UCB Math Wiki - User contributions [en]

Main Page

2009-04-07T22:23:37Z

Dustin: /* Computing Support */ fixed link to computing support page

__NOTOC__
=[/ UC Berkeley Department of Mathematics]=

==Computing Support==

Welcome to the UC Berkeley Math Department computing support wiki. This wiki is intended to be complementary to the official [/computing/ computing support site.] We hope to provide information of use to all members of our department. In order to do that, we want to enlist your help.

Most pages can be edited by anyone who's logged in, and anyone can create an account. Feel free to add any computing related help and information.

===Email===
* [[CalMail conversion]]
* How to check your [[Email]] from your own computer.

===LaTeX===
* How to [[LaTeX basics|use LaTeX]].
* How to [[LaTeX Install|install LaTeX]] on your own computer.

===Printing and Scanning===
* How to [[set up|set up]] printing on the department's printers from a Macintosh on the department network.
* How to [[printing|print]] on the department's printers from your laptop.
* How to [/~gbergman/958_scanner.html use the copier in 958 Evans as a scanner].

===Math Department Servers===
* How to [[Webpage Guide|create a homepage]].
* How to [[File Management|manage files on the math department servers]].
* How to use [[SSH Access|remote shell access]].
* How to [[Software|get math software]].

===Miscellaneous===
* How to [[Proxy Servers|access MathSciNet and UC E-links from off-campus]].
* How to use [[slides]] in the seminar rooms.
* How to get a [https://calnet.berkeley.edu/ Calnet Identity]. (Everyone is supposed to have one of these, and you will need it to set up your CalMail account.)

==Suggestions for Future Articles==
Please record any ideas you have for [[Future Articles]] that you would like to see.

How to submit an article to the arXiv preprint server.

MediaWiki:Sidebar

2009-02-08T00:41:16Z

Dustin: Removed references to MGSA, removed broken links

Main Page

2009-02-08T00:39:07Z

Dustin: Changed description to reflect move. Removed broken links.

Welcome to the UC Berkeley math department wiki. We hope to provide information of use to all members of our department.

* General information for [[Prospective Students|prospective students]], [[First Year Students|incoming students]], and [[Upper Year Students|continuing students]].
* Information about the [[First Year Students#Preliminary Exam|prelim]], the [[Language Exam|language exam]], and the [[Qualifying Exam|qualifying exam]].
* Lists of [[fellowships]], [[conferences]], [[Travel Grants|travel grants]], [[Summer Programs|summer programs]], [[postdocs]] (see also [[Applying for Postdocs|applying for postdocs]]).
* [[Academic Books|Math books]] on various topics.
* [[Berkeley Life|Berkeley life]]: [[restaurants]].
* Being a GSI: [[Teaching Tips|teaching tips]] and [[emergency phone numbers]].
* Answers to computer questions:
** How to [[LaTeX basics|use LaTeX]].
** How to [[LaTeX Install|install LaTeX]] on your own computer.
** How to [[Webpage Guide|create a homepage]].
** How to [[File Management|manage files on the math department servers]].
** How to [[Software|get math software]].
** How to [/~gbergman/958_scanner.html use the copier in 958 Evans as a scanner].
** How to [[printing|print]] on the department's printers from your laptop.
** How to [[Proxy Servers|access MathSciNet and UC E-links from off-campus]].
** How to use [[slides]] in the seminar rooms.

Most pages can be edited by anyone who's logged in, and anyone can create an account. Feel free to add whatever you think might be of interest to the graduate student community.

Slides

2008-12-19T19:24:27Z

Dustin: Copied from the department's wiki

To project beamer slides from a Mac laptop in a seminar room, you will need the following:

1. A Mac laptop running OS 10 (it has been tested with OS 10.4.11 but will probably work with OS 10.1 or higher).

2. A pdf file containing your mathematical beamer slides, located conveniently on your laptop's hard drive.

3. The dvi-VGA adaptor/connector that came with your laptop. This is a small (three-inch) white double-headed connector with asymmetric plugs at both ends. Note that the video out ports and the accessories vary with the laptop model.

4. Turn on your mac, turn on the video projector using the toggle switch on the wall or below the blackboard, and lower the screen by pressing the "down" button on the wall.

5. Locate the video cable in the room and connect it to one side of the dvi-VGA connector. Apple recommends that this be done BEFORE step 6 in order for your mac to properly recognize the video environment and initiate the display automatically.

6. Now plug the other end of this assembly into the appropriate port on your mac.

After a few seconds, a display of your mac's desktop should appear on the screen. The icons may appear oversized, jumbled, and fuzzy - not to worry, they will be restored after the video session. Launch Adobe Reader and open your beamer pdf file - in standard environments you would do this by simply double-clicking on the pdf's icon. The first page of your presentation should now appear on the screen.

You may want to display your slides in full screen mode: Do that from under the "Window" menu in Adobe Reader by selecting "fullscreen mode".

You can advance pages manually by using the arrow keys or the return key on your laptop. A better way is to use something like a Keyspan presentation remote, which is available from the Scholar's Workstation or M.A.C. in Berkeley. This device uses no software, only a small transmitter that plugs into a USB port on your mac that talks to the remote that you hold in your hand. The hand-held device also has a laser pointer, and can control your mouse.

Another issue to watch out for is the power supply. If you laptop is not fully charged, be sure to bring your power adaptor with its grounded power cord,
since the receptacles installed in that room won't accept a plug with no ground.

Main Page

2008-12-19T19:23:51Z

Dustin: slides

Welcome to the UC Berkeley math graduate student wiki. We hope to provide information of use to you during your years as a graduate student at Berkeley.

* General information for [[Prospective Students|prospective students]], [[First Year Students|incoming students]], and [[Upper Year Students|continuing students]].
* Information about the [[First Year Students#Preliminary Exam|prelim]], the [[Language Exam|language exam]], and the [[Qualifying Exam|qualifying exam]].
* Lists of [[fellowships]], [[conferences]], [[Travel Grants|travel grants]], [[Summer Programs|summer programs]], [[Protected:Internships|summer internships]], [[postdocs]] (see also [[Applying for Postdocs|applying for postdocs]]), and [[Protected:Jobs|jobs]].
* [[Academic Books|Math books]] on various topics.
* [[Berkeley Life|Berkeley life]]: [[restaurants]].
* Being a GSI: [[Teaching Tips|teaching tips]] and [[emergency phone numbers]].
* Answers to computer questions:
** How to [[LaTeX basics|use LaTeX]].
** How to [[LaTeX Install|install LaTeX]] on your own computer.
** How to [[Webpage Guide|create a homepage]].
** How to [[File Management|manage files on the math department servers]].
** How to [[Software|get math software]].
** How to [/~gbergman/958_scanner.html use the copier in 958 Evans as a scanner].
** How to [[printing|print]] on the department's printers from your laptop.
** How to [[Proxy Servers|access MathSciNet and UC E-links from off-campus]].
** How to use [[slides]] in the seminar rooms.

Most pages can be edited by anyone who's logged in, and anyone can create an account. Feel free to add whatever you think might be of interest to the graduate student community.

First Year Students

2008-12-06T17:11:00Z

Dustin: /* Housing */ Housing page no longer protected

The first year, and especially the first month, at Berkeley can be pretty overwhelming with all the tasks that you have to do. Settling into a new place, taking your prelim and fulfilling all the bureaucratic hurdles can be quite a whirlwind. The information below explains many of the situations you will probably face in your first year, and hopefully will make them all seem manageable. It's in your best interest to read through all this information at least once before arriving; they can provide a handy reference for navigating through your first year.

==Location==
The Math Department is located in [http://www.berkeley.edu/map/maps/BC45.html Evans Hall], the tall, grey building in the center of campus. The department occupies the 7th through 10th floors of the building. The graduate office is 965 Evans; the main lounge is 1015 Evans. The main computer lab is in 744 and there are also clusters are in 731 and 838 Evans. There are printers in 708, 838, 958, and 1002 and a copier in 958.

The vice-chair for graduate affairs is [/~tataru/ Daniel Tataru]. Pop in and say hi to him when you get here, as he'll be glad to know you're here.

==Email, ID Cards, and Keys==
To get a <tt>math.berkeley.edu</tt> email address, see Kathy Santos in 920 Evans your first week here. She can also give you a key to the
computer cluster and the copy room.

To get a UC Berkeley ID card, you have to go to the Cal1 office in Lower Sproul (on the ground floor of Cesar Chavez Student Center). If you are registered and your fees have been paid, you can also get your Classpass there, which lets you use any AC transit bus. Alternatively, you can avoid the lines and have your Classpass mailed to your current address on Bearfacts by going [https://classpass.berkeley.edu/tripstu/secure/trip_stu_menu here].

Every graduate student gets an office in the department. The [/~mgsa/ MGSA] organizes a lottery and office selection process on the day of orientation (see below). You will be able to get your key on office moving day, which is usually on or before the first day of classes.

==Orientation==
On the afternoon of the first day of the prelim, there is a departmental orientation for first-year students. Much of the information on this site, such as establishing residency, will be talked about in greater detail, as well as some additional topics. This is also a great opportunity to ask questions about the program. The ever-helpful Barb Waller will email you with a location and time once it's known.

==Preliminary Exam==
The Prelim is a 6-hour written exam testing your undergraduate math background. It's given once a semester, and you must pass within your first three semesters. Thus, you only have three opportunities to take it, so you should take it every semester until you pass. And most students would agree, it's in your best interest to pass the first time.

===Date===
The exam is always scheduled for the Monday and Tuesday the week before classes start, from 9am to 12pm each day, in 60 Evans Hall. This room is located on the ground floor of Evans (not to be confused with the first floor or the basement), along the hall on the eastern side of the building. The fall 2008 exam is scheduled for August 18 and 19.

===Workshops===
There are prelim workshops in the weeks before each exam. These workshop, led by graduate students, include informal problem-solving sessions and summaries of the material you're expected to know. Prelim workshop webpages are available from: [/~carnahan/prelim/ 2003 (Algebra)], [/~borisp/prelim/ 2006 (Analysis)], and [/~matic/index.php?options=gl|workshan 2008 (Analysis)]. See also [/~anton/written/AnalysisPrelim/AnalysisPrelim.pdf these notes] from an analysis workshop (in 2004?) courtesy of Anton.

===Structure===
The prelim is split over the course of two days. Each day, you are given nine questions and have three hours to submit solutions for at most six of them. On one day, five of the questions will be in algebra and four will be in analysis, and on the other day, the reverse distribution will occur. The questions are graded out of 10 points, so a perfect score is 120 points. To put the caliber of the exam into perspective, in the last five years, the minimum passing score has ranged from 53 to 68.

===Resources===
Here are some helpful study resources:
* [/graduate_prelim.html The prelim website], has a syllabus describing the material you are responsible for, copies of previous exams, and statistics of exam performance.
* Nearly a thousand problems from previous prelims, with complete solutions to most, have been published in the book "Berkeley Problems in Mathematics" by Paulo Ney de Souza ISBN 0387204296. This is an excellent resource of problems.

==Residency==
If you are a US citizen that will be supported by the department (through a GSI or GSR position) in your second year and later, you must establish California residency within your first year. This is because the tuition and fees for residents are about half those for non-residents, and the departmental budget can support only so many non-residents. If you don't establish residency, it will cost you dearly, because you'll have to pay the difference in tuition out of your own pocket, and that will be several thousands of dollars.

