Advice for Applicants

Usually, many more students apply than we can accommodate. Here are some of the things that we look for in successful applicants. While these criteria will certainly inform the decision of the DRP committee, all applications will be considered on an individual basis. As such, special cases that don’t meet all of the following criteria but have sufficient merit are certainly good candidates for admission.

  1. Basic mathematical maturity, at least to the level of having taken Math 53 or 54 (or equivalent), and ideally some upper division classes. These may or may not be related to your actual DRP project, but without them you’ll struggle with more advanced concepts that build off of that material. For similar reasons, we prefer applicants to be in their sophomore year or later. The more math and math-related courses you’ve taken, the better.
  2. An understanding of the program and a clear motivation. Successful applicants generally make it very clear which topics they want to study, why they want to study them, and why they want to do so as part of the DRP rather than just reading on their own.
  3. Some amount of flexibility. While we are looking for applicants with a clear idea of what they would like to study, having a hyper-specific project already worked out does decrease our ability to pair you with a mentor if you don’t have one already.

You don’t need a letter of recommendations, but it helps. You can ask any professor or GSI who knows you to write you a letter. The letters don’t have to be particularly long, but they should discuss your specific skills as a mathematician.