Why would an international applicant with a perfect GPA and an undergraduate thesis get rejected from 16 grad schools? [duplicate]

Question

I applied to 16 graduate schools for this coming fall. I am a transfer student at a Top 10 Public US school. I had GPA 4.00 at the time I applied (Not yet took graduate course yet, but I wrote that I would have taken 8 graduate courses at the time I applied).

I didn't have the REU (but I was proceeded algebraic geometry research thesis), and a few experience of presentations. I am an international male applicant.

The person who wrote my letter of recommendation is famous/reputable (one Fields medallist and one very famous mathematician of algebraic geometry). But, I couldn't hit any of the graduate schools (including the Top 50-60 US math department schools). I am not sure what was the reason I can't get into any of the graduate schools to which other students in my school were admitted.

What can I do to improve my prospect of getting into any graduate schools?

Answer 1

I can suggest two possibilities and a possible solution.

First, your English writing seems awkward, so possibly you didn't express yourself well or made many misspellings. It is Fields Medal, by the way. This might have blown up your statement of purpose, which can be quite important.

Second, it is possible that the "famous mathematicians" wrote you mediocre letters of recommendation. I wonder how well they know you and your work. What they say about you is probably much more important than who they are for these purposes.

You can address both of those issues in various ways, but I also suggest that you simply broaden your search. Send a few applications, tailored to the individual institutions, but cover the full range of R1 universities (and maybe even some R2 places), not just the top of the range.

Answer 2

It is hard to to diagnose the problem from the information you provided. Like @Buffy, I notice that your written communication is quite rough -- to a degree this is understandable because you are presumably not a native English speaker, but it also looks sloppy. (A non-native speaker should also know how to spell "Fields Medal.")

I will disagree a bit with Buffy and say that very eminent mathematicians giving only routinely supportive recommendations should be enough to get into a top 50 mathematics department given 16 tries. If the writer felt less than routinely supportive they should probably not have written the letter (and in most cases they wouldn't). So one idea is to talk to your letter writers. Don't even hint that you worry they wrote a less than strong letter: just express your concerns and ask how you can do better.

The only other thing I wonder is whether the answer is hidden in the details of being a "transfer student" -- how long have you been at your Top 10 Public School? At most such schools, a student with 4.0 GPA would likely take their first graduate course before their final undergraduate year.

Anyway, I agree that the outcome is surprising given the information given. I do suggest asking around for additional help, trying to improve the situation based on the feedback you get, and applying again next year. Good luck!

Answer 3

To add a little further context to Buffy's and Pete Clark's: in the U.S. in the current state of things, as I see in my own math R1 state univ (I'm on grad admissions), the total number of (EDIT: not admissions) applicants is perhaps 30% greater than usual. At the same time, economic constraints (partly due to uncertainty about the course of the pandemic) are reducing the number of offers we can make, and also reducing the volatility we can tolerate in the outcomes of offers made.

Further, the partly-good idea of the April 15 common date (in the U.S.) for commitment to grad programs tends to make us prefer to make offers to (good) people who've given some indication that they'd come to our program if we made the offer. E.g., at least some explicit mention of our university and some relevant people on our faculty. Otherwise, we figure we're just a back-up, and the April 15 thing has game-theoretic implications.

So there's a confluence of complications in this cycle.

EDIT: currently, as ever, contacting potentially relevant faculty by email is some evidence of your genuine interest. But/and this should be clear in your statement of purpose. If you don't get a first-round offer from a school, you can tell the Grad Office (in that dept) that you still are definitely interested in being on their "wait list" (or whatever they call it). And follow up again on April 14... :) Of course (!!!) if you send spammy-sounding emails, it won't help at all.

EDIT2: and, as Noah Snyder comments, international students may cost a department more in terms of the budget-games of tuition, and may create complications in terms of English fluency for functioning as teaching assistants. The other current features amplify these aspects in an unfortunate way.

I should also note that at my univ the math dept is NOT allowed to claim that we cannot cover all the math courses, due to reduced personnel (hiring freeze on faculty, for example). So we really need all new grad students (if not on fellowships or RA's) to be able to "hit the ground running" in terms of teaching. English problems are very unhelpful.

Answer 4

A few things that may help.

1. Your written English is below average. There are several grammatical and spelling issues with your post. One thing that can set you apart from many other international students is excellent English skills.

2. While famous recommenders are important, more important is they have something great to say about you. You mention you didn't do REU's - this is probably the best way to make sure they can say something great about you. If possible do at least one semester of REU's.

3. While a 4.0 GPA is important, that isn't the only thing admissions committees will look for. They look at leadership position held in clubs (such as president of the ACM), and other extra extracurriculars.