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I will complete my medical school (in Indonesia) very shortly. I'm planning to pursue a master degree in mathematics at a university in the USA or UK. I do not have a mathematics bachelor's degree. During my years as a med school student I studied math independently from textbooks and sites such as Coursera and MIT OCW.

Can a student with only a medical degree get admitted to a graduate program in Mathematics?

David Ketcheson
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Deep J
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    They may or may not accept you - it all depends on their entry criteria and how flexible they can or want to be... – Solar Mike May 01 '18 at 13:50
  • A medical degree demonstrates your ability to learn, there are certainly top schools in the US and the UK that will accept you. – user2768 May 01 '18 at 14:45
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    The difficulty that you will have is in convincing an admissions committee that you have sufficient background in mathematics. It's impossible for us to answer this question, so I've voted to close it. – Brian Borchers May 01 '18 at 15:58
  • I heavily edited the question because the answer might be quite different if you had, say, a physics degree (see https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/43178/doing-phd-in-math-physics-after-obtaining-a-bachelor-degree-in-an-unrelated-fiel?rq=1). – David Ketcheson May 01 '18 at 16:13

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The question is whether you have enough background to be likely to pass the first-semester courses in such a program. For instance, if you have never studied real analysis, complex analysis or differential equations at the level of a senior undergraduate course, you may find yourself completely lost in graduate courses. I think it will be very difficult to convince an admissions committee that you would survive the first semester.

David Ketcheson
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