So, here are the steps you need to complete to establish residency:
# Make a credit card purchase for something shortly after you arrive in Berkeley and save the credit card statement. It can also help if you save your boarding pass if you are flying to California. This is to establish the approximate date of your arrival in the state.
# Once you have a California address, change the official address the university has on file for you. This can be done easily via [https://sis.berkeley.edu/bearfacts/ Bearfacts], under the section 'Personal'. You will need your student ID number to access this site.
# Get a California Driver's License or State ID to replace your one from another state, and register your vehicle here. It is very IMPORTANT to do this within your first TWO WEEKS at Berkeley, otherwise you will probably be hassled about this from the Residency Office when you file for residency.
# Open a local checking account. If your old bank has a presence in the area, it is sufficient to change your address to Berkeley. Again, do this within your first month. Both these steps indicate your intent on remaining permanently within the state.
# Register to vote in California, and if an election comes around, make sure to vote.
# File California state taxes your first year here and make sure that you are not claimed as a dependent that year by anyone who is not a California resident.
# Keep credit card and bank statements and make regular purchases by credit card or use the ATM regularly to verify that you have spent your time continuously in the state. The Residency Affairs office is most wary of where you spend your time when school is not in session; spending more than a couple weeks of the year in your previous state of residence can impede your establishment of residency. Travel to other locations for academic purposes is less of a problem, especially if you have documentation of your time spent there. But still, plan on spending most of your first year in California.
# File an online Residence Classification Petition (available on [http://bearfacts.berkeley.edu Bearfacts]) and submit the checklist and supporting documentation within a week of submitting the online petition. Instructions are given at the end of the online petition. The deadline for submission for the fall of your second year is usually towards the end of August; see the [http://registrar.berkeley.edu/GeneralInfo/stucal.html Student Calendar] for an exact date. However, the deadline for applying before fees are assessed is usually June 1. The difference between these two deadlines is that if you submit by the earlier deadline, and are classified as a resident, your fall fees will automatically be computed as if you were a resident and paid for by the department. If you submit by the later deadline, your fees will be automatically computed as if you are a non-resident and then later adjusted to the resident fees. This may mean that you might temporarily have to pay the difference between the non-resident and resident fees (a few hundred dollars), and will be refunded that money later in the semester.

More detailed information can be found in the welcome packet that will be sent to you by the math department and on the [http://registrar.berkeley.edu/Residency/legalinfo.html Residency website].

==International Students==
International Students should [http://internationaloffice.berkeley.edu/students/New/check_in.php stop by] the Berkeley International Office in [http://www.berkeley.edu/map/maps/DE67.html International House] during their first week on campus. This is a mandatory requirement of your visa. Non-mandatory, but quite useful, is the [http://internationaloffice.berkeley.edu/students/New/orientation_general.php orientation].

==Registering for Classes==
Incoming students must register for classes before the start of the fall semester. This is done easily enough via the online registration site for the university, [http://telebears.berkeley.edu Telebears]. A list of courses can be found [http://schedule.berkeley.edu here]. If you are teaching in the fall, the math department requires you to register for Math 300, the teaching workshop. It is strongly recommended that you see your academic advisor sometime in the first week or two of the semester to discuss your classes. The deadline for graduate students to add/drop classes without a fee is the end of the third week of instruction.

Students are required by the university to sign up for 12 units to be full-time. Seminars are a good way to fill up some extra units and to get to know a professor and his or her students better. You can take up to 4 units of seminar each semester.

Do not worry if a class you want to take fills up. There is always room in the class for math department grad students. Just sign up for some other classes temporarily, then talk to the professor on the first day of class about getting onto the roster. Once you are on the roster, be sure to drop the other classes you temporarily signed up for.

==Housing==
There are several options for housing at Berkeley. These include private rentals and university-owned housing. In general, unless you live in the subsidized housing for families, the prices for university housing are more expensive than those for private housing (i.e. less bang for your buck).

There are many houses, apartments and rooms for rent in the area around campus. Naturally, proximity to campus, size of the housing, and the number of people you share with can all play factors in the price. Housing close to campus can be as much as twice as expensive as comparable housing a mile or two away. Fortunately, public transit (including AC Transit buses and the BART) and biking are both convenient ways to get to campus, which many grad students use. We have a free unlimited transit pass for the AC Transit system, but unfortunately BART is not included. Driving to campus isn't recommended, because campus parking can be a nightmare and very expensive.

Most landlords are reluctant to rent to people they haven't met, so don't expect to get a room or an apartment before you move out here. However, most people manage to find a place within a week or two of moving here. If you have a friend to live with in the interim, or can find a place with a month-to-month lease where you can leave after one or two months, those can be temporary solutions.

There are several resources available for your search for housing:

* [http://www.craigslist.com Craigslist]. A free classifieds service for everything from housing, to dating, to miscellaneous things people are giving away for free. Considering it started in the Bay Area, it's definitely taken root here as an indispensible place to place ads. Almost everyone with a rental posts an ad on this site, and it's by far the biggest listing of rooms/houses/apartments to rent. This is probably a good place to start your search and to get an idea of the prices.
* [http://calrentals.housing.berkeley.edu/ CalRentals]. A University office administering a rental listings service. Placing listings is free, but there is a $20 fee for three months of access to view the listings. Landlords who advertise with Cal Rentals often prefer students as tenants.
* [http://housing.berkeley.edu/livingatcal/studentsfamilies.html Subsidized University Housing for Families]. UC Berkeley offers partially subsidized apartments to married students and students with families.
* [http://ihouse.berkeley.edu/ International House]. Located right next to campus, the I-House is another popular location for graduate students, especially those seeking to diversify their contacts outside the department.
* [http://www.usca.org/ Co-ops]. The co-ops are unique living experience, and each house has a different flavor. Several dozen people live in each house. Food, cooking, and cleaning responsibilities are all shared, which keeps the costs lower and distributes the maintenance work evenly among the members. The houses are also located very close to campus.
* [[Housing|MGSA Housing Page]]. Visit our own housing page to contact other math graduate students about potential rooming arrangements and housing availability.

==Regular departmental events==

During the school year, there are departmental teas every Monday and Thursday afternoons, from 3 to 4 in 1015 Evans. The department provides coffee, tea, and snacks. This is a great time to meet and chat with other graduate students and professors.

In addition to many specialized seminars in different areas (see [/events_week.html here] for this week's seminars), there are three series which are meant to be more broadly accessible:
* [/~mcf/ Many Cheerful Facts] is a series talks given by graduate students, mostly first and second years. Its purpose is to give graduate students a friendly environment to give a first talk, and as such, they tend to be very accessible.
* The Mentor Lecture Series consists of talks given by professors for the purpose of introducing graduate students to their areas of research. It occurs on alternate Mondays at 4:10 in 60 Evans.
* The departmental colloquium is on Thursday afternoons at 4:10 in 60 Evans. The talks are meant to present current research in a way that is accessible to a general mathematical audience.

==Student groups==

In addition to the many specialized clubs on campus, there are several groups representing members of the department:

* The [/~mgsa/ Mathematics Graduate Student Association] represents all graduate students in the department.
* The [/~nring/ Noetherian Ring] is an organization for women graduate students, postdocs, and professors in the department.
* [/~urep/ Unbounded Representation] is a student group focused on issues of diversity within the department.
* The [http://ga.berkeley.edu/ Graduate Assembly] is the student government for all graduate students at Berkeley.

First Year Students

2008-12-06T17:09:41Z

Dustin: /* Student groups */ link and description for URep

The first year, and especially the first month, at Berkeley can be pretty overwhelming with all the tasks that you have to do. Settling into a new place, taking your prelim and fulfilling all the bureaucratic hurdles can be quite a whirlwind. The information below explains many of the situations you will probably face in your first year, and hopefully will make them all seem manageable. It's in your best interest to read through all this information at least once before arriving; they can provide a handy reference for navigating through your first year.

==Location==
The Math Department is located in [http://www.berkeley.edu/map/maps/BC45.html Evans Hall], the tall, grey building in the center of campus. The department occupies the 7th through 10th floors of the building. The graduate office is 965 Evans; the main lounge is 1015 Evans. The main computer lab is in 744 and there are also clusters are in 731 and 838 Evans. There are printers in 708, 838, 958, and 1002 and a copier in 958.

The vice-chair for graduate affairs is [/~tataru/ Daniel Tataru]. Pop in and say hi to him when you get here, as he'll be glad to know you're here.

==Email, ID Cards, and Keys==
To get a <tt>math.berkeley.edu</tt> email address, see Kathy Santos in 920 Evans your first week here. She can also give you a key to the
computer cluster and the copy room.

To get a UC Berkeley ID card, you have to go to the Cal1 office in Lower Sproul (on the ground floor of Cesar Chavez Student Center). If you are registered and your fees have been paid, you can also get your Classpass there, which lets you use any AC transit bus. Alternatively, you can avoid the lines and have your Classpass mailed to your current address on Bearfacts by going [https://classpass.berkeley.edu/tripstu/secure/trip_stu_menu here].

Every graduate student gets an office in the department. The [/~mgsa/ MGSA] organizes a lottery and office selection process on the day of orientation (see below). You will be able to get your key on office moving day, which is usually on or before the first day of classes.

==Orientation==
On the afternoon of the first day of the prelim, there is a departmental orientation for first-year students. Much of the information on this site, such as establishing residency, will be talked about in greater detail, as well as some additional topics. This is also a great opportunity to ask questions about the program. The ever-helpful Barb Waller will email you with a location and time once it's known.

==Preliminary Exam==
The Prelim is a 6-hour written exam testing your undergraduate math background. It's given once a semester, and you must pass within your first three semesters. Thus, you only have three opportunities to take it, so you should take it every semester until you pass. And most students would agree, it's in your best interest to pass the first time.

===Date===
The exam is always scheduled for the Monday and Tuesday the week before classes start, from 9am to 12pm each day, in 60 Evans Hall. This room is located on the ground floor of Evans (not to be confused with the first floor or the basement), along the hall on the eastern side of the building. The fall 2008 exam is scheduled for August 18 and 19.

===Workshops===
There are prelim workshops in the weeks before each exam. These workshop, led by graduate students, include informal problem-solving sessions and summaries of the material you're expected to know. Prelim workshop webpages are available from: [/~carnahan/prelim/ 2003 (Algebra)], [/~borisp/prelim/ 2006 (Analysis)], and [/~matic/index.php?options=gl|workshan 2008 (Analysis)]. See also [/~anton/written/AnalysisPrelim/AnalysisPrelim.pdf these notes] from an analysis workshop (in 2004?) courtesy of Anton.

===Structure===
The prelim is split over the course of two days. Each day, you are given nine questions and have three hours to submit solutions for at most six of them. On one day, five of the questions will be in algebra and four will be in analysis, and on the other day, the reverse distribution will occur. The questions are graded out of 10 points, so a perfect score is 120 points. To put the caliber of the exam into perspective, in the last five years, the minimum passing score has ranged from 53 to 68.

===Resources===
Here are some helpful study resources:
* [/graduate_prelim.html The prelim website], has a syllabus describing the material you are responsible for, copies of previous exams, and statistics of exam performance.
* Nearly a thousand problems from previous prelims, with complete solutions to most, have been published in the book "Berkeley Problems in Mathematics" by Paulo Ney de Souza ISBN 0387204296. This is an excellent resource of problems.

==Residency==
If you are a US citizen that will be supported by the department (through a GSI or GSR position) in your second year and later, you must establish California residency within your first year. This is because the tuition and fees for residents are about half those for non-residents, and the departmental budget can support only so many non-residents. If you don't establish residency, it will cost you dearly, because you'll have to pay the difference in tuition out of your own pocket, and that will be several thousands of dollars.

