Prospective Mathematics Graduate Students: Applications and Financial Aid

Applications
Financial aid

Applications

As is explained in detail at the web-site of the Graduate School, the following materials comprise the application:

Completed application form. This is to be completed online. To receive full consideration, your application should be completed by December 15.
Application fee. Your application will not be processed until this fee is paid. Do not send it to the Department of Mathematics. Rather, it must be paid by credit card during the online application proess.
Your personal statement.
Two (or more) letters of recommendation from professors familiar with your advanced work. It is your responsibility to make sure that we receive these letters in time. In most cases, it will be most convenient for these to be submitted electronically through the online application system.
One official transcript of all work completed or in progress at colleges and/or universities attended. (It is helpful to include a list of junior-, senior-, and graduate-level mathematics courses taken or to be completed before entering graduate school at Northwestern. For international students, this roughly corresponds to courses in the last two years of undergraduate study.)
Results of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) -- both the general test and the subject test in mathematics. No application will be rejected because of the absence of GRE scores, but this component of your application does carry significant weight in the decisions of the graduate admissions committee, so it is in your advantage to have taken both the general and Mathematics parts of the GRE, and had the official results submitted to us by the end of January. The institutional code for Northwestern assigned by ETS is 1565 for GRE grade submission.
For students whose native language is not English who have not obtained an undergraduate or graduate degree from an academic institution whose language of instruction is English, the results of either the TOEFL or IELTS exam.

Note that official transcripts are required of the results of the GRE and TOEFL exams, and we cannot admit you until these are received (though we will process your file).

For the TOEFL, official scores must be less than two years old. An applicant must score 600 or higher on the paper-based test, 250 or higher on the computer-based test, 100 or higher on the internet based test. For the IELTS, an applicant must score 7.0 or higher.

Additional information regarding the TOEFL and GRE exams is available from the Northwestern Graduate School at http://www.tgs.northwestern.edu/admission/

The above materials, aside from the online application and the fee, and the letters of recommendation and personal statement, if they are uploaded using the online system, should be sent to
Graduate Committee
Department of Mathematics
Northwestern University
2033 Sheridan Road
Evanston, Illinois 60208-2730

Financial aid

We automatically consider all applicants for financial aid; no additional applications are necessary. It is essential that your application be completed by December 15. You may be eligible for several types of financial aid, including University fellowships, research assistantships, and teaching assistantships. First-year students are normally supported as University fellows. All awards pay full tuition plus a stipend.

At most, you may receive financial aid for five academic years. Each year the Graduate Committee will decide whether to renew your support based on your progress from year to year. For a first-year student, progress is determined by course grades. You would normally be expected to pass the preliminary examination by the end of winter quarter of your second year in order to receive support for the third year, and to pass the qualifying examination by the end of your third year in order to receive support for the fourth year. After the qualifying examination, support is contingent on your dissertation progress.

As a more advanced graduate student, you may also be eligible to teach one of a limited number of summer calculus courses. In some years, we have also had grant money to pay a small stipend for those working on a dissertation during the summer.

Northwestern University reserves the right to change without notice any statement in this booklet concerning, but not limited to, rules, policies, tuition, fees, curricula, and courses.

It is the policy of Northwestern University not to discriminate against any individual on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, age, handicap, or veteran status in matters of admissions, employment, housing, or services or in the educational programs or activities it operates, in accordance with civil rights legislation and University commitment. Any alleged violations of this policy or questions regarding the law with respect to nondiscrimination should be directed to Office of the Provost, Rebecca Crown Center, Evanston, Illinois 60208-1101, phone 847/491-5117; Director of Equal Employment Opportunity, Affirmative Action, and Disability Services, 720 University Place, Evanston, Illinois 60208-1147, phone 847/491-7458.

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