Why would an international applicant with a perfect GPA and an undergraduate thesis get rejected from 16 grad schools? I applied to 16 graduate schools for this coming fall. I am a transfer student at a Top 10 Public US school. I had GPA 4.00 at the time I applied (Not yet took graduate course yet, but I wrote that I would have taken 8 graduate courses at the time I applied).
I didn't have the REU (but I was proceeded algebraic geometry research thesis), and a few experience of presentations. I am an international male applicant.
The person who wrote my letter of recommendation is famous/reputable (one Fields medallist and one very famous mathematician of algebraic geometry). But, I couldn't hit any of the graduate schools (including the Top 50-60 US math department schools). I am not sure what was the reason I can't get into any of the graduate schools to which other students in my school were admitted.
What can I do to improve my prospect of getting into any graduate schools?
I can suggest two possibilities and a possible solution.
First, your English writing seems awkward, so possibly you didn't express yourself well or made many misspellings. It is Fields Medal, by the way. This might have blown up your statement of purpose, which can be quite important.
Second, it is possible that the &quot;famous mathematicians&quot; wrote you mediocre letters of recommendation. I wonder how well they know you and your work. What they say about you is probably much more important than who they are for these purposes.
You can address both of those issues in various ways, but I also suggest that you simply broaden your search. Send a few applications, tailored to the individual institutions, but cover the full range of R1 universities (and maybe even some R2 places), not just the top of the range.