So, here are the steps you need to complete to establish residency:
# Make a credit card purchase for something shortly after you arrive in Berkeley and save the credit card statement. It can also help if you save your boarding pass if you are flying to California. This is to establish the approximate date of your arrival in the state.
# Once you have a California address, change the official address the university has on file for you. This can be done easily via [https://sis.berkeley.edu/bearfacts/ Bearfacts], under the section 'Personal'. You will need your student ID number to access this site.
# Get a California Driver's License or State ID to replace your one from another state, and register your vehicle here. It is very IMPORTANT to do this within your first TWO WEEKS at Berkeley, otherwise you will probably be hassled about this from the Residency Office when you file for residency.
# Open a local checking account. If your old bank has a presence in the area, it is sufficient to change your address to Berkeley. Again, do this within your first month. Both these steps indicate your intent on remaining permanently within the state.
# Register to vote in California, and if an election comes around, make sure to vote.
# File California state taxes your first year here and make sure that you are not claimed as a dependent that year by anyone who is not a California resident.
# Keep credit card and bank statements and make regular purchases by credit card or use the ATM regularly to verify that you have spent your time continuously in the state. The Residency Affairs office is most wary of where you spend your time when school is not in session; spending more than a couple weeks of the year in your previous state of residence can impede your establishment of residency. Travel to other locations for academic purposes is less of a problem, especially if you have documentation of your time spent there. But still, plan on spending most of your first year in California.
# File an online Residence Classification Petition (available on [http://bearfacts.berkeley.edu Bearfacts]) and submit the checklist and supporting documentation within a week of submitting the online petition. Instructions are given at the end of the online petition. The deadline for submission for the fall of your second year is usually towards the end of August; see the [http://registrar.berkeley.edu/GeneralInfo/stucal.html Student Calendar] for an exact date. However, the deadline for applying before fees are assessed is usually June 1. The difference between these two deadlines is that if you submit by the earlier deadline, and are classified as a resident, your fall fees will automatically be computed as if you were a resident and paid for by the department. If you submit by the later deadline, your fees will be automatically computed as if you are a non-resident and then later adjusted to the resident fees. This may mean that you might temporarily have to pay the difference between the non-resident and resident fees (a few hundred dollars), and will be refunded that money later in the semester.

More detailed information can be found in the welcome packet that will be sent to you by the math department and on the [http://registrar.berkeley.edu/Residency/legalinfo.html Residency website].

==International Students==
International Students should [http://internationaloffice.berkeley.edu/students/New/check_in.php stop by] the Berkeley International Office in [http://www.berkeley.edu/map/maps/DE67.html International House] during their first week on campus. This is a mandatory requirement of your visa. Non-mandatory, but quite useful, is the [http://internationaloffice.berkeley.edu/students/New/orientation_general.php orientation].

==Registering for Classes==
Incoming students must register for classes before the start of the fall semester. This is done easily enough via the online registration site for the university, [http://telebears.berkeley.edu Telebears]. A list of courses can be found [http://schedule.berkeley.edu here]. If you are teaching in the fall, the math department requires you to register for Math 300, the teaching workshop. It is strongly recommended that you see your academic advisor sometime in the first week or two of the semester to discuss your classes. The deadline for graduate students to add/drop classes without a fee is the end of the third week of instruction.

Students are required by the university to sign up for 12 units to be full-time. Seminars are a good way to fill up some extra units and to get to know a professor and his or her students better. You can take up to 4 units of seminar each semester.

Do not worry if a class you want to take fills up. There is always room in the class for math department grad students. Just sign up for some other classes temporarily, then talk to the professor on the first day of class about getting onto the roster. Once you are on the roster, be sure to drop the other classes you temporarily signed up for.

==Housing==
There are several options for housing at Berkeley. These include private rentals and university-owned housing. In general, unless you live in the subsidized housing for families, the prices for university housing are more expensive than those for private housing (i.e. less bang for your buck).

There are many houses, apartments and rooms for rent in the area around campus. Naturally, proximity to campus, size of the housing, and the number of people you share with can all play factors in the price. Housing close to campus can be as much as twice as expensive as comparable housing a mile or two away. Fortunately, public transit (including AC Transit buses and the BART) and biking are both convenient ways to get to campus, which many grad students use. We have a free unlimited transit pass for the AC Transit system, but unfortunately BART is not included. Driving to campus isn't recommended, because campus parking can be a nightmare and very expensive.

Most landlords are reluctant to rent to people they haven't met, so don't expect to get a room or an apartment before you move out here. However, most people manage to find a place within a week or two of moving here. If you have a friend to live with in the interim, or can find a place with a month-to-month lease where you can leave after one or two months, those can be temporary solutions.

There are several resources available for your search for housing:

* [http://www.craigslist.com Craigslist]. A free classifieds service for everything from housing, to dating, to miscellaneous things people are giving away for free. Considering it started in the Bay Area, it's definitely taken root here as an indispensible place to place ads. Almost everyone with a rental posts an ad on this site, and it's by far the biggest listing of rooms/houses/apartments to rent. This is probably a good place to start your search and to get an idea of the prices.
* [http://calrentals.housing.berkeley.edu/ CalRentals]. A University office administering a rental listings service. Placing listings is free, but there is a $20 fee for three months of access to view the listings. Landlords who advertise with Cal Rentals often prefer students as tenants.
* [http://housing.berkeley.edu/livingatcal/studentsfamilies.html Subsidized University Housing for Families]. UC Berkeley offers partially subsidized apartments to married students and students with families.
* [http://ihouse.berkeley.edu/ International House]. Located right next to campus, the I-House is another popular location for graduate students, especially those seeking to diversify their contacts outside the department.
* [http://www.usca.org/ Co-ops]. The co-ops are unique living experience, and each house has a different flavor. Several dozen people live in each house. Food, cooking, and cleaning responsibilities are all shared, which keeps the costs lower and distributes the maintenance work evenly among the members. The houses are also located very close to campus.
* [[Protected:Housing|MGSA Housing Page]]. Visit our own housing page to contact other math graduate students about potential rooming arrangements and housing availability. Requires you to be logged in as a user of our wiki.

==Regular departmental events==

During the school year, there are departmental teas every Monday and Thursday afternoons, from 3 to 4 in 1015 Evans. The department provides coffee, tea, and snacks. This is a great time to meet and chat with other graduate students and professors.

In addition to many specialized seminars in different areas (see [/events_week.html here] for this week's seminars), there are three series which are meant to be more broadly accessible:
* [/~mcf/ Many Cheerful Facts] is a series talks given by graduate students, mostly first and second years. Its purpose is to give graduate students a friendly environment to give a first talk, and as such, they tend to be very accessible.
* The Mentor Lecture Series consists of talks given by professors for the purpose of introducing graduate students to their areas of research. It occurs on alternate Mondays at 4:10 in 60 Evans.
* The departmental colloquium is on Thursday afternoons at 4:10 in 60 Evans. The talks are meant to present current research in a way that is accessible to a general mathematical audience.

==Student groups==

In addition to the many specialized clubs on campus, there are several groups representing members of the department:

* The [/~mgsa/ Mathematics Graduate Student Association] represents all graduate students in the department.
* The [/~nring/ Noetherian Ring] is an organization for women graduate students, postdocs, and professors in the department.
* [/~urep/ Unbounded Representation] is a student group focused on issues of diversity within the department.
* The [http://ga.berkeley.edu/ Graduate Assembly] is the student government for all graduate students at Berkeley.

First Year Students

2008-12-06T16:57:12Z

Dustin: /* Location */ Updated computer locations

The first year, and especially the first month, at Berkeley can be pretty overwhelming with all the tasks that you have to do. Settling into a new place, taking your prelim and fulfilling all the bureaucratic hurdles can be quite a whirlwind. The information below explains many of the situations you will probably face in your first year, and hopefully will make them all seem manageable. It's in your best interest to read through all this information at least once before arriving; they can provide a handy reference for navigating through your first year.

==Location==
The Math Department is located in [http://www.berkeley.edu/map/maps/BC45.html Evans Hall], the tall, grey building in the center of campus. The department occupies the 7th through 10th floors of the building. The graduate office is 965 Evans; the main lounge is 1015 Evans. The main computer lab is in 744 and there are also clusters are in 731 and 838 Evans. There are printers in 708, 838, 958, and 1002 and a copier in 958.

The vice-chair for graduate affairs is [/~tataru/ Daniel Tataru]. Pop in and say hi to him when you get here, as he'll be glad to know you're here.

==Email, ID Cards, and Keys==
To get a <tt>math.berkeley.edu</tt> email address, see Kathy Santos in 920 Evans your first week here. She can also give you a key to the
computer cluster and the copy room.

To get a UC Berkeley ID card, you have to go to the Cal1 office in Lower Sproul (on the ground floor of Cesar Chavez Student Center). If you are registered and your fees have been paid, you can also get your Classpass there, which lets you use any AC transit bus. Alternatively, you can avoid the lines and have your Classpass mailed to your current address on Bearfacts by going [https://classpass.berkeley.edu/tripstu/secure/trip_stu_menu here].

Every graduate student gets an office in the department. The [/~mgsa/ MGSA] organizes a lottery and office selection process on the day of orientation (see below). You will be able to get your key on office moving day, which is usually on or before the first day of classes.

==Orientation==
On the afternoon of the first day of the prelim, there is a departmental orientation for first-year students. Much of the information on this site, such as establishing residency, will be talked about in greater detail, as well as some additional topics. This is also a great opportunity to ask questions about the program. The ever-helpful Barb Waller will email you with a location and time once it's known.

==Preliminary Exam==
The Prelim is a 6-hour written exam testing your undergraduate math background. It's given once a semester, and you must pass within your first three semesters. Thus, you only have three opportunities to take it, so you should take it every semester until you pass. And most students would agree, it's in your best interest to pass the first time.

===Date===
The exam is always scheduled for the Monday and Tuesday the week before classes start, from 9am to 12pm each day, in 60 Evans Hall. This room is located on the ground floor of Evans (not to be confused with the first floor or the basement), along the hall on the eastern side of the building. The fall 2008 exam is scheduled for August 18 and 19.

===Workshops===
There are prelim workshops in the weeks before each exam. These workshop, led by graduate students, include informal problem-solving sessions and summaries of the material you're expected to know. Prelim workshop webpages are available from: [/~carnahan/prelim/ 2003 (Algebra)], [/~borisp/prelim/ 2006 (Analysis)], and [/~matic/index.php?options=gl|workshan 2008 (Analysis)]. See also [/~anton/written/AnalysisPrelim/AnalysisPrelim.pdf these notes] from an analysis workshop (in 2004?) courtesy of Anton.

===Structure===
The prelim is split over the course of two days. Each day, you are given nine questions and have three hours to submit solutions for at most six of them. On one day, five of the questions will be in algebra and four will be in analysis, and on the other day, the reverse distribution will occur. The questions are graded out of 10 points, so a perfect score is 120 points. To put the caliber of the exam into perspective, in the last five years, the minimum passing score has ranged from 53 to 68.

===Resources===
Here are some helpful study resources:
* [/graduate_prelim.html The prelim website], has a syllabus describing the material you are responsible for, copies of previous exams, and statistics of exam performance.
* Nearly a thousand problems from previous prelims, with complete solutions to most, have been published in the book "Berkeley Problems in Mathematics" by Paulo Ney de Souza ISBN 0387204296. This is an excellent resource of problems.

==Residency==
If you are a US citizen that will be supported by the department (through a GSI or GSR position) in your second year and later, you must establish California residency within your first year. This is because the tuition and fees for residents are about half those for non-residents, and the departmental budget can support only so many non-residents. If you don't establish residency, it will cost you dearly, because you'll have to pay the difference in tuition out of your own pocket, and that will be several thousands of dollars.

