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[Haddock]

Okay, maybe someone here can give me advice on this.  I've been out of college for a year now, and I'm starting to look into grad school.  From what I can tell, most grad schools require three letters of recommendation, and most of them want at least one or two to be from professors.  I have a Bachelor's with a dual major in math and philosophy, and I'm looking at going for a Master's or maybe PhD in math.  My problem is that I was an idiot (and also have a very shy personality), and never made any effort to establish any kind of relationship with my professors.  If anything I tried to avoid that.  I have three work-related people (my current boss, my previous boss, and my boss's boss) who I think would all write me excellent recommendations if I asked.  (I tutor math and physics, so my job is clearly related to math, but I'm a little worried that they wouldn't really have the expertise to say that I'm great at math, just great at teaching and know enough math to teach it at a high school level.)  I have one philosophy professor who I think would write me an outstanding recommendation, and two other philosophy professors who would probably write me good recommendations, but I'm not going to grad school for philosophy.  I doubt that any of my math professors would remember me though.

So what should I do here?  I feel like I really need at least one professor, so my options are:
1. 2 from work, 1 from math prof
2. 2 from work, 1 from philosophy prof
3. 1 from work, 1 from math prof, 1 from philosophy prof
4. 1 from work, 2 from math profs
5. 1 from work, 2 from philosophy profs
6. Give up on going to grad school
I doubt I'd get all 3 from professors unless I really had to.  #2 or #3 look the best to me.  As I'm writing all this out, I'm starting to convince myself #3 is really the way to go, but #2 would be so much easier...

I live in the U.S. if that's relevant.

For what it's worth, I like option #3.  Realise it means you have to go find a maths professor of course, and I know that as an undergrad I certainly didn't have much contact with my professors.  But I think it will be worth it if you can find one.  The strength in depth of doing one of each must count for something.  Did you have a maths tutor/mentor or anything as an undergrad?  That's probably the ideal starting point in terms of trying to find somebody.

[Witherweaver]

Step 1, go talk to your math professors.  I'm sure they will be happy to write you letters, probably excited that you're interested in pursuing grad school.

Find one teacher that you liked, that you felt you learned a lot from and stop by his office.  Explain your situation and ask his advice.  My feeling is you should maybe get all of the recommendations from math professors, but 2 math/1 philosophy may work.  I'm sure your current boss would write you a very nice recommendation, but imagine it from the school's standpoint: why is this person able to judge whether the applicant has the ability to make it for a Master's/PhD?  Being a professor, having a PhD yourself, being at a school with reputation, having research.. those things carry quite a bit of weight.

It's not too late to build personal relationships.

[Witherweaver]

And I'm pretty sure they will remember you.  Your degree does say Mathematics, and people that study math like it when other people like math.

Also, did you do well in your math classes?  Even if you've never talked to your professors, they'll notice that.  "Oh, this guy doesn't talk much and never comes to office hours, but he aces every exam so he knows what he's doing."

[Kuildeous]

Hmm, I've been pondering getting my masters' as well. But I've been out of college for 18 years. It seems highly unlikely that my professors would remember me, assuming they're even still teaching. And, well, honestly I might not remember exactly who they were either.

How important are letters of recommendation, I wonder. Oh sure, I could get some from my bosses here at work, but they're not that well-versed in math.

[jsh357]

I got 2 recommendations from professors recently, and I had been out of school 7 years. Everyone I managed to contact remembered me, to my surprise, and they were quite happy to recommend me. Pick professors you really liked who you are pretty sure don't hate you.

[scott_pilgrim]

Thanks for the advice, everyone!

I forgot to mention, I now live on the other side of the country from where I went to school, so I can't just walk into my professor's office hours and ask for help, I'd be asking by email.  I do have a couple math professors in mind.

Hmm, I've been pondering getting my masters' as well. But I've been out of college for 18 years. It seems highly unlikely that my professors would remember me, assuming they're even still teaching. And, well, honestly I might not remember exactly who they were either.

How important are letters of recommendation, I wonder. Oh sure, I could get some from my bosses here at work, but they're not that well-versed in math.

Yeah, I find it frustrating that recommendations are usually a requirement and not just an extra thing you can do if it helps, though I guess I sort of understand it.  It still seems unfair to people who have been out of school for a long time.

