Ryan Kidd

If you have experience in the kind of research that you want to do at Mass already, then so much the better.

Consider it like a postdoc opportunity or something, or a post-research opportunity.

Build your own independent projects.

Yeah, sorry if that's like too much advice to be actionable.

It varies.

So there are some of the mentors will ask for questions like, I don't know, what do you think about X concept?

Others won't be as interested.

Obviously, as you say, right, these costly signals are the most important thing.

Like, have you done good research?

Do you have it deliverable, like a product?

Do you have a strong reference for an important person?

That's also key.

Do you have

Like, have you done your homework in terms of the blue dot course and other things, right?

I think that math selection doesn't currently emphasize breadth of knowledge very much, mostly because mentors don't necessarily want that.

And I think that this is maybe a weakness in our process to some extent if we don't then help people build that breadth.

But we do.

We have seminar programs.

We have tons of opportunities for intermingling between different research streams, which really rapidly builds a breadth of knowledge.

And we used to have discussion groups, and these still occur occasionally with workshops and so on.