lol safety school

Filling out grad school apps right now /sci/.  How do I get past the feeling that I'm going through a shitton of work and paying app fees out the ass just for the privilege of getting rejection letters from some of the best universities in the country?

Princeton, $90 - "BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA YOU FUCKING WISH!"
Berkeley, $70 - "Fuck off you redneck loser"
Harvard, $105 - "What? Not even one letter of recommendation from a Fields medalist??"
Pennsylvania, $70 - "When we say 3.5 GPA minimum, we *MEAN* 3.5 GPA minimum.  I dgaf if your GRE and Putnam scores *are* higher than 75% of our current students."
Stanford, $105 - "B.S. from the University of Where?? HAHAHA"
UCLA, $70 - "Uhhhh, no. *smirk*"
Illinois, $60 - "Dear Applicant: Fuck off and die kthx."
University of Buttfuck-Nowhere, $45 - "Sure, c'mon over!  Enjoy never being able to find a decent job, though."

Ah, fuck it.  At least the University of Buttfuck-Nowhere is in a nice town. :/

Wait, you have to pay just to submit an application? Are there no parts of the American education system that isn't designed to make people give up on school and do menial labour?

Hey i'm a graduate of university of buttfuck :)

>>2
Not from what I've seen.

>>3
Sweet.

lol America.

I'll need to fill in grad school apps soon.

Anyone have advice on getting recommendations? Just the thought of having to ask profs for a letter is making me shit bricks. I'm socially retarded and don't know any of them very well, except maybe one and he's only a "lecturer". I don't know what I'm going to do... fuck.  I know other people are in my situation (but usually those ones don't have their eye on grad school).

I <3 OP and this thread

>>6
I think you're in trouble.  It's a bit late to start participating in classes.

>>8
As long as he (or she) is a good student --which I'm sure is the case if you're even thinking about grad school-- a professor would have to be a real douche to not be willing to write a letter.

>>9
I think the concern isn't whether or not he can get one written for him, it's the quality of the letter.  I could be wrong, but I don't think three letters all saying "He's very quiet although he gets good grades" and nothing more goes very far.  At least it shouldn't be anything negative though.

Hey Americans, when you say "grad school" does this imply research and working towards a PhD, or do taught master's programs count?

>>11
Master's programs are considered grad school too.

>>12
Only future high school teachers get terminal Master's degrees in math.

>>13
What about some kind of applied math?

>>10
True. Still, from what I understand letters of recommendation are less important than most students think.

>>15
Depends where you go.  If you go to University of buttfuck nowhere, they'll probably just let you in based on your gpa and such.  OTOH basically every applicant to MIT will have a near perfect GPA and near perfect GREs, so they look closely at recommendations to find out if you really have what it takes to be a research mathematician (or physicist or whatever).

>>9
Unfortunately, many professors are douches.

Math can be be brought into many arenas of work. Fuck the masters and go right into a PhD program. I went with Finance , because they are all retards, and have no idea how the market works : no one does.Economics and finance courses , but just a couple so that you don't get brainwashed into believing that any of them have a clue.Remember to get a few high level Physics courses in there to, they helped me figure out what i wanted to do with my math skillz.I currently design programs (and easy  GUIs) for Finance guys that lie to themselves every morning thinking the the market is either stable or moving up or down. Both positions are completely delusional, but it pays well.Do not worry about where you go for an Undergrad degree , you can wipe your ass with it later. The PhD is all that matters in the math. Fuck the Field's Medal, money allows freedom which is better than fame, go private sector.  Go to a community collage and get grants and scholarships and have FUN , lots of it because your only young once. Only those that wish to grovel for mediocrity care about a good school for and undergrad , don't be a sucker ... Final words from a Math Geek : have fun , party hard and for Christ's sake do not be a math teacher ..

>>18
Are you a "quant"?  Do you work for a bank or what?

Nope , I'm a pirate that uses greedy folks , Finance Goons, for fun and profit. I taunt them and then make architecture that makes them feel good about their investment choices. I wanted to call the program "Pacifier" but my partners said that it was a little over the top. I'd never work for a bank. Well, OK , never say never ...  There is money to be made in Math and fuck the idea of going to a high end skool until your PhD.In saying that , I went to a high end skool and learned later that all the really smart ppl went to poor skools and made a lot more cash , and had a great deal of fun in the process.Fun may in fact  be the key to it all.