DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS

Application

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 submitted by December 31.
• Application fee. Your application will not be processed until this fee is paid.  (For circumstances in which the fee can be waived, see this page. Feel free to contact us if you are uncertain whether you are eligible.)
• Your statement of purpose. Be as specific as possible about your research interests and qualifications. If you have particular reasons for choosing Northwestern, be sure to indicate them.
• A minimum of two letters of recommendation from professors familiar with your advanced work (preferably three). These letters should be submitted by the letter writer through the online application system. It is your responsibility to make sure they are received in time. 
• A pdf copy of your transcript for each colleges and/or universities attended should be uploaded with your application. Please 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 predoctoral or undergraduate study. 

• In view of the COVID-19 pandemic and the cancellation of the GRE Mathematics subject test in Fall 2020, the Department of Mathematics will not consider general or subject GRE scores in applications for September 2021.

• 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 TOEFL exam, and we cannot admit an applicant until these are received (though we will process the file).

• For the TOEFL, official scores must be less than two years old. On the internet based test an applicant must score 100 or higher, and we would like a score 26 or higher on the speaking portion. For the IELTS, an applicant must score 7.0 or higher.

The application is entirely electronic. Applicants must not not send material to the Mathematics Department without first consulting the Director of Graduate Studies at math-dgs@northwestern.edu.