Graduate Admission into MIT

anonamous
Thu, 29 May 2008 10:58:05 +0000

“I am trying my best to keep my grades high; and since I am at a university that is nowhere near as strenuous as demanding as MIT, I am doing some second/third year maths subjects now. I would like to involve myself in research activities that my university offers, and I’ll try to do as much as I can, once I’ve learnt a little bit more material for my research to be substantial.”

Firstly, MIT is not THAT hard. If you take a close look at the Maths curriculum at MIT (also Princeton, Berkeley, Chicago etc…) you will find that the curriculum in top Australians universities (USyd, UMelb, ANU) are roughly as demanding as those. Also, USyd is probably the best place to study Pure Maths in Australia (assuming you are in Pure Maths), so just study and do well on your exams, and you will be recognised.

As for research, many australian universities run a summer research program called “Vacation Scholarship”. I think USyd must have one also, although you should just go check to confirm this. It runs in the Australian summer (December - Feb) and you will get the chance to be in close collaboration with a faculty. You should do this in the upcoming summer; you don’t really need to learn anymore materials to make your research substantial, as long as you konw how to write rigorous proofs (which you should do considering you were an IMO).

Btw, what is your average mark in your previous years of university study?