Profile Evaluation (Thanks a lot!)

[bli]

Type of Student: Asian International , Male

Undergrad Institution: Top liberal arts college
Major(s): Math
General GPA: 3.543
Major GPA: 3.953

GRE Revised General Test:
Q: 170 (98%)
V: 156 (71%)
W: 3.5 (38%)
GRE Subject Test in Mathematics:
M: 890 (94%)

Program Applying: PhD in Applied Math

Research Experience: 2 undergraduate research experience, and writing a senior thesis right now. One submitted paper.
Awards/Honors/Recognitions: The Courtney S. Coleman Prize. A prize of Harvey Mudd College given to two rising juniors who excel in mathematics.
Rank 11th nationalwide in Virginia Tech competition.
top 500 in putnam (not sure whether I should talk about this)
Recommendations: Three strong.

Advanced Classes: Graduate Analysis I, II, PDE, graduate seminar in PDE, algebraic geometry, algebraic topology, stochastic process, combinatorics, graph theory, advanced linear algebra.

Applying to Where:

MIT
Princeton
Cal tech
UCB
UCLA
Cornell
Twin City
Stanford

Northwestern
Columbia
Brown
Duke
JHU

UT-Austin
Indiana
Is there a chance I get admitted by any one of them?

[AMGMScrub]

Hard to say. Just ask your advisors. It's hard to predict what is an ideal candidate for a given program. I'm not too sure about international applicants, since I believe it's more competitive than applying as a domestic. But I would be surprised if you got rejected from all the schools in that given list assuming what you wrote about your profile is true.

[Ivanjam]

See what your chances look like here: http://thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=math*

[SoulOnIce]

Honestly you are something of an unusual case. You are definitely on par with other students in the applicant pool for your schools in terms of GRE and subject test scores, research, interest in math, and major GPA. Your overall GPA, however, may be lower than what is expected.

From what I see, people with ~3.9's overall and very close to 4.0 majors will apply to almost exclusively Top 10-15 schools, as you are doing, and get into 1-2 on average. While your GPA is still good, we are talking about Top 15 schools here. I don't know if schools will care all that much, because your major GPA is very good, but it could also be very bad in their eyes. Again, people with ~3.5 overall and ~4.0 major GPA's are rare profiles so I cannot be certain.

As a whole, I say go for it but out of concern would also suggest applying to few more schools in the Top 30-50, in addition to the one's you're applying, where a 3.5 is typically more accepted.

[anwins]

You are from Harvey Mudd, and everyone knows it is infamous GPA deflation school, so your overall is fine. I am very impressed by your math GPA, since I heard that Harvey Mudd's math is very difficult. Besides this, I know many graduates from your college end up with top 5 grad programs, so you are in a pretty good shape.
I won't worry much about your applications; your profile is much better than mine.
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Side words: UCLA's math subject score bar for international students is 95%. But I think it shouldn't be a problem for you as your score is so close. If Prof. Bertozzi likes you, you will almost surely get into UCLA.

[bli]

Hard to say. Just ask your advisors. It's hard to predict what is an ideal candidate for a given program. I'm not too sure about international applicants, since I believe it's more competitive than applying as a domestic. But I would be surprised if you got rejected from all the schools in that given list assuming what you wrote about your profile is true.

Thank you so much for the help!

[bli]

See what your chances look like here: http://thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=math*

Thanks, I will check that!

[bli]

Honestly you are something of an unusual case. You are definitely on par with other students in the applicant pool for your schools in terms of GRE and subject test scores, research, interest in math, and major GPA. Your overall GPA, however, may be lower than what is expected.

From what I see, people with ~3.9's overall and very close to 4.0 majors will apply to almost exclusively Top 10-15 schools, as you are doing, and get into 1-2 on average. While your GPA is still good, we are talking about Top 15 schools here. I don't know if schools will care all that much, because your major GPA is very good, but it could also be very bad in their eyes. Again, people with ~3.5 overall and ~4.0 major GPA's are rare profiles so I cannot be certain.

As a whole, I say go for it but out of concern would also suggest applying to few more schools in the Top 30-50, in addition to the one's you're applying, where a 3.5 is typically more accepted.

Yeah that's exactly what I am worried about, my general GPA. Thanks for your advice! In addition, do you think I should explain to the schools why I have a bad overall GPA (for example, since I took some humanity classes which are requirements in my school and hard for me as an international student)? Thanks a lot for your time!

[bli]

You are from Harvey Mudd, and everyone knows it is infamous GPA deflation school, so your overall is fine. I am very impressed by your math GPA, since I heard that Harvey Mudd's math is very difficult. Besides this, I know many graduates from your college end up with top 5 grad programs, so you are in a pretty good shape.
I won't worry much about your applications; your profile is much better than mine.
=======================================================================
Side words: UCLA's math subject score bar for international students is 95%. But I think it shouldn't be a problem for you as your score is so close. If Prof. Bertozzi likes you, you will almost surely get into UCLA.

Thanks a lot! And also good luck on your application!

[SoulOnIce]

Yeah that's exactly what I am worried about, my general GPA. Thanks for your advice! In addition, do you think I should explain to the schools why I have a bad overall GPA (for example, since I took some humanity classes which are requirements in my school and hard for me as an international student)? Thanks a lot for your time!

Working on the SOP myself, it seems to be a general rule to refrain from 'making excuses' unless there's something glaringly bad in your application. Since your explanation would include 'humanities classes', i.e. irrelevant to math, I don't think it's a huge issue, especially if Harvey Mudd is known for grade deflation as anwins and users on other forums point out.

As a fellow applicant, I can tell you I personally would not include the explanation. If the 3.5 GPA was the Major GPA, I would be a bit more iffy, even if I was from Harvey Mudd. By the same token, however, I am not a professor on a committee, and you may choose to explain yourself if you really wish and believe it right. If anything, I think you should focus more on your strengths, what you can contribute to the programs/how the programs are a fit for you, etc. which is already a lot for 1-2 pages.