Applying to Math Grad school in Canada and the US

[jpa14]

I’m a math undergrad at Caltech. I’m applying to grad school soon and since I’m a Canadian citizen I’ll be applying to grad school in Canada. I’ll also be applying to some top programs in the United States, but I’m very unsure of my chances.

The thing is, due to a combination of personal issues and the fact that I wasn’t as good of a student back then as I am now, there were several terms in late frosh year/early sophomore year where I didn’t do very well. That is why, despite the fact that my GPA has ranged between 3.5 and 3.9 for the last four terms, my overall is only 3.2, and there are some pretty ugly dents in the early part of my transcript.

I’m quite sure I can get good letters of recommendation from my research mentors, since I am doing research this summer and it is going well. I’m hoping to be able to get into a top program in Canada for number theory/algebraic geometry. Am I likely to be accepted into somewhere like Waterloo or UofT or UBC for this?

I’m less sure about Berkeley/MIT/Stanford etc. etc. My question is:

-Will grad schools take into account this GPA improvement over time?

-My GPA is also heavily slanted towards things that I like and am interested in. I’m leaning towards either number theory/algebraic geometry or descriptive set theory/mathematical logic. My GPA was damaged slightly by not doing very well in my undergraduate analysis requirement and the one term differential geometry requirement which I profoundly disliked, but I took five yearlong graduate classes in commutative algebra/algebraic number theory and class field theory/algebraic geometry/axiomatic set theory/mathematical logic and computability theory and the lowest grade I got in anyone term of any of them was A-. Is this the sort of thing that grad schools are likely to take into account?

Also, don’t Canadian grad schools expect students to do a Masters first, unlike in the US? If that is true, and presuming I did well enough in that, if I applied to a top PhD program in the US after that, would I have a decent chance of being accepted? By then, my full undergraduate transcript would be available, which means two extra terms of improved grades in Senior year to make up for a poor couple of terms frosh/sophomore year.

Thanks, I apologize for the brick wall of text.

 

[R.Mesri]

Grad schools will definitely take into account the improvement in your grades over time, especially if you can explain why you struggled in the early years. Depending on the program and school, they may also take into account the fact that you have taken more advanced classes in the areas you are interested in, even if they were not required for your degree. As for Canadian schools, some may require a Masters degree before admission to a PhD program, but others may accept you directly. It would be best to check with individual schools to see what their requirements are. Ultimately, your chances of being accepted into top programs in Canada or the US will depend on your academic record, research experience, letters of recommendation, and other aspects of your application. Good luck!