So, here are the steps you need to complete to establish residency:
# Make a credit card purchase for something shortly after you arrive in Berkeley and save the credit card statement. It can also help if you save your boarding pass if you are flying to California. This is to establish the approximate date of your arrival in the state.
# Once you have a California address, change the official address the university has on file for you. This can be done easily via [https://sis.berkeley.edu/bearfacts/ Bearfacts], under the section 'Personal'. You will need your student ID number to access this site.
# Get a California Driver's License or State ID to replace your one from another state, and register your vehicle here. It is very IMPORTANT to do this within your first TWO WEEKS at Berkeley, otherwise you will probably be hassled about this from the Residency Office when you file for residency.
# Open a local checking account. If your old bank has a presence in the area, it is sufficient to change your address to Berkeley. Again, do this within your first month. Both these steps indicate your intent on remaining permanently within the state.
# Register to vote in California, and if an election comes around, make sure to vote.
# File California state taxes your first year here and make sure that you are not claimed as a dependent that year by anyone who is not a California resident.
# Keep credit card and bank statements and make regular purchases by credit card or use the ATM regularly to verify that you have spent your time continuously in the state. The Residency Affairs office is most wary of where you spend your time when school is not in session; spending more than a couple weeks of the year in your previous state of residence can impede your establishment of residency. Travel to other locations for academic purposes is less of a problem, especially if you have documentation of your time spent there. But still, plan on spending most of your first year in California.
# File an online Residence Classification Petition (available on [http://bearfacts.berkeley.edu Bearfacts]) and submit the checklist and supporting documentation within a week of submitting the online petition. Instructions are given at the end of the online petition. The deadline for submission for the fall of your second year is usually towards the end of August; see the [http://registrar.berkeley.edu/GeneralInfo/stucal.html Student Calendar] for an exact date. However, the deadline for applying before fees are assessed is usually June 1. The difference between these two deadlines is that if you submit by the earlier deadline, and are classified as a resident, your fall fees will automatically be computed as if you were a resident and paid for by the department. If you submit by the later deadline, your fees will be automatically computed as if you are a non-resident and then later adjusted to the resident fees. This may mean that you might temporarily have to pay the difference between the non-resident and resident fees (a few hundred dollars), and will be refunded that money later in the semester.

More detailed information can be found in the welcome packet that will be sent to you by the math department and on the [http://registrar.berkeley.edu/Residency/legalinfo.html Residency website].

==International Students==
International Students should [http://internationaloffice.berkeley.edu/students/New/check_in.php stop by] the Berkeley International Office in [http://www.berkeley.edu/map/maps/DE67.html International House] during their first week on campus. This is a mandatory requirement of your visa. Non-mandatory, but quite useful, is the [http://internationaloffice.berkeley.edu/students/New/orientation_general.php orientation].

==Registering for Classes==
Incoming students must register for classes before the start of the fall semester. This is done easily enough via the online registration site for the university, [http://telebears.berkeley.edu Telebears]. A list of courses can be found [http://schedule.berkeley.edu here]. If you are teaching in the fall, the math department requires you to register for Math 300, the teaching workshop. It is strongly recommended that you see your academic advisor sometime in the first week or two of the semester to discuss your classes. The deadline for graduate students to add/drop classes without a fee is the end of the third week of instruction.

Students are required by the university to sign up for 12 units to be full-time. Seminars are a good way to fill up some extra units and to get to know a professor and his or her students better. You can take up to 4 units of seminar each semester.

Do not worry if a class you want to take fills up. There is always room in the class for math department grad students. Just sign up for some other classes temporarily, then talk to the professor on the first day of class about getting onto the roster. Once you are on the roster, be sure to drop the other classes you temporarily signed up for.

==Housing==
There are several options for housing at Berkeley. These include private rentals and university-owned housing. In general, unless you live in the subsidized housing for families, the prices for university housing are more expensive than those for private housing (i.e. less bang for your buck).

There are many houses, apartments and rooms for rent in the area around campus. Naturally, proximity to campus, size of the housing, and the number of people you share with can all play factors in the price. Housing close to campus can be as much as twice as expensive as comparable housing a mile or two away. Fortunately, public transit (including AC Transit buses and the BART) and biking are both convenient ways to get to campus, which many grad students use. We have a free unlimited transit pass for the AC Transit system, but unfortunately BART is not included. Driving to campus isn't recommended, because campus parking can be a nightmare and very expensive.

Most landlords are reluctant to rent to people they haven't met, so don't expect to get a room or an apartment before you move out here. However, most people manage to find a place within a week or two of moving here. If you have a friend to live with in the interim, or can find a place with a month-to-month lease where you can leave after one or two months, those can be temporary solutions.

There are several resources available for your search for housing:

* [http://www.craigslist.com Craigslist]. A free classifieds service for everything from housing, to dating, to miscellaneous things people are giving away for free. Considering it started in the Bay Area, it's definitely taken root here as an indispensible place to place ads. Almost everyone with a rental posts an ad on this site, and it's by far the biggest listing of rooms/houses/apartments to rent. This is probably a good place to start your search and to get an idea of the prices.
* [http://calrentals.housing.berkeley.edu/ CalRentals]. A University office administering a rental listings service. Placing listings is free, but there is a $20 fee for three months of access to view the listings. Landlords who advertise with Cal Rentals often prefer students as tenants.
* [http://housing.berkeley.edu/livingatcal/studentsfamilies.html Subsidized University Housing for Families]. UC Berkeley offers partially subsidized apartments to married students and students with families.
* [http://ihouse.berkeley.edu/ International House]. Located right next to campus, the I-House is another popular location for graduate students, especially those seeking to diversify their contacts outside the department.
* [http://www.usca.org/ Co-ops]. The co-ops are unique living experience, and each house has a different flavor. Several dozen people live in each house. Food, cooking, and cleaning responsibilities are all shared, which keeps the costs lower and distributes the maintenance work evenly among the members. The houses are also located very close to campus.
* [[Protected:Housing|MGSA Housing Page]]. Visit our own housing page to contact other math graduate students about potential rooming arrangements and housing availability. Requires you to be logged in as a user of our wiki.

==Regular departmental events==

During the school year, there are departmental teas every Monday and Thursday afternoons, from 3 to 4 in 1015 Evans. The department provides coffee, tea, and snacks. This is a great time to meet and chat with other graduate students and professors.

In addition to many specialized seminars in different areas (see [/events_week.html here] for this week's seminars), there are three series which are meant to be more broadly accessible:
* [/~mcf/ Many Cheerful Facts] is a series talks given by graduate students, mostly first and second years. Its purpose is to give graduate students a friendly environment to give a first talk, and as such, they tend to be very accessible.
* The Mentor Lecture Series consists of talks given by professors for the purpose of introducing graduate students to their areas of research. It occurs on alternate Mondays at 4:10 in 60 Evans.
* The departmental colloquium is on Thursday afternoons at 4:10 in 60 Evans. The talks are meant to present current research in a way that is accessible to a general mathematical audience.

==Student groups==

In addition to the many specialized clubs on campus, there are several groups representing members of the department:

* The [/~mgsa/ Mathematics Graduate Student Association] represents all graduate students in the department.
* The [/~nring/ Noetherian Ring] is an organization for women graduate students, postdocs, and professors in the department.
* Unbounded Representation is a student group aimed at increasing diversity within the department.
* The [http://ga.berkeley.edu/ Graduate Assembly] is the student government for all graduate students at Berkeley.

Scientific Software

2008-10-20T01:40:32Z

Dustin:

List of software which might be useful for graduate math:

* Mathematica, Maple, and MATLAB are all available on <tt>panda</tt>.
* [http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/ Octave] is a free program that runs most MATLAB code.
* [http://www.singular.uni-kl.de/ Singular], [http://www.math.uiuc.edu/Macaulay2/ Macaulay 2], and [http://cocoa.dima.unige.it/ CoCoA] are free programs for doing computational commutative algebra. The first two are available on <tt>panda</tt> with the command names <tt>Singular</tt> and <tt>M2</tt> respectively.
* [http://www.math.tu-berlin.de/polymake/ Polymake] is a free software package for computations with polytopes, polyhedra, etc. Available on <tt>panda</tt>.
* [http://magma.maths.usyd.edu.au/magma/ MAGMA] does computations with many algebraic objects. Not free, but available on <tt>panda</tt>.

All of these packages are either freely available or installed on <tt>panda</tt> (also known as <tt>login.math.berkeley.edu</tt>), the math department's login server. See [[File Management#SSH|here]] for instructions on connecting to <tt>panda</tt> from your personal computer.

See also the list of [[Text Editor|text editors]] for various operating systems.

==Fink==

[http://www.finkproject.org/ Fink] is a program for Mac OS X which makes it easy to install and update most of the free software packages above and many others as well.

First Year Students

2008-10-20T01:30:46Z

Dustin: Added things mentioned at first-year orientation

The first year, and especially the first month, at Berkeley can be pretty overwhelming with all the tasks that you have to do. Settling into a new place, taking your prelim and fulfilling all the bureaucratic hurdles can be quite a whirlwind. The information below explains many of the situations you will probably face in your first year, and hopefully will make them all seem manageable. It's in your best interest to read through all this information at least once before arriving; they can provide a handy reference for navigating through your first year.

==Location==
The Math Department is located in [http://www.berkeley.edu/map/maps/BC45.html Evans Hall], the tall, grey building in the center of campus. The department occupies the 7th through 10th floors of the building. The graduate office is 965 Evans; the main lounge is 1015 Evans; and the computer clusters are in 731, 838 and 1015 (Annex) Evans. There are printers in 708, 838, 958, and 1002 and a copier in 958.

The vice-chair for graduate affairs is [/~tataru/ Daniel Tataru]. Pop in and say hi to him when you get here, as he'll be glad to know you're here.

==Email, ID Cards, and Keys==
To get a <tt>math.berkeley.edu</tt> email address, see Kathy Santos in 920 Evans your first week here. She can also give you a key to the
computer cluster and the copy room.

To get a UC Berkeley ID card, you have to go to the Cal1 office in Lower Sproul (on the ground floor of Cesar Chavez Student Center). If you are registered and your fees have been paid, you can also get your Classpass there, which lets you use any AC transit bus. Alternatively, you can avoid the lines and have your Classpass mailed to your current address on Bearfacts by going [https://classpass.berkeley.edu/tripstu/secure/trip_stu_menu here].

Every graduate student gets an office in the department. The [/~mgsa/ MGSA] organizes a lottery and office selection process on the day of orientation (see below). You will be able to get your key on office moving day, which is usually on or before the first day of classes.

==Orientation==
On the afternoon of the first day of the prelim, there is a departmental orientation for first-year students. Much of the information on this site, such as establishing residency, will be talked about in greater detail, as well as some additional topics. This is also a great opportunity to ask questions about the program. The ever-helpful Barb Waller will email you with a location and time once it's known.

==Preliminary Exam==
The Prelim is a 6-hour written exam testing your undergraduate math background. It's given once a semester, and you must pass within your first three semesters. Thus, you only have three opportunities to take it, so you should take it every semester until you pass. And most students would agree, it's in your best interest to pass the first time.

===Date===
The exam is always scheduled for the Monday and Tuesday the week before classes start, from 9am to 12pm each day, in 60 Evans Hall. This room is located on the ground floor of Evans (not to be confused with the first floor or the basement), along the hall on the eastern side of the building. The fall 2008 exam is scheduled for August 18 and 19.

===Workshops===
There are prelim workshops in the weeks before each exam. These workshop, led by graduate students, include informal problem-solving sessions and summaries of the material you're expected to know. Prelim workshop webpages are available from: [/~carnahan/prelim/ 2003 (Algebra)], [/~borisp/prelim/ 2006 (Analysis)], and [/~matic/index.php?options=gl|workshan 2008 (Analysis)]. See also [/~anton/written/AnalysisPrelim/AnalysisPrelim.pdf these notes] from an analysis workshop (in 2004?) courtesy of Anton.

