Admissions

Our Ph.D. program solicits applications from qualified students from the U.S. and abroad in the Ph.D. program. Students are normally considered only for admission in the fall semester and only for full-time study.

Applying to the Ph.D. Program

Frequently Asked Questions about applying to the Math Graduate Program at Rutgers - FAQs

Our Ph.D. program solicits applications from qualified students from the U.S. and abroad in the Ph.D. program. Students are normally considered only for admission in the fall semester and only for full-time study.

The formal process for applying to the Ph.D. program is handled centrally by the Rutgers office of graduate admissions. Please do not send your application materials directly to the Department of Mathematics or the graduate director. The telephone number for the Graduate Admissions office is (732) 932-7711.

The official deadline for applications is December 15. Applications submitted by this date are guaranteed full consideration for admission. We accept applications submitted after December 15, though they are not guaranteed full consideration (though generally applications that are one or two weeks late do receive full consideration.)

The basic admission requirements and deadlines are here. Applications to the program must include various supporting materials, including:

Scores from the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) General Test are optional.

We accept unofficial transcripts provided by the applicant for our admissions screening, but applicants who accept our offer of admission must arrange for official transcripts that show final grades and award of degree to be sent directly by their previous universities to Graduate Admissions. At the discretion of the admissions committee, online screening and/or video interviews may be offered to prospective candidates, especially in cases when there is evidence that aspects of the candidate’s application portfolio may not reflect their true abilities. Applicants who are not native speakers of English are required to submit a TOEFL score. Some guidelines for international applicants, including minimum requirements for TOEFL scores are described here. Note that the minimum scores given on that page are not strictly enforced, but applicants that are more than one or two points below the minimum in any category will be at a disadvantage in applying.

Our normal assumption is that students who apply to our program wish to have financial support, and we will normally only admit those students for whom we can provide financial support. If you are interested in being considered for admission without financial support (for example, you have an external fellowship, or are able to pay tuition and support yourself) then when you apply you should send email to indicating that you are interested in being considered for admission to the Ph.D. program without financial support.

To be considered for most types of financial support that we offer, you need only indicate in the appropriate place on the application that you wish to be considered for financial aid.

Decisions about admission and financial support are made at the same time. Normally, we will not admit a student to our program unless we can offer financial support. If you are interested in being admitted without support, you should send email to indicating this.

The financial support we offer consists of teaching assistantships, graduate (research) assistantships, and fellowships. Our support package includes tuition, medical insurance and a living stipend that our students generally find to be sufficient. In addition to teaching assistantships, we have a number of generous fellowships to offer to highly qualified applicants from the United States including various University-wide merit-based fellowships such as Presidential Fellowships and Graduate School Fellowships, as well as the School of Arts and Science (SAS) Excellence Fellowship. Here is a link to Further information about financial support.

Our admissions program is highly selective. Among 276 applicants for admission for the entering class of Fall 2017, we accepted more than 40 applicants, of whom 16 accepted our offers (9 from the U.S. and 7 from abroad). Our applicant pool was split roughly evenly between domestic and foreign applicants.

First year students normally take three core courses, which which require certain pre-requisites. Our selection process is partly aimed at ensuring that admitted students are prepared for these courses. (Qualified students may also be exempted from one or more core courses.)

We solicit inquiries and applications from members of groups which have been historically under-represented in mathematics, such as women and minority groups.

For specific questions regarding the Mathematics Graduate Program, contact the program office. Send email to .