[eHalcyon]

[liopoil]

At first I couldn't tell that the shells were hollowed out and I thought there had to be some crazy Banach-Tarski stuff going on.

[Witherweaver]

Thanks for the advice, everyone!

I forgot to mention, I now live on the other side of the country from where I went to school, so I can't just walk into my professor's office hours and ask for help, I'd be asking by email.  I do have a couple math professors in mind.

Hmm, I've been pondering getting my masters' as well. But I've been out of college for 18 years. It seems highly unlikely that my professors would remember me, assuming they're even still teaching. And, well, honestly I might not remember exactly who they were either.

How important are letters of recommendation, I wonder. Oh sure, I could get some from my bosses here at work, but they're not that well-versed in math.

Yeah, I find it frustrating that recommendations are usually a requirement and not just an extra thing you can do if it helps, though I guess I sort of understand it.  It still seems unfair to people who have been out of school for a long time.

Ah, well that's okay, I think emailing would be fine. 

[Witherweaver]

Hmm, I've been pondering getting my masters' as well. But I've been out of college for 18 years. It seems highly unlikely that my professors would remember me, assuming they're even still teaching. And, well, honestly I might not remember exactly who they were either.

How important are letters of recommendation, I wonder. Oh sure, I could get some from my bosses here at work, but they're not that well-versed in math.

I think in that case (since it's been so long), getting letters from your supervisors makes sense.  The people that look at the applications are going to see that you didn't just graduate last year, or even in the last handfull of years, but that you've been an employed worker for quite a long time and are going back to continue with education.  They wouldn't expect to see a letter from your math professor from 20 years ago.

[eHalcyon]

At first I couldn't tell that the shells were hollowed out and I thought there had to be some crazy Banach-Tarski stuff going on.

I half suspect that the shell is from a different watermelon because I don't know how they would have hollowed it out so neatly without destroying the, uh, ball.  Granted, I am not super familiar with modern watermelon-skinning techniques.

[Kirian]

At first I couldn't tell that the shells were hollowed out and I thought there had to be some crazy Banach-Tarski stuff going on.

I half suspect that the shell is from a different watermelon because I don't know how they would have hollowed it out so neatly without destroying the, uh, ball.  Granted, I am not super familiar with modern watermelon-skinning techniques.

They are indeed from two separate watermelons.

[Kirian]

EDIT: and in unrelated news, we've been having a lunar eclipse these past few days, but I didn't notice until tonight.

...

I'm not certain what you meant to type there, but it certainly was not "lunar eclipse."  Lunar eclipses last just several hours, and the next one won't happen until the end of this month.

Holy shit, have I got a cool idea to introduce in an RPG now. The days-long lunar eclipse, though I guess a days-long solar eclipse would be more terrifying.

The D&D campaign I ran several years back involved a red supergiant orbiting the main star about 1.5 light years out, bright enough to be visible in full daylight.  Half of the year, the nights weren't really night.  Then it went supernova...

Edit: A days-long lunar eclipse wouldn't be impossible for a moon orbiting at a very long distance.

[pacovf]

I know it doesn't make much sense to talk of a multiple day long lunar eclipse, but what possible explanation is there to why the moon was red yesterday night for one-two hours? Two different lunar eclipses in the same month?

[ashersky]

Thanks for the advice, everyone!

I forgot to mention, I now live on the other side of the country from where I went to school, so I can't just walk into my professor's office hours and ask for help, I'd be asking by email.  I do have a couple math professors in mind.

Hmm, I've been pondering getting my masters' as well. But I've been out of college for 18 years. It seems highly unlikely that my professors would remember me, assuming they're even still teaching. And, well, honestly I might not remember exactly who they were either.

How important are letters of recommendation, I wonder. Oh sure, I could get some from my bosses here at work, but they're not that well-versed in math.

Yeah, I find it frustrating that recommendations are usually a requirement and not just an extra thing you can do if it helps, though I guess I sort of understand it.  It still seems unfair to people who have been out of school for a long time.

The key is finding professors that attended the grad school to which you are applying, or applying to the grad schools your profs attended.  Those letters then count a bunch more.

[Tables]

Countdown time!