===Structure===
The prelim is split over the course of two days. Each day, you are given nine questions and have three hours to submit solutions for at most six of them. On one day, five of the questions will be in algebra and four will be in analysis, and on the other day, the reverse distribution will occur. The questions are graded out of 10 points, so a perfect score is 120 points. To put the caliber of the exam into perspective, in the last five years, the minimum passing score has ranged from 53 to 68.

===Resources===
Here are some helpful study resources:
* [/graduate_prelim.html The prelim website], has a syllabus describing the material you are responsible for, copies of previous exams, and statistics of exam performance.
* Nearly a thousand problems from previous prelims, with complete solutions to most, have been published in the book "Berkeley Problems in Mathematics" by Paulo Ney de Souza ISBN 0387204296. This is an excellent resource of problems.

==Residency==
If you are a US citizen that will be supported by the department (through a GSI or GSR position) in your second year and later, you must establish California residency within your first year. This is because the tuition and fees for residents are about half those for non-residents, and the departmental budget can support only so many non-residents. If you don't establish residency, it will cost you dearly, because you'll have to pay the difference in tuition out of your own pocket, and that will be several thousands of dollars.

So, here are the steps you need to complete to establish residency:
# Make a credit card purchase for something shortly after you arrive in Berkeley and save the credit card statement. It can also help if you save your boarding pass if you are flying to California. This is to establish the approximate date of your arrival in the state.
# Once you have a California address, change the official address the university has on file for you. This can be done easily via [https://sis.berkeley.edu/bearfacts/ Bearfacts], under the section 'Personal'. You will need your student ID number to access this site.
# Get a California Driver's License or State ID to replace your one from another state, and register your vehicle here. It is very IMPORTANT to do this within your first TWO WEEKS at Berkeley, otherwise you will probably be hassled about this from the Residency Office when you file for residency.
# Open a local checking account. If your old bank has a presence in the area, it is sufficient to change your address to Berkeley. Again, do this within your first month. Both these steps indicate your intent on remaining permanently within the state.
# Register to vote in California, and if an election comes around, make sure to vote.
# File California state taxes your first year here and make sure that you are not claimed as a dependent that year by anyone who is not a California resident.
# Keep credit card and bank statements and make regular purchases by credit card or use the ATM regularly to verify that you have spent your time continuously in the state. The Residency Affairs office is most wary of where you spend your time when school is not in session; spending more than a couple weeks of the year in your previous state of residence can impede your establishment of residency. Travel to other locations for academic purposes is less of a problem, especially if you have documentation of your time spent there. But still, plan on spending most of your first year in California.
# File an online Residence Classification Petition (available on [http://bearfacts.berkeley.edu Bearfacts]) and submit the checklist and supporting documentation within a week of submitting the online petition. Instructions are given at the end of the online petition. The deadline for submission for the fall of your second year is usually towards the end of August; see the [http://registrar.berkeley.edu/GeneralInfo/stucal.html Student Calendar] for an exact date. However, the deadline for applying before fees are assessed is usually June 1. The difference between these two deadlines is that if you submit by the earlier deadline, and are classified as a resident, your fall fees will automatically be computed as if you were a resident and paid for by the department. If you submit by the later deadline, your fees will be automatically computed as if you are a non-resident and then later adjusted to the resident fees. This may mean that you might temporarily have to pay the difference between the non-resident and resident fees (a few hundred dollars), and will be refunded that money later in the semester.

More detailed information can be found in the welcome packet that will be sent to you by the math department and on the [http://registrar.berkeley.edu/Residency/legalinfo.html Residency website].

==International Students==
International Students should [http://internationaloffice.berkeley.edu/students/New/check_in.php stop by] the Berkeley International Office in [http://www.berkeley.edu/map/maps/DE67.html International House] during their first week on campus. This is a mandatory requirement of your visa. Non-mandatory, but quite useful, is the [http://internationaloffice.berkeley.edu/students/New/orientation_general.php orientation].

==Registering for Classes==
Incoming students must register for classes before the start of the fall semester. This is done easily enough via the online registration site for the university, [http://telebears.berkeley.edu Telebears]. A list of courses can be found [http://schedule.berkeley.edu here]. If you are teaching in the fall, the math department requires you to register for Math 300, the teaching workshop. It is strongly recommended that you see your academic advisor sometime in the first week or two of the semester to discuss your classes. The deadline for graduate students to add/drop classes without a fee is the end of the third week of instruction.

Students are required by the university to sign up for 12 units to be full-time. Seminars are a good way to fill up some extra units and to get to know a professor and his or her students better. You can take up to 4 units of seminar each semester.

Do not worry if a class you want to take fills up. There is always room in the class for math department grad students. Just sign up for some other classes temporarily, then talk to the professor on the first day of class about getting onto the roster. Once you are on the roster, be sure to drop the other classes you temporarily signed up for.

==Housing==
There are several options for housing at Berkeley. These include private rentals and university-owned housing. In general, unless you live in the subsidized housing for families, the prices for university housing are more expensive than those for private housing (i.e. less bang for your buck).

There are many houses, apartments and rooms for rent in the area around campus. Naturally, proximity to campus, size of the housing, and the number of people you share with can all play factors in the price. Housing close to campus can be as much as twice as expensive as comparable housing a mile or two away. Fortunately, public transit (including AC Transit buses and the BART) and biking are both convenient ways to get to campus, which many grad students use. We have a free unlimited transit pass for the AC Transit system, but unfortunately BART is not included. Driving to campus isn't recommended, because campus parking can be a nightmare and very expensive.

Most landlords are reluctant to rent to people they haven't met, so don't expect to get a room or an apartment before you move out here. However, most people manage to find a place within a week or two of moving here. If you have a friend to live with in the interim, or can find a place with a month-to-month lease where you can leave after one or two months, those can be temporary solutions.

There are several resources available for your search for housing:

* [http://www.craigslist.com Craigslist]. A free classifieds service for everything from housing, to dating, to miscellaneous things people are giving away for free. Considering it started in the Bay Area, it's definitely taken root here as an indispensible place to place ads. Almost everyone with a rental posts an ad on this site, and it's by far the biggest listing of rooms/houses/apartments to rent. This is probably a good place to start your search and to get an idea of the prices.
* [http://calrentals.housing.berkeley.edu/ CalRentals]. A University office administering a rental listings service. Placing listings is free, but there is a $20 fee for three months of access to view the listings. Landlords who advertise with Cal Rentals often prefer students as tenants.
* [http://housing.berkeley.edu/livingatcal/studentsfamilies.html Subsidized University Housing for Families]. UC Berkeley offers partially subsidized apartments to married students and students with families.
* [http://ihouse.berkeley.edu/ International House]. Located right next to campus, the I-House is another popular location for graduate students, especially those seeking to diversify their contacts outside the department.
* [http://www.usca.org/ Co-ops]. The co-ops are unique living experience, and each house has a different flavor. Several dozen people live in each house. Food, cooking, and cleaning responsibilities are all shared, which keeps the costs lower and distributes the maintenance work evenly among the members. The houses are also located very close to campus.
* [[Protected:Housing|MGSA Housing Page]]. Visit our own housing page to contact other math graduate students about potential rooming arrangements and housing availability. Requires you to be logged in as a user of our wiki.

==Regular departmental events==

During the school year, there are departmental teas every Monday and Thursday afternoons, from 3 to 4 in 1015 Evans. The department provides coffee, tea, and snacks. This is a great time to meet and chat with other graduate students and professors.

In addition to many specialized seminars in different areas (see [/events_week.html here] for this week's seminars), there are three series which are meant to be more broadly accessible:
* [/~mcf/ Many Cheerful Facts] is a series talks given by graduate students, mostly first and second years. Its purpose is to give graduate students a friendly environment to give a first talk, and as such, they tend to be very accessible.
* The Mentor Lecture Series consists of talks given by professors for the purpose of introducing graduate students to their areas of research. It occurs on alternate Mondays at 4:10 in 60 Evans.
* The departmental colloquium is on Thursday afternoons at 4:10 in 60 Evans. The talks are meant to present current research in a way that is accessible to a general mathematical audience.

==Student groups==

In addition to the many specialized clubs on campus, there are several groups representing members of the department:

* The [/~mgsa/ Mathematics Graduate Student Association] represents all graduate students in the department.
* The [/~nring/ Noetherian Ring] is an organization for women graduate students, postdocs, and professors in the department.
* Unbounded Representation is a student group aimed at increasing diversity within the department.
* The [http://ga.berkeley.edu/ Graduate Assembly] is the student government for all graduate students at Berkeley.

First Year Students

2008-10-20T00:44:11Z

Dustin: /* Residency */ sufficient to change address instead of opening new account

The first year, and especially the first month, at Berkeley can be pretty overwhelming with all the tasks that you have to do. Settling into a new place, taking your prelim and fulfilling all the bureaucratic hurdles can be quite a whirlwind. The information below explains many of the situations you will probably face in your first year, and hopefully will make them all seem manageable. It's in your best interest to read through all this information at least once before arriving; they can provide a handy reference for navigating through your first year.

==Location==
The Math Department is located in [http://www.berkeley.edu/map/maps/BC45.html Evans Hall], the tall, grey building in the center of campus. The department occupies the 7th through 10th floors of the building. The graduate office is 965 Evans; the main lounge is 1015 Evans; and the computer clusters are in 731, 838 and 1015 (Annex) Evans. There are printers in 708, 838, 958, and 1002 and a copier in 958.

The vice-chair for graduate affairs is [/~tataru/ Daniel Tataru]. Pop in and say hi to him when you get here, as he'll be glad to know you're here.

==Email and ID Cards==
To get a math.berkeley.edu email address, see Kathy Santos in 920 Evans your first week here. She can also give you a key to the
computer cluster and the copy room.

To get a UC Berkeley ID card, you have to go to the Cal1 office in Lower Sproul (on the ground floor of Cesar Chavez Student Center).

==Orientation==
On the afternoon of the first day of the prelim, there is a departmental orientation for first-year students. Much of the information on this site, such as establishing residency, will be talked about in greater detail, as well as some additional topics. This is also a great opportunity to ask questions about the program. The ever-helpful Barb Waller will email you with a location and time once it's known.

==Preliminary Exam==
The Prelim is a 6-hour written exam testing your undergraduate math background. It's given once a semester, and you must pass within your first three semesters. Thus, you only have three opportunities to take it, so you should take it every semester until you pass. And most students would agree, it's in your best interest to pass the first time.

===Date===
The exam is always scheduled for the Monday and Tuesday the week before classes start, from 9am to 12pm each day, in 60 Evans Hall. This room is located on the ground floor of Evans (not to be confused with the first floor or the basement), along the hall on the eastern side of the building. The fall 2008 exam is scheduled for August 18 and 19.

===Workshops===
There are prelim workshops in the weeks before each exam. These workshop, led by graduate students, include informal problem-solving sessions and summaries of the material you're expected to know. Prelim workshop webpages are available from: [/~carnahan/prelim/ 2003 (Algebra)], [/~borisp/prelim/ 2006 (Analysis)], and [/~matic/index.php?options=gl|workshan 2008 (Analysis)]. See also [/~anton/written/AnalysisPrelim/AnalysisPrelim.pdf these notes] from an analysis workshop (in 2004?) courtesy of Anton.

===Structure===
The prelim is split over the course of two days. Each day, you are given nine questions and have three hours to submit solutions for at most six of them. On one day, five of the questions will be in algebra and four will be in analysis, and on the other day, the reverse distribution will occur. The questions are graded out of 10 points, so a perfect score is 120 points. To put the caliber of the exam into perspective, in the last five years, the minimum passing score has ranged from 53 to 68.

