Math in Hawaii?

[nibot]

I just received a letter of acceptance to the math department at University of Hawaii!

Hmm. That's actually kind of tempting.

Comments

[nibot.livejournal.com]

Can you score a visit there?

Their recruiting efforts are very weak. It feels almost like a community college!

The funniest part is that I didn't apply to the Math department.

On the graduate division application, there's a spot where you list your "second choice department" (!), so I wrote in Mathematics ("hey, why not?"). But I think I sent all my other materials (letters, essays, etc) directly to the Physics dept. Anyway, I should have written in "Marine Biology." Now that would have been something.

[janviere.livejournal.com]

Heh, I figured you hadn't applied to the math department.

For some reason, I was looking up accreditation and found a list of engineering programs: http://www.abet.org/accredited_programs/engineering/schoolall.asp Lots of schools I've never even heard of, and when you look at their site they have requirements like a minimum gpa of 2.5 for entry into their grad program in such and such. It's good to know there's somewhere for everyone.

[nibot.livejournal.com]

That's is definitely a conclusion I have reached — everyone can go to grad school. But if you go too far down the list, it's probably not worth going.

[janviere.livejournal.com]

Well, define "worth". If you want to be faculty at a major university, probably not. But someone must be hiring them.

[nibot.livejournal.com]

Well, look at the thesis projects that are being undertaken, and look at the quality of coursework, advisors, and fellow students. At places ranked very poorly, it looks like studying there would be a waste of time.

[janviere.livejournal.com]

For you, I'm sure. What about the people who are never going to get into a more highly ranked school?

[nibot.livejournal.com]

Well, I suppose it might be useful to them.

I'm just a bit surprised at the apparent disparity in PhD quality.