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Telling something in application and pursuing something else?

Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2018 11:39 am
by yaskhn3
Hello everyone!

I have an intricate query. What if someone says that they are interested in one field say PDE's in their application and have all their work and LOR's for that field only and they mention it as their interest in the application also.
Now suppose they are selected, but later want to work on something else say number theory in their integrated Ph.D. programme?

Is it possible? Will it affect in any way?

Thanks!

Re: Telling something in application and pursuing something else?

Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 12:50 am
by djysyed
In the US, professors don't expect first-year PhD students to know which area of mathematics they will pursue. In fact, there are quite a few students who pursue research in a field entirely different from the field they initially expressed interest in. I know of a few people who switched from wanting to pursue Algebraic Geometry to actually pursuing PDEs and Mathematical Physics.

From what I've seen on r/math, European schools expect students to pursue research in their specified area of interest since students begin specializing at age 16.