===Resources===
Here are some helpful study resources:
* [/graduate_prelim.html The prelim website], has a syllabus describing the material you are responsible for, copies of previous exams, and statistics of exam performance.
* Nearly a thousand problems from previous prelims, with complete solutions to most, have been published in the book "Berkeley Problems in Mathematics" by Paulo Ney de Souza ISBN 0387204296. This is an excellent resource of problems.

==Residency==
If you are a US citizen that will be supported by the department (through a GSI or GSR position) in your second year and later, you must establish California residency within your first year. This is because the tuition and fees for residents are about half those for non-residents, and the departmental budget can support only so many non-residents. If you don't establish residency, it will cost you dearly, because you'll have to pay the difference in tuition out of your own pocket, and that will be several thousands of dollars.

So, here are the steps you need to complete to establish residency:
# Make a credit card purchase for something shortly after you arrive in Berkeley and save the credit card statement. It can also help if you save your boarding pass if you are flying to California. This is to establish the approximate date of your arrival in the state.
# Once you have a California address, change the official address the university has on file for you. This can be done easily via [https://sis.berkeley.edu/bearfacts/ Bearfacts], under the section 'Personal'. You will need your student ID number to access this site.
# Get a California Driver's License or State ID to replace your one from another state, and register your vehicle here. It is very IMPORTANT to do this within your first TWO WEEKS at Berkeley, otherwise you will probably be hassled about this from the Residency Office when you file for residency.
# Open a local checking account. If your old bank has a presence in the area, it is sufficient to change your address to Berkeley. Again, do this within your first month. Both these steps indicate your intent on remaining permanently within the state.
# Register to vote in California, and if an election comes around, make sure to vote.
# File California state taxes your first year here and make sure that you are not claimed as a dependent that year by anyone who is not a California resident.
# Keep credit card and bank statements and make regular purchases by credit card or use the ATM regularly to verify that you have spent your time continuously in the state. The Residency Affairs office is most wary of where you spend your time when school is not in session; spending more than a couple weeks of the year in your previous state of residence can impede your establishment of residency. Travel to other locations for academic purposes is less of a problem, especially if you have documentation of your time spent there. But still, plan on spending most of your first year in California.
# File an online Residence Classification Petition (available on [http://bearfacts.berkeley.edu Bearfacts]) and submit the checklist and supporting documentation within a week of submitting the online petition. Instructions are given at the end of the online petition. The deadline for submission for the fall of your second year is usually towards the end of August; see the [http://registrar.berkeley.edu/GeneralInfo/stucal.html Student Calendar] for an exact date. However, the deadline for applying before fees are assessed is usually June 1. The difference between these two deadlines is that if you submit by the earlier deadline, and are classified as a resident, your fall fees will automatically be computed as if you were a resident and paid for by the department. If you submit by the later deadline, your fees will be automatically computed as if you are a non-resident and then later adjusted to the resident fees. This may mean that you might temporarily have to pay the difference between the non-resident and resident fees (a few hundred dollars), and will be refunded that money later in the semester.

More detailed information can be found in the welcome packet that will be sent to you by the math department and on the [http://registrar.berkeley.edu/Residency/legalinfo.html Residency website].

==International Students==
International Students should [http://internationaloffice.berkeley.edu/students/New/check_in.php stop by] the Berkeley International Office in [http://www.berkeley.edu/map/maps/DE67.html International House] during their first week on campus. This is a mandatory requirement of your visa. Non-mandatory, but quite useful, is the [http://internationaloffice.berkeley.edu/students/New/orientation_general.php orientation].

==Registering for Classes==
Incoming students must register for classes before the start of the fall semester. This is done easily enough via the online registration site for the university, [http://telebears.berkeley.edu Telebears]. A list of courses can be found [http://schedule.berkeley.edu here]. If you are teaching in the fall, the math department requires you to register for Math 300, the teaching workshop. It is strongly recommended that you see your academic advisor sometime in the first week or two of the semester to discuss your classes. The deadline for graduate students to add/drop classes without a fee is the end of the third week of instruction.

Students are required by the university to sign up for 12 units to be full-time. Seminars are a good way to fill up some extra units and to get to know a professor and his or her students better. You can take up to 4 units of seminar each semester.

Do not worry if a class you want to take fills up. There is always room in the class for math department grad students. Just sign up for some other classes temporarily, then talk to the professor on the first day of class about getting onto the roster. Once you are on the roster, be sure to drop the other classes you temporarily signed up for.

==Housing==
There are several options for housing at Berkeley. These include private rentals and university-owned housing. In general, unless you live in the subsidized housing for families, the prices for university housing are more expensive than those for private housing (i.e. less bang for your buck).

There are many houses, apartments and rooms for rent in the area around campus. Naturally, proximity to campus, size of the housing, and the number of people you share with can all play factors in the price. Housing close to campus can be as much as twice as expensive as comparable housing a mile or two away. Fortunately, public transit (including AC Transit buses and the BART) and biking are both convenient ways to get to campus, which many grad students use. We have a free unlimited transit pass for the AC Transit system, but unfortunately BART is not included. Driving to campus isn't recommended, because campus parking can be a nightmare and very expensive.

Most landlords are reluctant to rent to people they haven't met, so don't expect to get a room or an apartment before you move out here. However, most people manage to find a place within a week or two of moving here. If you have a friend to live with in the interim, or can find a place with a month-to-month lease where you can leave after one or two months, those can be temporary solutions.

There are several resources available for your search for housing:

* [http://www.craigslist.com Craigslist]. A free classifieds service for everything from housing, to dating, to miscellaneous things people are giving away for free. Considering it started in the Bay Area, it's definitely taken root here as an indispensible place to place ads. Almost everyone with a rental posts an ad on this site, and it's by far the biggest listing of rooms/houses/apartments to rent. This is probably a good place to start your search and to get an idea of the prices.
* [http://calrentals.housing.berkeley.edu/ CalRentals]. A University office administering a rental listings service. Placing listings is free, but there is a $20 fee for three months of access to view the listings. Landlords who advertise with Cal Rentals often prefer students as tenants.
* [http://housing.berkeley.edu/livingatcal/studentsfamilies.html Subsidized University Housing for Families]. UC Berkeley offers partially subsidized apartments to married students and students with families.
* [http://ihouse.berkeley.edu/ International House]. Located right next to campus, the I-House is another popular location for graduate students, especially those seeking to diversify their contacts outside the department.
* [http://www.usca.org/ Co-ops]. The co-ops are unique living experience, and each house has a different flavor. Several dozen people live in each house. Food, cooking, and cleaning responsibilities are all shared, which keeps the costs lower and distributes the maintenance work evenly among the members. The houses are also located very close to campus.
* [[Protected:Housing|MGSA Housing Page]]. Visit our own housing page to contact other math graduate students about potential rooming arrangements and housing availability. Requires you to be logged in as a user of our wiki.

First Year Students

2008-10-20T00:38:01Z

Dustin: /* Location */ locations of copier and printers

The first year, and especially the first month, at Berkeley can be pretty overwhelming with all the tasks that you have to do. Settling into a new place, taking your prelim and fulfilling all the bureaucratic hurdles can be quite a whirlwind. The information below explains many of the situations you will probably face in your first year, and hopefully will make them all seem manageable. It's in your best interest to read through all this information at least once before arriving; they can provide a handy reference for navigating through your first year.

==Location==
The Math Department is located in [http://www.berkeley.edu/map/maps/BC45.html Evans Hall], the tall, grey building in the center of campus. The department occupies the 7th through 10th floors of the building. The graduate office is 965 Evans; the main lounge is 1015 Evans; and the computer clusters are in 731, 838 and 1015 (Annex) Evans. There are printers in 708, 838, 958, and 1002 and a copier in 958.

The vice-chair for graduate affairs is [/~tataru/ Daniel Tataru]. Pop in and say hi to him when you get here, as he'll be glad to know you're here.

==Email and ID Cards==
To get a math.berkeley.edu email address, see Kathy Santos in 920 Evans your first week here. She can also give you a key to the
computer cluster and the copy room.

To get a UC Berkeley ID card, you have to go to the Cal1 office in Lower Sproul (on the ground floor of Cesar Chavez Student Center).

==Orientation==
On the afternoon of the first day of the prelim, there is a departmental orientation for first-year students. Much of the information on this site, such as establishing residency, will be talked about in greater detail, as well as some additional topics. This is also a great opportunity to ask questions about the program. The ever-helpful Barb Waller will email you with a location and time once it's known.

==Preliminary Exam==
The Prelim is a 6-hour written exam testing your undergraduate math background. It's given once a semester, and you must pass within your first three semesters. Thus, you only have three opportunities to take it, so you should take it every semester until you pass. And most students would agree, it's in your best interest to pass the first time.

===Date===
The exam is always scheduled for the Monday and Tuesday the week before classes start, from 9am to 12pm each day, in 60 Evans Hall. This room is located on the ground floor of Evans (not to be confused with the first floor or the basement), along the hall on the eastern side of the building. The fall 2008 exam is scheduled for August 18 and 19.

===Workshops===
There are prelim workshops in the weeks before each exam. These workshop, led by graduate students, include informal problem-solving sessions and summaries of the material you're expected to know. Prelim workshop webpages are available from: [/~carnahan/prelim/ 2003 (Algebra)], [/~borisp/prelim/ 2006 (Analysis)], and [/~matic/index.php?options=gl|workshan 2008 (Analysis)]. See also [/~anton/written/AnalysisPrelim/AnalysisPrelim.pdf these notes] from an analysis workshop (in 2004?) courtesy of Anton.

===Structure===
The prelim is split over the course of two days. Each day, you are given nine questions and have three hours to submit solutions for at most six of them. On one day, five of the questions will be in algebra and four will be in analysis, and on the other day, the reverse distribution will occur. The questions are graded out of 10 points, so a perfect score is 120 points. To put the caliber of the exam into perspective, in the last five years, the minimum passing score has ranged from 53 to 68.

===Resources===
Here are some helpful study resources:
* [/graduate_prelim.html The prelim website], has a syllabus describing the material you are responsible for, copies of previous exams, and statistics of exam performance.
* Nearly a thousand problems from previous prelims, with complete solutions to most, have been published in the book "Berkeley Problems in Mathematics" by Paulo Ney de Souza ISBN 0387204296. This is an excellent resource of problems.

==Residency==
If you are a US citizen that will be supported by the department (through a GSI or GSR position) in your second year and later, you must establish California residency within your first year. This is because the tuition and fees for residents are about half those for non-residents, and the departmental budget can support only so many non-residents. If you don't establish residency, it will cost you dearly, because you'll have to pay the difference in tuition out of your own pocket, and that will be several thousands of dollars.

