Telling something in application and pursuing something else?

Forum for the GRE subject test in mathematics.
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yaskhn3
Posts: 149
Joined: Fri Aug 03, 2018 1:23 pm

Telling something in application and pursuing something else?

Post by yaskhn3 » Sun Aug 12, 2018 11:39 am

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!

djysyed
Posts: 359
Joined: Sat Oct 28, 2017 9:59 pm

Re: Telling something in application and pursuing something else?

Post by djysyed » Mon Aug 13, 2018 12:50 am

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.



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