), meaning that 90% of them achieved above these scores:
Verbal: 367
Quantitative: 717
Combined V+Q: 1120
Q.
What are your minimum required TOEFL scores?
A. The Graduate School requires a minimum internet-based TOEFL (IBT) score of 80, with at least 20 on each of the Speaking and Writing sections. On the older TOEFL tests, the minimums are: Paper-based, 550; Computer-based, 213.
Q. How long are TOEFL scores valid?
A. TOEFL scores are accepted provided the exam has been taken within two years prior to the date of your application to the Graduate School. Applicants who have taken the older TOEFL tests are strongly encouraged to take the IBT, which is now offered world-wide. The IBT is offered infrequently in Athens, GA, and space is very limited for the test. The Mathematics Department and the Graduate School use the IBT scores to place international students in the correct level of English language skills/cultural orientation course when they arrive at UGA.
Q. What should I write in my personal statement?
A. Your personal statement could say why you want to go to graduate school in mathematics and why UGA in particular, what area of mathematics you're interested in and why, what your career goals are, what math courses you have liked in the past, what research groups (if any) you have participated in, etc.
Q. What percentage of your graduate students receive financial support?
A. All of our PhD candidates receive financial support, and approximately half of our Masters (including MAMS) students. Most of this support is in the form of Teaching Assistantships.
Q.
What are the duties of a Teaching Assistant (TA)?
A. A typical first-year TA would do some combination of undergraduate grading, study hall, and leading calculus discussion sections. Second year TAs typically teach their own section of precalculus, combined with some grading and/or study hall. Later on, TAs usually teach their own calculus class, and advanced students sometimes grade for a graduate course. International students whose native language is not English usually postpone leading calculus discussion sections to their second year, and teaching their own course to the third year.
Q.
Does my undergraduate degree need to be in Mathematics?
A. Not necessarily, but it should be in a closely-related field (such as physics).
Q. What math courses should I have taken?
A. A MAMS applicant should have had courses at least in multi-variable calculus, linear algebra, and differential equations; additional courses like advanced calculus or numerical analysis would be helpful. MA and PhD applicants should have taken courses roughly equivalent to a Mathematics undergraduate degree at University of Georgia, including at least two of abstract algebra, real analysis, and topology.