So, here are the steps you need to complete to establish residency:
# Make a credit card purchase for something shortly after you arrive in Berkeley and save the credit card statement. It can also help if you save your boarding pass if you are flying to California. This is to establish the approximate date of your arrival in the state.
# Once you have a California address, change the official address the university has on file for you. This can be done easily via [https://sis.berkeley.edu/bearfacts/ Bearfacts], under the section 'Personal'. You will need your student ID number to access this site.
# Get a California Driver's License or State ID to replace your one from another state, and register your vehicle here. It is very IMPORTANT to do this within your first TWO WEEKS at Berkeley, otherwise you will probably be hassled about this from the Residency Office when you file for residency.
# Open a local checking account. Again, do this within your first month. Both these steps indicate your intent on remaining permanently within the state.
# Register to vote in California, and if an election comes around, make sure to vote.
# File California State Taxes your first year here and make sure that you are not claimed as a dependent that year by anyone who is not a California resident.
# Keep credit card and bank statements and make regular purchases by credit card or use the ATM regularly to verify that you have spent your time continuously in the state. The Residency Affairs office is most wary of where you spend your time when school is not in session; spending more than a couple weeks of the year in your previous state of residence can impede your establishment of residency. Travel to other locations for academic purposes is less of a problem, especially if you have documentation of your time spent there. But still, plan on spending most of your first year in California.
# File an online Residence Classification Petition (available on [http://bearfacts.berkeley.edu Bearfacts]) and submit the checklist and supporting documentation within a week of submitting the online petition. Instructions are given at the end of the online petition. The deadline for submission for the fall of your second year is usually towards the end of August; see the [http://registrar.berkeley.edu/GeneralInfo/stucal.html Student Calendar] for an exact date. However, the deadline for applying before fees are assessed is usually June 1. The difference between these two deadlines is that if you submit by the earlier deadline, and are classified as a resident, your fall fees will automatically be computed as if you were a resident and paid for by the department. If you submit by the later deadline, your fees will be automatically computed as if you are a non-resident and then later adjusted to the resident fees. This may mean that you might temporarily have to pay the difference between the non-resident and resident fees (a few hundred dollars), and will be refunded that money later in the semester.

More detailed information can be found in the welcome packet that will be sent to you by the math department and on the [http://registrar.berkeley.edu/Residency/legalinfo.html Residency website].

==International Students==
International Students should [http://internationaloffice.berkeley.edu/students/New/check_in.php stop by] the Berkeley International Office in [http://www.berkeley.edu/map/maps/DE67.html International House] during their first week on campus. This is a mandatory requirement of your visa. Non-mandatory, but quite useful, is the [http://internationaloffice.berkeley.edu/students/New/orientation_general.php orientation].

==Registering for Classes==
Incoming students must register for classes before the start of the fall semester. This is done easily enough via the online registration site for the university, [http://telebears.berkeley.edu Telebears]. A list of courses can be found [http://schedule.berkeley.edu here]. If you are teaching in the fall, the math department requires you to register for Math 300, the teaching workshop. It is strongly recommended that you see your academic advisor sometime in the first week or two of the semester to discuss your classes. The deadline for graduate students to add/drop classes without a fee is the end of the third week of instruction.

Students are required by the university to sign up for 12 units to be full-time. Seminars are a good way to fill up some extra units and to get to know a professor and his or her students better. You can take up to 4 units of seminar each semester.

Do not worry if a class you want to take fills up. There is always room in the class for math department grad students. Just sign up for some other classes temporarily, then talk to the professor on the first day of class about getting onto the roster. Once you are on the roster, be sure to drop the other classes you temporarily signed up for.

==Housing==
There are several options for housing at Berkeley. These include private rentals and university-owned housing. In general, unless you live in the subsidized housing for families, the prices for university housing are more expensive than those for private housing (i.e. less bang for your buck).

There are many houses, apartments and rooms for rent in the area around campus. Naturally, proximity to campus, size of the housing, and the number of people you share with can all play factors in the price. Housing close to campus can be as much as twice as expensive as comparable housing a mile or two away. Fortunately, public transit (including AC Transit buses and the BART) and biking are both convenient ways to get to campus, which many grad students use. We have a free unlimited transit pass for the AC Transit system, but unfortunately BART is not included. Driving to campus isn't recommended, because campus parking can be a nightmare and very expensive.

Most landlords are reluctant to rent to people they haven't met, so don't expect to get a room or an apartment before you move out here. However, most people manage to find a place within a week or two of moving here. If you have a friend to live with in the interim, or can find a place with a month-to-month lease where you can leave after one or two months, those can be temporary solutions.

There are several resources available for your search for housing:

* [http://www.craigslist.com Craigslist]. A free classifieds service for everything from housing, to dating, to miscellaneous things people are giving away for free. Considering it started in the Bay Area, it's definitely taken root here as an indispensible place to place ads. Almost everyone with a rental posts an ad on this site, and it's by far the biggest listing of rooms/houses/apartments to rent. This is probably a good place to start your search and to get an idea of the prices.
* [http://calrentals.housing.berkeley.edu/ CalRentals]. A University office administering a rental listings service. Placing listings is free, but there is a $20 fee for three months of access to view the listings. Landlords who advertise with Cal Rentals often prefer students as tenants.
* [http://housing.berkeley.edu/livingatcal/studentsfamilies.html Subsidized University Housing for Families]. UC Berkeley offers partially subsidized apartments to married students and students with families.
* [http://ihouse.berkeley.edu/ International House]. Located right next to campus, the I-House is another popular location for graduate students, especially those seeking to diversify their contacts outside the department.
* [http://www.usca.org/ Co-ops]. The co-ops are unique living experience, and each house has a different flavor. Several dozen people live in each house. Food, cooking, and cleaning responsibilities are all shared, which keeps the costs lower and distributes the maintenance work evenly among the members. The houses are also located very close to campus.
* [[Protected:Housing|MGSA Housing Page]]. Visit our own housing page to contact other math graduate students about potential rooming arrangements and housing availability. Requires you to be logged in as a user of our wiki.

Webpage Guide

2008-09-06T18:43:45Z

Dustin: /* Learning More HTML */ link to most recent version of HTML

This page provides a basic tutorial on how to create your own webpage on the math department server.

==Setting up a page==

This section explains how to create a webpage on the math department's servers, assuming you already know a little HTML. For some an introduction to HTML, see [[#Basic HTML|below]].

In your home directory, you need to create a directory called <tt>public_html</tt> with the appropriate permissions. You can do this from a math department computer or over [[File Management#SSH|SSH]] by typing:
<pre>
mkdir public_html
chmod 755 public_html
</pre>
All files and directories for your webpage will go in the <tt>public_html</tt> directory, and the directory and all its contents must have their [[File_Management#Permissions|permissions set]] so that others can read the files and read and execute the directories.

Additionally, inside <tt>public_html</tt>, you should have a file called <tt>index.html</tt>, which will be your homepage, i.e. the first page that pops up when someone visits your website.
You can edit this file in emacs by typing <tt>emacs public_html/index.html</tt>. An alternative to <tt>emacs</tt> is <tt>pico</tt>, which is very similar to the interface for writing emails in pine. When you're done, type <tt>chmod 644 public_html/index.html</tt> to give the file the right permissions. Your page should now be visible at <tt><nowiki>/~USERNAME/</nowiki></tt>. You can create other pages by creating other files in the <tt>public_html</tt> directory. For example, the file <tt>public_html/math1b.html</tt> will have the URL <tt><nowiki>/~USERNAME/math1b.html</nowiki></tt>.

For more information on managing files on the math department's computer and what the permissions mean, see the page on [[File Management|file management]].

===Potential problems===

Some thing which might go wrong when you try to view the page in a browser:
* Error 403: This means that you don't have the permission set correctly. To make sure the permissions are correct for your homepage, type:
<pre>
chmod 755 public_html
chmod 644 public_html/index.html
</pre>
* Error 404: This means that the web server couldn't find your file at all. Make sure you have the files in the <tt>public_html</tt> directory.
* Instead of your homepage, you get a page with a name like "Index of": This is what the web server does when there's no <tt>index.html</tt> file.

==Basic HTML==

Each individual webpage on your site corresponds to a file of the form <tt>name.html</tt> . An HTML file just consists of plain text with a couple commands that tell the browser to do something to the display (for example, make the text bold font). Just like in LaTeX, there are some special characters that tell the browser "I am giving you a command"; they are <, > and /. Every command takes the form <code><command></code>, and most commands also allow you to turn them off by typing <code></command></code>. For example, if you want to turn on bold font, type <code></code>. When you are done typing the text that you'd like bold, turn off bold font with <code></code>.

The nice thing about HTML is that it is very forgiving--even if you make a mistake it will try its best to render something in the browser. This makes it easy to see the mistake and usually makes it easy to see how to fix the mistake too. Commands are case-insensitive.

* <code><HTML></code> In principle, every .html file should begin with <code><HTML></code> and end with <code></HTML></code> to let the browser know that you are going to use HTML commands. But if you plan on just writing plain text, then this is not necessary.
* <code><Title></code> This is the title of the webpage--what appears in the top bar of the browser window. Be sure to turn it off after using it, so that all the text doesn't appear in that one bar!
* <code><Body></code> This delineates the body of the webpage: all the text, images, etc that you want to appear on the page should go in between the Body on and off commands.
* <code> </code> and <code></code> Notice that if you just type text in an HTML file, the browser will ignore all enter keystrokes. In general, browsers treat extra "whitespace" as just one click of the spacebar. To tell a browser that you would like a line break, use br. If you would furthermore like a blank line to start of the next paragraph of text, use p instead.
* <code></code>, <code></code>, <code></code>, and <code><s></code>. Bold, italic, underlined and strikethrough text, respectively.
* <code></code> Set many optional properties on the font. Size takes a number as an argument; align takes one of "right", "center" or "left" as its argument; and color takes an RGB value as its argument. An RGB (red-green-blue) value is simply a 6 digit base-16 number, which means the digits can take any value from 0 to 9 and A to F. The first two digits give you the amount of red, the next two give you green, the last two give you blue. For example, fa8072 yields a tasty salmon color. To turn all these properties off, you just have to type <code></code>.
* <code> <body background="file/URL" bgcolor="rrggbb" link="rrggbb" vlink="rrggbb"></code> The optional properties for the BODY command, which set the background and the colors of links. Background takes either a filename (from you public_html directory) or a URL of another website, and sets that as the background. If it is too small of an image, it will be tiled. Bgcolor sets the background to a solid color if you don't want an background image. It, like link and vlink, takes an RGB value to set the color. Link is the color of an unclicked link; vlink is the color of a clicked link.
* <code> <img src="file/URL"></code> For inserting an image onto you webpage. The argument for src is either a filename or pathname for an image in your public_html directory, or else a complete URL to an image elsewhere.
* <code> <A HREF="URL">text</A> </code>. For links to pages on your site or on other sites. This can also be used to link to a PDF file or some other file for download. The URL is either the full URL for some other website (including the initial <tt>http://</tt>), or else just a pathname for an html file in your public_html directory. When the link is clicked, this is the page the browser directs you to. "Text" is just the text of hyperlink. For example, you may want the text to say "Solutions to Homework 9", but the URL will be something like "solutions9.pdf".
* <code> <mailto: emailaddress></code>. Creates a link that when clicked will open up the user's email program to send an email to "emailaddress". It is highly advised that you do NOT use this, but instead use Javascript to conceal your email address from spammers. See [[#Concealing_Your_Email_From_Spammers | below]] for ways to conceal your email address.

==Learning More HTML==

If you come across a webpage and want to know how they did that, you can try looking at the webpage's source. Most browsers have a View Source option in their menu; this will bring up the HTML page which you can examine.

Also, there are many other HTML tutorials and reference guides. One reference can be found [http://www.htmlhelp.com/reference/html40/ here].

==Concealing Your Email From Spammers==

Spammers use automated programs called webcrawlers to browse through webpages searching for email addresses. If your email address is just written in plain text in the HTML file (especially if you use the <code>mailto</code> command) a webcrawler will pick it up and you will get more spam. There are a few ways to conceal your email address from webcrawlers. We have listed them below, in increasing difficulty of implementation (which also happens to be increasing order of strength).

