Extracurricular Study

[w4rm4ch1n3]

Hi, all. I have recently graduated and applied to four graduate schools for statistics. Of course, I did not get into any of these since one was far reach, two were a bit of a reach, and only one was "safe". I should rather say, I did get into a couple, but I did not want to go without funding. Anyway, I am wondering if anyone here knows what I can do in the meantime before I apply once again to a much wider pool of institutions. I have two degrees in math and economics, but I started the math major late. So, I study on my own time at least 4-5 hours per day on topics I am interested in, but I am not sure how schools can know how proficient I have become in these areas of study if there isn't a letter "A" beside the name of a class from an accredited institution. What else can I do to strengthen my application? I plan on taking the math GRE this fall and doing well, but I don't think that would make a huge impact on my resume/app. Maybe I'm wrong, but I feel that my circumstance is unfortunate, since I discovered my love of math so late in the game. Any advice is appreciated!

[FreddieBiddleBooty]

If it's possible, you could do readings alongside a professor to track your progress. Then someone can testify to your ability. Since you've graduated already, I don't know how possible that is. Otherwise you can still self-study for your own benefit, and for the sake of saying that you did on applications next round (although, like you said, if there's no letter grade next to this accomplishment then it may not mean much to the admissions committees).

Another thing you could do is prepare for and participate in math competitions. Again, since you may not be a student, I'm not sure how you'd find outside competitions. I don't know too much about that.

The last thing I can think of is prepare very well for the MGRE and make an awesome score. This will make up for the above.

The last-last thing I can think of is to study something very specific and maybe come up with an original result that could be published? I'm not sure how realistic this is to accomplish in just a year and on your own.

But now that I think about it, if your school has something like a post-bacc all of these may be possible! Or you could do a masters if you are willing to put in the time (it is worth it in my opinion).

Anyway, hopefully there are better suggestions than mine here! Good luck.