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I'm an undergraduate student at a good University in India. The issue with me is I get interested in almost everything and overcommit to too many projects. I continually wish the day had more than 24 hours so that I could do multiple things.

I want to apply for higher studies (Masters/PhD) and believe that while I've learnt a lot and had fun in my undergraduate studies, I haven't really mastered any particular area or dedicated myself to a field. No publications, no real expertise etc.

In this era of hyper-specialisation, where things like publications in undergraduate and mastery over a particular subject at a young age are rewarded, how do I justify my (bad?) attitude towards education.

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    No undergraduate has mastered, well, anything. Even if they got a publication out of being part of some project.
    – Jon Custer
    Commented Apr 24 at 19:23

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Sampling lots of areas while an undergraduate is precisely what undergraduate education is (or can be) for. Doing that does not signify a bad attitude.

To go on to graduate work you should be enthusiastic about a particular area, and have done more than a smattering of work in it so that you and the schools you apply to will know you are serious. That is what a "major" means in colleges in the United States. Publications and mastery are what graduate school is for.

(The questions you have asked on mathematics stackexchange suggest that your mathematics background is more than enough to support applying to graduate school in mathematics.)

Good luck.

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  • This is quite an encouraging response. I completely resonate with the first sentence of the answer and was a little overwhelmed by my peers spending their undergraduate in a single area they liked and really excelling in it (more than one first author journal papers in undergrad!). Thanks for the wishes sir.
    – Ishan
    Commented Apr 25 at 4:57

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