Application Instructions

To compete for maximum funding by both the Mathematics Department and the OSU Graduate School, the deadline for Regular PhD applications is December 5. Applications may be submitted beyond this date as Standby Applications, which are reviewed on a space-available basis only. The deadline to submit a Standby Application is 28 January. 

The MAQRM (actuarial science) program deadline for Spring admission for international students is November 1, and for domestic students is November 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 do not generally meet this requirement by Ohio State. Specific exceptions are listed by Graduate Admissions on their website.
• GPA for the last degree earned should be in at least the 75th percentile on the 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 demonstrate English proficiency within the last two years using one 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 the English Writing Assessment or the Oral Proficiency Assessment for Graduate Teaching Associates.
  • Applicants who are citizens of, or who have received a bachelor’s degree or higher by the time of matriculation, from one of a specific list of countries are exempt from the English proficiency requirement. The list of exempt countries is available under Exemptions in Proof of English proficiency. 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 Admissions website. 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 or AQRM-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 for 3 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 form to upload the recommendation letter. 

Only when it is not possible to use the online form, the letter may instead be emailed by the recommender to grad-info@math.osu.edu. Alternatively, a completed Reference Form may 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 and the application posts, and you receive your OSU name.#. Go to http://my.osu.edu and activate the username.
• Log into Admissions Uploader using 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 using the 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 these Formatting Instructions. The list you submit should look like this Course List Example created 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 considered unacceptable. This especially applies to table rows and columns broken over several pages as they become very 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.

The Statement of Purpose and Curriculum Vitae/Resume serve to provide our admission committee with an overview of the applicant's mathematical trajectory. Their primary focus should, therefore, be to enumerate and describe any evidence of mathematical ability and mathematical promise.  This will help our committee to properly and efficiently evaluate the high number of applications we receive each year. The information included in these documents should be well-organized, comprehensive, informative, specific, and relevant, and can describe challenges that the applicant may have overcome to access Graduate School, or challenges that may have affected the applicant's life or academic journey.

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 to http://my.osu.edu and activate the username.
• Log into Admissions Uploader using 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 transcripts using the Admissions Uploader. See also Transcripts 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 for the MAQRM 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. 

Applicants for the PhD GRE scores are optional; omitting them will not harm your application.  If submitting GRE scores, they must be sent directly from the ETS testing agency to Ohio State.

International Students applying to either program who are not exempt from the English Proficiency requirement need to submit TOEFL or IELTS or Duolingo Scores. To submit ETS administered scores (e.g. TOEFL) use the institution code 1592 for Ohio State. Please select mathematics (72) for the department. Any questions about ETS score submissions and receipt can be sent to gpadmissions@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

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's fee waiver request form. Please note that the waiver request should be completed prior to submitting the graduate program application and no later than November 30.