Prospective Students

Note about the Application Fee

The Ohio State University charges a non-refundable fee of 60 USD for domestic applicants and 70 USD for international applicants. PhD applicants with financial need may apply for a fee waiver via our department's fee waiver request form, which opens on October 1st. The fee waiver request must be completed prior to submitting the graduate program application and no later than 30 November 2024.

Support

All admitted PhD students are offered a Graduate Teaching Associateships (GTA) during the academic year. GTAs are renewable assuming satisfactory academic progress.

Incoming students with strong academic records may be selected for university or departmental fellowships, which include full support without teaching duties. In addition, continuing students may apply for several types of semester-long departmental fellowships as well as travel support. Our doctoral students regularly compete for and win prestigious awards given by the OSU Graduate School for outstanding scholarly accomplishment.

All Graduate Associateships and Fellowships come with a competitive stipend, full tuition waiver, and full health insurance subsidy. Summer support is currently offered to the majority of students requesting it. See the Financial Support page for more details. 

MAQRM students are not supported by this process and must provide or obtain their own funding. Financial aid inquiries can be directed to OSU's Office of Student Financial Aid.

Admission Process and Numbers

We typically receive between 350 and 500 applications for the PhD program each year. Our recruitment target for an incoming class is usually around 20-27 new PhDs. The admission process starts with a pre-screening of the files by the chairs of the admission committee based on basic data such as performance in core courses, general academic background, test scores, and brief inspections of letters. The graduate admissions committee then reviews about 150 files in greater depth, split over several rounds and groups. This review typically leads to admission of applicants over two arounds, as well as the creation of an ordered wait-list after the second round.

For MAQRM we receive up to 50 applications per year. The number of admitted MAQRM applicants may vary based on the size and qualifications of the applicant pool.

A summary of the expected preparations and admission criteria for our programs can be found on the PhD program page and the MAQRM program page. 

Timeline

Review of PhD applications begins shortly after the December deadline. We expect to make a first round of admissions in early January, and a second round of admissions in mid-February. At that time we also hope to upgrade some financial offers to previously admitted students. In addition, an ordered wait-list is issued sometime in March and maintained until April 15. 

Please be aware that information about admission results on public forums (such as Grad Cafe and Mathematicsgre.com) are often not reliable and postings there may be entirely fabricated. If you have questions about where we are in our admissions cycle please feel free to contact us directly.  

Commitment to Diversity

The OSU Department of Mathematics is committed to providing an inclusive and supportive community for students of every race, gender, religion, ethnicity, national origin, and sexual orientation. We are a program group member of the National Math Alliance dedicated to enhancing diversity in the scientific community. We are also committed to providing an accessible education for students with disabilities.

Information on support resources and multicultural organizations for graduate students can be found on our College's Diversity in Graduate Studies site. 

Eligible U.S. students are strongly encouraged to apply for the  Discovery Scholars Program and GEM Fellowship. Please note the mid-November application deadline.

Information on accommodations for students with disabilities can be found via our Student Life Disability Services office.

Contact

Prospective students: grad-info@math.osu.edu

Graduate Program Coordinator
Department of Mathematics (MA 102)
The Ohio State University
231 W. 18th Avenue
Columbus, Ohio 43210
United States of America                

Phone: (614) 292-6274
Fax: (614) 292-1479

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