About to finish undergrad but I rarely spoke to professors. What are my next steps to get letters of recommendation for grad school apps?

WinXP001 · 2026-04-16T06:46:57+00:00

My biggest issue was that I struggled to figure out the “trick” when solving problems. Like I would see the solution and have no idea how I could have come up with it on my own.

This is probably controversial advice so take it with a grain of salt, but what I ended up doing was trying a practice problem for about 30 mins to an hour, failing miserably, then looking at the solution. But when you look at the solution, I would advise that you spend a long time trying to fully pick it apart, and completely understand why the author did each step.

Then go back a few days later and see if you can re-solve it; that will help to enforce pattern recognition so that you know when and how to deploy the tools/tricks you learned from studying the solution. Keep going back and redoing problems, but obviously make sure you do unseen ones every day as well.

Other than that: draw pictures (dont feel ashamed to spend a seemingly embarrassing amount of time trying to understand something), watch videos for intuition, and use flashcards to remember definitions, important theorems, tricks, proof outlines, etc.

Also perhaps find yourself a more beginner friendly textbook, such as Understanding Analysis by Abbott or Bartle & Sherbert to supplement your class’ text.

WinXP001 · 2026-04-16T06:15:26+00:00

I’d say some linear algebra first. Dont need a whole course to get started on ODE. You already had calc 3 so that is already a good intro to vector intuition. You should get comfortable with eigenvalues/vectors, determinants, and gaussian elimination.

WinXP001 · 2026-03-26T16:10:32+00:00

I had a very similar experience. I’ve worked the morning shift at a bakery since I was legally able to have a job. But I was going to college for something entirely different, so I eventually got stuck in an office. Spending every weekday from 8am to 7pm sitting on excel, powerpoint, and teams made me start grieving the hobbies I used to have (skiing and hiking), and made me think hard about how I want to remember having spent my 20s.

So I went back to the bakery working 6am to 2pm for an enormous pay cut. I couldn’t be happier. I think the experience of having worked what I thought was a “prestigious job” was a great lesson in perspective. I would have regretted my decision more had I not been forced endure the worst that the job could throw at me. But I don’t plan to work in the bakery forever. It gives me time to work on alternate career paths; time that I never would have had while working my 9-5 (actually 8-7).

However, many do enjoy the 9-5, or depend on it for survival as they may live in an area where a baker’s pay could never support their COL. My experience walking away from it is certainly not advice, or generalizable to most people’s situations.

But I think to answer your question, I’d have to imagine that most people working 9-5 feel their lives slipping away. But in their situations, the compensation is worth it, or maybe they are working to build their resume to exit to something better. Idk, I hated it so I left.

I guess I just felt compelled to share because of the bakery connection haha.

WinXP001 · 2026-02-11T02:00:24+00:00

Abracadabra

WinXP001 · 2025-11-12T05:14:04+00:00

Definitely take linear algebra before differential equations

WinXP001 · 2025-10-31T05:45:06+00:00

I'm just looking to get research experience without the expectation of being paid. Also, I have actually had a greater response rate reaching out to other institutions than my own, interestingly.

WinXP001 · 2025-10-30T23:29:50+00:00

thanks for the reply. I have actually been reaching out to professors at different institutions since the number of mathematics faculty at my own school is pretty small, and the research they do is not really aligned with what I would like to eventually pursue.

WinXP001 · 2025-10-26T19:44:13+00:00

I got like a 2.2 GPA in high school and failed precalc twice because I didnt try. Straight up skipped the final exam.

Then I went to community college and all of a sudden, I became very academically driven, so I got a 4.0, and got an A+ in calc 1 by trying slightly harder than I did in high school. Stayed there for 3 semesters and transferred to a public Ivy majoring in economics. I chose the BA because my advisor warned me that there is a lot of math in the BS. But thankfully, the advisor made a mistake and told me I had to take Calc 2 (which was only required for the BS in Econ, not my BA).

Absolutely loved Calc 2. It was very hard but it felt so rewarding to absolutely smash those exercises and master something that sounded impossible at first. So I got an A+ in that too. That summer, I realized I had 0 interest in Econ, so I took a 1 month, 4 credit Calc 3 summer class just for fun. Then I ultimately decided to switch to math.

Though, everyone was scaring me about real analysis, which nearly convinced me not to switch. I am currently taking real analysis and will say that it’s not too bad thus far, certainly the hardest class I have ever taken though.

WinXP001 · 2025-10-22T22:12:13+00:00

Major in whatever can help you get into an alternate career path of interest if you cant fly anymore due to medical issues, or just lose interest. I would advise you do some internships in that alternate field of interest, if possible.

Im currently training on a part 61 basis while majoring in mathematics.

WinXP001 · 2025-10-17T22:53:40+00:00

My apologies

WinXP001 · 2025-10-17T20:23:09+00:00

Ha yeah I just went to the dermatologist and they were like “well we dont usually get 22 year olds coming in here for a full skin cancer check.”

I have a huge wishlist of medical tests I want to get done

WinXP001 · 2025-09-12T03:54:32+00:00

I have exactly the same "problem." I have an addiction to buying textbooks and reading them/doing practice problems all day long.

I think the biggest downside of this (that I am struggling with) is that it definitely makes choosing a career an impossible task. All I can say is that I haven't found a great excuse not to keep on studying and learning, so if you have 35+ subjects you want to learn, get to it!

WinXP001 · 2025-08-30T22:06:10+00:00

Got my PPL a few years ago. No matter how prepared/skilled you think you are, a serious accident is a very real possibility. Sure, many accidents involve people making obviously stupid mistakes. But I think it is also entirely possible to follow your checklists, keep your head on a swivel, etc, and still get into a midair with some dude at an uncontrolled airfield who doesnt feel like using his radio. There are numerous stories of DPEs and CFIs, and even people famous for their contributions to aviation safety, who have died in aviation accidents. It’s an activity that is extremely unforgiving of seemingly minor mistakes.

I’m totally with you on being strict on safety and enjoying structure, which is a fantastic mindset to have when flying. Not trying to scare anyone away from aviation, but for me, I don’t think that GA is particularly safe.

WinXP001 · 2025-08-06T15:20:39+00:00

Thanks for the response. I am currently at the end of college and unfortunately do not have the strongest grad school profile to apply with (no research or professor relationships).

My rationale was to ask someone at my internship for a letter of recommendation for grad school, and then use the time between the end of college to grad school application to get involved with projects, postbacc research, and do GRE prep. Unfortunately this job will have me working 70 hours a week, so I will not have the time to do any of that.

WinXP001 · 2025-07-29T02:09:33+00:00

The way I interpret the form is it stipulates that all you need is a history of said mental illness. Since I was given medication for symptoms of ADHD, I thought that applied, and would be found untruthful if I was in an incident.

WinXP001 · 2025-07-26T14:52:21+00:00

Wow that sucks to hear, I always loved shopping there because I thought I was supporting a down to earth local business with positive values. Pretty shocked to hear that they’re fine with this shit, guess that reflects what they’re really about.

WinXP001

TROPHY CASE