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Question for graduate math students in their 30's

Grad Life

By Faraz
Posted Mon Jan 07, 2008 at 10:42:30 PM PDT

Hi everyone, I've been keeping up with this site since last year, but this is my first time posting to this site. So I apologize if I'm posting this to the wrong place.

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I'm 27 years old and am a recently graduated pharmacist working in retail pharmacy. I was a mathematics major at Georgia Tech from 2001 to 2005, but didn't finish my degree. Though I greatly enjoyed math, I wasn't aware exactly of what mathematics entails as a career. I guess I was immature and stupid as far as a vision of my practical future goes. So I lost my way and ended up in pharmacy merely because that's what my brother had done.

Anyways, to get to the point: I have absolutely no interest in pharmacy (even though it pays extremely well) and I want to spend my life doing something I actually enjoy. Anyways, that's not the main point. I have now become intensely passionate about mathematics and have been planning to go back to finish my bachelors and then going to graduate school to do my doctorate. I have just a few classes to take to get my bachelor's so I can do that before I turn 29. So naturally, I'll be 29 or 30 when I enter graduate school.

My question is to those graduate students who are of similar age, do you guys find it difficult? Is it a challenge to get into good graduate schools when you're 6-7 years older than the typical applicant? That common notion of not being able to do mathematics productively after the age of 30 worries me. I've come across various counter-examples on university websites and often in Notices, but I wanted to ask the opinion of graduate students who are in their 30s as well.

Thank you very much for your time and help.

< Have Math searches moved to fall? | AMS approves new statements important for YMs >

Question for graduate math students in their 30's | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 hidden)

[new] Older student (5.00 / 1) (#1)
by umgaowa on Mon Jan 14, 2008 at 03:49:21 AM PDT

Hi, I had the same concerns you do right now - only I'm 47. Turns out you only need the desire to learn, which it sounds like you do. You'll also find out there are others out there also doing the same thing - going back for whatever reasons (job changers, bored, adding new skills "teachers", part timers taking the long road ...). Of course the ranks thin out as the age increases, but you'll find out the other students don't look at you in any strange way. Eventually you'll make friends with some if you are in the same classes - I did with some Chem-engineers that took some of the same classes. It has been 25 years since my BS degree, and I wanted to get a good foundation before going on to get a MS in Math. I'll say the only thing I've found that might be a problem is finding the time to read everything in the textbooks (about 200 - 300 pages per class a semester). I think most Professors either forget students have other classes than their own, or they really don't expect you to read the text and instead go by the notes you take in class. Personally, I need a good book and only go to my notes as a reference when doing problems. I can't say for sure if I'm that much slower reading/understanding that when I was in my 20's. But I can say I have a better understanding of where things are going from past experience. I would recommend to anyone to go full time if possible, otherwise you could be forever trying to complete the requirements. Also, as a full time student, I found I could get the student health plan which is not as good as most work plans, but it's not as bad either. And it turns out the money I was paying for my own health plan before school, actually covers the in-state tuition and the student health plan together! If I knew that I would have gone a long time ago. One other thing, as someone who has been working for a while, you'll bring a different dimension to the class. I've found almost all of the young student hardly ask any questions, or reply to any of the Professors questions - except for the very few that are interested like you are. Good luck on whatever you do, remember, you only live once.

[new] Older students (5.00 / 1) (#2)
by Cotati on Mon Jan 14, 2008 at 10:39:29 AM PDT

I'll echo what umgaowa said. I went back to grad school in 2002 after 23+ years in the software industry. Getting into the master's program at Cal. State Hayward was not difficult. The same is probably true of many non-PhD-granting institutions. While I was there, I was advised by faculty members that I was not too old to go for a doctorate if I wanted to. More to the point, since I want to teach at the college or university level, they told me that age discrimination in hiring, while it exists, is not nearly so common as it is in industry. And as for funding, once you manage to get into a PhD program, it is most probable that you will have a teaching assistantship, which waives your tuition and pays a modest stipend. That was all the encouragement I needed. I do not know what goes on behind the closed doors of the admissions process for PhD programs, but I am confident that age discrimination is not a factor there at most places. I am now in my fourth year in the PhD program here at University of Washington, making good progress.

I too have heard expressed the notion that math research is only a young person's game. You'll never earn the Field's Medal, and neither will I. But so what? My own advisors don't believe that productive research is limited to the young (and not simply because I am making it). I think math is no worse, and probably in fact better, than most pursuits: many people get tired of life in general as they get older, and lose their passion for whatever it is they do or once did. Productivity is a function of ongoing passion for the subject.

[new] do it...you live only once... (none / 0) (#3)
by vizioneer on Mon Feb 11, 2008 at 04:40:24 PM PDT

Math productivity/creativity. Fermat: his deepest achievements in math stem from research from 42 to 57 (according to the definitive bio on his life); Euler: produced fully half of his life's work after age 59 while blind, and he is the most prolific mathematician ever. No need to bring in context such as "well that was a different time". No what we're talking about here is real creativity and vitality within math, whether you take some time to ramp up in combinatorics or whatever the only limitations are your zeal and consistency, and building creativity. There are phd programs that seem to cull mainly students right out of undergrad and then there are others who seem to have students in their 30s as well. I think what matters are a solid and tidy record from now until application, GRE Math score, strong references, and taking hard courses from a hard program. That's all, good luck! :)

Question for graduate math students in their 30's | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 hidden)

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