The numbers are 50, 25, 6, 5, 9, 4. The target is 767. You have... 1 minute. GO!

(I reached 766 in one minute. About an hour later I'd reached 766 in 3 or 4 unique ways, and 766.33... in one way, but not 767).

[liopoil]

Here's one way:

(50 + 9)(6 log₅25 - floor(sin(4))) = 767. I use "- floor" because I assumed the 4 was a radian measure, the sine of which is negative. But I assume you meant using only the operations +, -, /, *, and maybe ^.

[Titandrake]

Fun stat fact: the chance of dying in a place crash is around 1 in 29 million.

http://www.statisticbrain.com/airplane-crash-statistics/

Edit: As for the countdown puzzle, I didn't have time to think about it too much, but I tossed it into a Countdown solver, and there is a solution that only uses the 4 basic operations.

[Seprix]

http://dominionstrategy.com/2015/03/23/10-cards-to-victory/

There are giant Stonemasons and Vineyards.

[Kirian]

I know it doesn't make much sense to talk of a multiple day long lunar eclipse, but what possible explanation is there to why the moon was red yesterday night for one-two hours? Two different lunar eclipses in the same month?

There most definitely was not a lunar eclipse the other night, that much I can say with certainty.  It is possible to have a pair of partial solar eclipses a month apart, though.

So the question is, where do you live?  There are multiple things that can cause a red/orange moon, including proximity to the horizon (usually more orange than red, sometimes called the "harvest moon" during the fall, but the color has nothing to do with the time of year), pollution (more common in/near cities, of course), or smoke from forest fires (large chunks of the northwestern US during the past couple of weeks).

[pacovf]

I am in Kingston, Canada, so right above lake Ontario. It's a small city, I don't expect pollution to be that bad, and the moon could be seen above the houses, I'd say 40 degrees above the horizon, not much less in any case. I don't know anything about forest fires, I am not following the news lately.

[Kirian]

Hm.  From your position, on the last full moon (29 August), the moon would never have been higher than about 36° above the horizon, and that only after 11 PM.  My guess is that you're looking at it around 9-10 PM, at <30° altitude and with the moon in the east-southeast.  So the orange color is likely scattering due to particulate matter in the atmosphere, not necessarily from pollution near you, but from particulates from the Boston-NYC corridor to your southeast.

[pacovf]

It was around half past ten, I think, and the moon was straight east. But other than that it seems pretty accurate. Thanks for taking the time to explain!

[silverspawn]

[Polk5440]

Thanks for the advice, everyone!

I forgot to mention, I now live on the other side of the country from where I went to school, so I can't just walk into my professor's office hours and ask for help, I'd be asking by email.  I do have a couple math professors in mind.

Hmm, I've been pondering getting my masters' as well. But I've been out of college for 18 years. It seems highly unlikely that my professors would remember me, assuming they're even still teaching. And, well, honestly I might not remember exactly who they were either.

How important are letters of recommendation, I wonder. Oh sure, I could get some from my bosses here at work, but they're not that well-versed in math.

Yeah, I find it frustrating that recommendations are usually a requirement and not just an extra thing you can do if it helps, though I guess I sort of understand it.  It still seems unfair to people who have been out of school for a long time.

The key is finding professors that attended the grad school to which you are applying, or applying to the grad schools your profs attended.  Those letters then count a bunch more.

... or at least have connections so it's likely their name will be recognized (esp. important if you are coming from a lesser-know school).

I would recommend against getting a philosophy professor's recommendation for a math program unless you cannot get even a single math professor to write you a letter. When I applied to grad school, I asked a math prof to write letters for econ grad school.

In the end, it didn't help at all. My math professor outright told me he was disappointed that he was asked to write letters to non-math programs (even though econ programs like seeing heavy math) because I should definitely be doing pure math. He wrote a letter anyway. And having seen the other side of the decision process, I can say that having "out of field" professors write recs can only help at the best schools if the "in field" prof would write a BAD recommendation. 

Do have one person from work write a letter if they can speak to your skill and work ethic. Also, explain very clearly in your statement of purpose why you want to go back to school after working. Why didn't you/couldn't you pursue the degree right away?

And be REALLY SURE you DO want to pursue it now.