Applying for 2018-9 admissions (Missed 2017-8 admissions). Got master's applied math. Want PhD in pure math.
How applicable is the following (source)
a recommendation from someone who only taught a course can mean "this person is a slacker who never bothered to do real work, so they can't find any supervisors to recommend them".
If out of school, delay your application by 1-3 years, and look for work as a lab tech at a university, institute or private company. Make sure not to displease your boss.
if I have a master's?
How might self-study affect applicability? (source)
they can check out your blog, notes etc but probably will not unless they are interested anyway, or it gets hyped up by your letter writers
Contexts:
Application:
- I'm allowed only 2 or 3 recommendation letters for some local applications, here in Country A.
- Besides research ability/potential, some Country A local applications are looking for soft skills such as leadership, communication, interpersonal, etc
Me:
- Bad grades in bachelor's
- Bad grades in master's for non-pure maths
- Good grades in master's for pure maths
- Research: Had a lot of group research projects including a semester-long main research project with 3 supervisors. None of them can give me very strong letters of recommendations
Plan:
Ask 1 or 2 profs in pure maths classes for the research ability/potential. Despite little to no research opportunity apart from problem sets, I have done some of my own self-study and researched/asked about some skipped/not elaborated/unclear/wrong parts in classes (not on this stackexchange account).
Ask boss for the soft skills parts