Quote:
Originally Posted by Wyman
pm school names.
post long term goals including what tier school and what type of phd program and why you think you'll be a better applicant to a PhD program after a one year masters. keep in mind you apply in November so you'll have a year off unless you think that you'll be more qualified 3 months into your MS program.
Long term goals-- Probably industry as opposed to academia. Research interests are wide open because I haven't done very much (mostly just senior thesis) and don't really know what I'm after yet. Everything from Biostat to Computational Finance could be an option as to where I end up ultimately. FWIW my favorite areas so far are my Stats sequence and my Diff Eq sequence.
I expect to be a better applicant to a PhD program after my Masters because I was an Econ major for 5 semesters (I actually completed the major and then started a second in Math). At the end of this semester I will have completed 27 semester hours of Math at or above Calc III in the last 4 semesters. It's been a full-on sprint. I have the prereqs fulfilled but hardly have outstanding preparation. A Master's would sort of be like a 5/6th year of undergrad to take a bunch more Math, get research experience, refine my interests a little bit, and actually get to know faculty. This way I can say something deeper than "I like Math and I'm pretty good at it so you should let me into your school" when it comes time to apply for PhD programs. Similarly, so my LORs can be something other than "He's a good student, comes to class, has strong interest in the subject, but I don't know much about him other than that he got an A in my class."
I haven't taken the GRE subject test. There are several classes that I would take during a Masters (that I have not taken yet) but show up on the subject test. AFAIK the subject test means a lot to good PhD programs and not having it would be shooting myself in the foot.
Finally, because I don't know enough about Stats or App Math right now to decide between them. In theory, I love the idea of Stats but feel like I haven't taken enough "real math" to be able to commit to that yet.