Application Instructions | Department of Mathematics (2024)

To compete for maximum funding by both the Mathematics Department and the OSU Graduate School, the deadline for Regular PhD applications isDecember 5. Applications may be submitted beyond this date as Standby Applications, which are reviewed on aspace-available basis only. The deadline to submit a Standby Application is28 January 2024.

The MAQRM (actuarial science) program deadline for Spring admission for international students is November 1, and for domestic students isNovember 28.The MAQRM deadline for Autumn admission for both domestic and international students is April 1.

The following are university-wide minimum requirements that cannot be waived by our department.

• 4-year Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university. 3-year undergraduate degrees donot generally meetthis requirement by Ohio State.Specificexceptionsare listed byGraduate Admissions on their website.
• GPAfor the last degree earned should be in at least the 75th percentile onthe grade scale. GPA has to be at least 3.0 on the standard 4.0 scale. Minima for international grading systems may be different (e.g., second class/upper division in class system)- please inquire.
• International students must demonstrateEnglish proficiency within the last two years usingone of the following minimum test scores.
  • TOEFL: 79 on the TOEFL iBT or TOEFL iBT Home Edition, or 19 on each section of the paper-based TOEFL
  • IELTS:7.0 on the IELTS Academic test or IELTS Indicator
  • Duolingo:120 or higher
    • Note: The Duolingo test cannot be used to exempt an admitted student from theEnglish Writing Assessmentor the Oral Proficiency Assessmentfor Graduate Teaching Associates.
  • Applicants who are citizens of, or who have received a bachelor’s degree or higher by the time of matriculation, fromone of the following countries are exempt from the English proficiency requirement: Australia, Belize, the British Caribbean and British West Indies, Canada (except Quebec), England, Ghana, Guyana, Ireland, Liberia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Singapore, Scotland, the United States and Wales. US Permanent Residents (Green Card holders) are exempt from this requirement if they have been in the US for at least one year prior to their term of enrollment.

The application process begins online at the Graduate Admissionswebsite. In the application, prospective students will be asked to provide:

• Contact, demographic and citizenship information
• Educational history
• Test scores (if applicable)
• Degree desired

Please enter your name exactly as it appears on the biographical information section of your passport. Failure to match that can cause problems with obtaining a US student visa.

*Current and former Ohio State graduate students,please contact us for further instructions.

• The campus for all applicants is Columbus.
• When selecting the program, your choices are MATH-PHD orAQRM-MAQRM. The PhD has a mandatory sub-plan option to select: Theoretical Math or Applied Math.
• Ultimate Degree Objective is optional.
• Your permanent mailing address is important as that is where all admissions documents will be sent if you are living in the US.
• The email address you enter is critically important, please ensure that it is correct and check it regularly.
• US students may be eligible for Graduate Access Fellowships.

You will be asked to provide the following information for3 references (recommenders) on the online application.

• Name
• Email address
• Institution address
• Phone number (with country dialing codes)

Within a few days of submitting your application, an invitation will be emailed to each reference with a link to an online formto upload the recommendation letter.

Only whenit is not possible to use the online form, the letter mayinstead be emailed by the recommender tograd-info@math.osu.edu. Alternatively, a completed Reference Formmay be used.Please note that if the Reference Form is used, then ONLY the first page is filled out by you, and the form is then sent to the recommender to fill out the second page, attach their letter, and send it directly.

After you submit an application, you may go back and add additional recommenders.To add or edit or delete a recommender:

• Wait until after you submit your application andthe application posts, andyou receive your OSU name.#. Go to http://my.osu.eduand activate the username.
• Log intoAdmissions Uploaderusing your Ohio State username and password.

Please follow up with your recommendation letter writers, as in some cases they may not have received your electronic letter request.

All applicants must submit a list in PDF format of relevant coursework. The list should be generated usingthe web application at:

https://grad.math.osu.edu/open/booklist/enter_books.php

The resulting PDF file needs to be saved to your local computer and then uploaded to the Graduate Admissions website as an Additional Document. The web application form is strongly preferred by our admission committee. Other submission forms are generally discouraged.

If you are, however, unable to generate your course list using the application, then you may create your course list using other software provided that the list contains the same educational information as in the application, including topics and grades. Please carefully review theseFormatting Instructions. The list you submit should look like thisCourse List Examplecreated with the web application.

The coursework list is often considered the most important and informative document of an application. It is thus critical that this is prepared with care and sufficient details.

Tabular listings, such spreadsheet exports and office document tables, are generally strongly discouraged and may be consideredunacceptable. This especiallyapplies to table rows and columns broken over several pages as they becomevery difficult to read by our committee.

Applicants must attach digital copies of the following documents to their application. Please limit each to a maximum of 3 pages if you can. All documents below must be submitted in PDF format.

• Statement of Purpose
• Curriculum Vitae / Resume.
• Other Relevant Documents (optional);please do not send an entire thesis or a book - we will not read it. Limit to a maximum of no more than 10 pages.

After you submit an application, you may go back and add additional documents.To add additional documents after submitting your application:

• Wait until after you submit and the application posts, and you receive your OSU name.#. Go tohttp://my.osu.eduand activate the username.
• Log intoAdmissions Uploaderusing your Ohio State username and password.

Applicants are required to submit an official academic transcript or a scan of an official academic transcript from all previous and/or currently-attended colleges/universities. The scans should:

• be of official transcripts, not advising reports or web printouts
• be in color and legible
• include the back information section as well

Applicants may upload transcripts when submitting the online application or submit using the Admissions Uploader.See alsoTranscripts on the Graduate Admissions website for further details, including a note about coursework completed at Ohio State.

You may submit an updated version of transcripts, if so desired, as newer grades become available.

Note: If you list a school (college/university), we will need a transcript from that school. If your transcripts list another school (i.e. transfer credit situation) we will need a transcript also from that additional school.

Please do not include primary or secondary education (High School). Only universities/colleges.

Applicants should not submit or self-report GRE General or GRE Subject Test scores through the university application website. The scores will normally not be considered for admissions decisions by our admissions committees.

If you are a PhD applicants with a special reason why you wish to submit your score, please contact us at grad-info@math.osu.edu in order to be redirected to an internal online form. It will still be at the discretion of the admissions committee whether to consider scores submitted in this manner. We anticipate this to occur only in exceptional or borderline cases.

International Students applying to either program who are not exempt from the English Proficiencyrequirement need to submit TOEFL or IELTS or Duolingo Scores. To submit ETS administered scores (e.g. TOEFL) use theinstitution code1592 for Ohio State. Please select mathematics (72) for the department.Any questions about ETS score submissions and receipt can be sent togpadmissions@osu.edu.

Non-ETS scores (e.g. IELTS) should be sent by the testing agency to the following address:

Office of Graduate & Professional Admissions
The Ohio State University
P.O. Box 182004
Columbus, OH 43218-2004
USA

MAQRM applicants only: If applicable, GRE/GMAT scores should be sent directly by the ETS testing agency to Ohio State Graduate Admissions. You may use 0701 for the GRE department code.

Once all fields have been filled and documents uploaded, applicants will be prompted to submit a fee payment. The Ohio State University charges a non-refundable fee of 60 USD for domestic applicants and 70 USD fee for international applicants.

PhD program applicants with financial need may apply to have their application fee waived via our department'sfee waiver request form. Please note that the waiver request should be completed prior to submitting the graduate program application and no later thanNovember 30.