* Use words instead of punctuation. Many primitive webcrawlers are designed to look for the @ symbol and then copy the text around it. If you write words, like <code>mgsa AT math DOT berkeley DOT edu</code>, many webcrawlers will not realize it is an email address. This is a pretty commonly implemented trick to fool webcrawlers, but it's easy for a spammer to adapt and include searches for "AT <word> DOT" and still find your email. However, if your email address has some natural form, then you can use that in the description and webcrawlers will not be able to get it. For example: <code>my last name AT math DOT berkeley DOT edu</code>.
* Another way to fool webcrawlers who search for @ is to replace @ with an image of the symbol @. Webcrawlers cannot "see" what an image says, so this method completely works. The only downside is that someone trying to copy your email address has to remember to add the @ symbol. A large selection of images can be found doing an Google advanced image search for "at.gif" with the requirement that all images be small size.
* Javascript is used to embed Java programs in HTML and we can use it in a very simple way to conceal the <code>mailto:</code> command from spammers. This is the method used by the math department and MGSA to hide email addresses on their websites. This method also allows viewers to simply copy and paste email addresses into their email programs. To use it for a math.berkeley.edu email address, copy the following code into your HTML file where you would normally have a <code>mailto:</code> command.
<code><script type="text/javascript"> 
GoFish=new Array() 
GoFish[0]="%3c%61%20%68%72%65%66%3d%" + "22%6d%61%69%6c%74%6f%3a" 
GoFish[1]="YOUR_NAME_HERE" + "%40%6d%61%74%68%2e%62%65%72%6b%" 
GoFish[2]="65%6c%65%79%2e%65%64%75%22%3e" + "YOUR_NAME_HERE" 
GoFish[3]="%40%6d%61%74%68%2e%62%65%" + "72%6b%65%6c%65%79%2e%65%6" 
GoFish[4]="4%75%3c%2f%61%3e" + "" 
OutString=""; 
for (j=0;j<GoFish.length;j++){ 
OutString+=GoFish[j]; 
}document.write(unescape(OutString)); 
</script> 
</code>

In the two spots where it says YOUR_NAME_HERE you have to put the hexadecimal code for your username. This [http://centricle.com/tools/ascii-hex/ hex generator] will output the hexadecimal code for your username.

First Year Students

2008-09-06T18:38:43Z

Dustin: /* Resources */ ISBN link for prelim book

The first year, and especially the first month, at Berkeley can be pretty overwhelming with all the tasks that you have to do. Settling into a new place, taking your prelim and fulfilling all the bureaucratic hurdles can be quite a whirlwind. The information below explains many of the situations you will probably face in your first year, and hopefully will make them all seem manageable. It's in your best interest to read through all this information at least once before arriving; they can provide a handy reference for navigating through your first year.

==Location==
The Math Department is located in [http://www.berkeley.edu/map/maps/BC45.html Evans Hall], the tall, grey building in the center of campus. The department occupies the 7th through 10th floors of the building. The graduate office is 965 Evans; the main lounge is 1015 Evans; and the computer clusters are in 731, 838 and 1015 (Annex) Evans. The vice-chair for graduate affairs is [/~tataru/ Daniel Tataru]. Pop in and say hi to him when you get here, as he'll be glad to know you're here.

==Email and ID Cards==
To get a math.berkeley.edu email address, see Kathy Santos in 920 Evans your first week here. She can also give you a key to the
computer cluster and the copy room.

To get a UC Berkeley ID card, you have to go to the Cal1 office in Lower Sproul (on the ground floor of Cesar Chavez Student Center).

==Orientation==
On the afternoon of the first day of the prelim, there is a departmental orientation for first-year students. Much of the information on this site, such as establishing residency, will be talked about in greater detail, as well as some additional topics. This is also a great opportunity to ask questions about the program. The ever-helpful Barb Waller will email you with a location and time once it's known.

==Preliminary Exam==
The Prelim is a 6-hour written exam testing your undergraduate math background. It's given once a semester, and you must pass within your first three semesters. Thus, you only have three opportunities to take it, so you should take it every semester until you pass. And most students would agree, it's in your best interest to pass the first time.

===Date===
The exam is always scheduled for the Monday and Tuesday the week before classes start, from 9am to 12pm each day, in 60 Evans Hall. This room is located on the ground floor of Evans (not to be confused with the first floor or the basement), along the hall on the eastern side of the building. The fall 2008 exam is scheduled for August 18 and 19.

===Workshops===
There are prelim workshops in the weeks before each exam. These workshop, led by graduate students, include informal problem-solving sessions and summaries of the material you're expected to know. Prelim workshop webpages are available from: [/~carnahan/prelim/ 2003 (Algebra)], [/~borisp/prelim/ 2006 (Analysis)], and [/~matic/index.php?options=gl|workshan 2008 (Analysis)]. See also [/~anton/written/AnalysisPrelim/AnalysisPrelim.pdf these notes] from an analysis workshop (in 2004?) courtesy of Anton.

===Structure===
The prelim is split over the course of two days. Each day, you are given nine questions and have three hours to submit solutions for at most six of them. On one day, five of the questions will be in algebra and four will be in analysis, and on the other day, the reverse distribution will occur. The questions are graded out of 10 points, so a perfect score is 120 points. To put the caliber of the exam into perspective, in the last five years, the minimum passing score has ranged from 53 to 68.

===Resources===
Here are some helpful study resources:
* [/graduate_prelim.html The prelim website], has a syllabus describing the material you are responsible for, copies of previous exams, and statistics of exam performance.
* Nearly a thousand problems from previous prelims, with complete solutions to most, have been published in the book "Berkeley Problems in Mathematics" by Paulo Ney de Souza ISBN 0387204296. This is an excellent resource of problems.

==Residency==
If you are a US citizen that will be supported by the department (through a GSI or GSR position) in your second year and later, you must establish California residency within your first year. This is because the tuition and fees for residents are about half those for non-residents, and the departmental budget can support only so many non-residents. If you don't establish residency, it will cost you dearly, because you'll have to pay the difference in tuition out of your own pocket, and that will be several thousands of dollars.

So, here are the steps you need to complete to establish residency:
# Make a credit card purchase for something shortly after you arrive in Berkeley and save the credit card statement. It can also help if you save your boarding pass if you are flying to California. This is to establish the approximate date of your arrival in the state.
# Once you have a California address, change the official address the university has on file for you. This can be done easily via [https://sis.berkeley.edu/bearfacts/ Bearfacts], under the section 'Personal'. You will need your student ID number to access this site.
# Get a California Driver's License or State ID to replace your one from another state, and register your vehicle here. It is very IMPORTANT to do this within your first TWO WEEKS at Berkeley, otherwise you will probably be hassled about this from the Residency Office when you file for residency.
# Open a local checking account. Again, do this within your first month. Both these steps indicate your intent on remaining permanently within the state.
# Register to vote in California, and if an election comes around, make sure to vote.
# File California State Taxes your first year here and make sure that you are not claimed as a dependent that year by anyone who is not a California resident.
# Keep credit card and bank statements and make regular purchases by credit card or use the ATM regularly to verify that you have spent your time continuously in the state. The Residency Affairs office is most wary of where you spend your time when school is not in session; spending more than a couple weeks of the year in your previous state of residence can impede your establishment of residency. Travel to other locations for academic purposes is less of a problem, especially if you have documentation of your time spent there. But still, plan on spending most of your first year in California.
# File an online Residence Classification Petition (available on [http://bearfacts.berkeley.edu Bearfacts]) and submit the checklist and supporting documentation within a week of submitting the online petition. Instructions are given at the end of the online petition. The deadline for submission for the fall of your second year is usually towards the end of August; see the [http://registrar.berkeley.edu/GeneralInfo/stucal.html Student Calendar] for an exact date. However, the deadline for applying before fees are assessed is usually June 1. The difference between these two deadlines is that if you submit by the earlier deadline, and are classified as a resident, your fall fees will automatically be computed as if you were a resident and paid for by the department. If you submit by the later deadline, your fees will be automatically computed as if you are a non-resident and then later adjusted to the resident fees. This may mean that you might temporarily have to pay the difference between the non-resident and resident fees (a few hundred dollars), and will be refunded that money later in the semester.

More detailed information can be found in the welcome packet that will be sent to you by the math department and on the [http://registrar.berkeley.edu/Residency/legalinfo.html Residency website].

==International Students==
International Students should [http://internationaloffice.berkeley.edu/students/New/check_in.php stop by] the Berkeley International Office in [http://www.berkeley.edu/map/maps/DE67.html International House] during their first week on campus. This is a mandatory requirement of your visa. Non-mandatory, but quite useful, is the [http://internationaloffice.berkeley.edu/students/New/orientation_general.php orientation].

==Registering for Classes==
Incoming students must register for classes before the start of the fall semester. This is done easily enough via the online registration site for the university, [http://telebears.berkeley.edu Telebears]. A list of courses can be found [http://schedule.berkeley.edu here]. If you are teaching in the fall, the math department requires you to register for Math 300, the teaching workshop. It is strongly recommended that you see your academic advisor sometime in the first week or two of the semester to discuss your classes. The deadline for graduate students to add/drop classes without a fee is the end of the third week of instruction.

Students are required by the university to sign up for 12 units to be full-time. Seminars are a good way to fill up some extra units and to get to know a professor and his or her students better. You can take up to 4 units of seminar each semester.

Do not worry if a class you want to take fills up. There is always room in the class for math department grad students. Just sign up for some other classes temporarily, then talk to the professor on the first day of class about getting onto the roster. Once you are on the roster, be sure to drop the other classes you temporarily signed up for.

==Housing==
There are several options for housing at Berkeley. These include private rentals and university-owned housing. In general, unless you live in the subsidized housing for families, the prices for university housing are more expensive than those for private housing (i.e. less bang for your buck).

There are many houses, apartments and rooms for rent in the area around campus. Naturally, proximity to campus, size of the housing, and the number of people you share with can all play factors in the price. Housing close to campus can be as much as twice as expensive as comparable housing a mile or two away. Fortunately, public transit (including AC Transit buses and the BART) and biking are both convenient ways to get to campus, which many grad students use. We have a free unlimited transit pass for the AC Transit system, but unfortunately BART is not included. Driving to campus isn't recommended, because campus parking can be a nightmare and very expensive.

Most landlords are reluctant to rent to people they haven't met, so don't expect to get a room or an apartment before you move out here. However, most people manage to find a place within a week or two of moving here. If you have a friend to live with in the interim, or can find a place with a month-to-month lease where you can leave after one or two months, those can be temporary solutions.

There are several resources available for your search for housing:

* [http://www.craigslist.com Craigslist]. A free classifieds service for everything from housing, to dating, to miscellaneous things people are giving away for free. Considering it started in the Bay Area, it's definitely taken root here as an indispensible place to place ads. Almost everyone with a rental posts an ad on this site, and it's by far the biggest listing of rooms/houses/apartments to rent. This is probably a good place to start your search and to get an idea of the prices.
* [http://calrentals.housing.berkeley.edu/ CalRentals]. A University office administering a rental listings service. Placing listings is free, but there is a $20 fee for three months of access to view the listings. Landlords who advertise with Cal Rentals often prefer students as tenants.
* [http://housing.berkeley.edu/livingatcal/studentsfamilies.html Subsidized University Housing for Families]. UC Berkeley offers partially subsidized apartments to married students and students with families.
* [http://ihouse.berkeley.edu/ International House]. Located right next to campus, the I-House is another popular location for graduate students, especially those seeking to diversify their contacts outside the department.
* [http://www.usca.org/ Co-ops]. The co-ops are unique living experience, and each house has a different flavor. Several dozen people live in each house. Food, cooking, and cleaning responsibilities are all shared, which keeps the costs lower and distributes the maintenance work evenly among the members. The houses are also located very close to campus.
* [[Protected:Housing|MGSA Housing Page]]. Visit our own housing page to contact other math graduate students about potential rooming arrangements and housing availability. Requires you to be logged in as a user of our wiki.

File Management

2008-09-06T18:18:08Z

Dustin: Rewrite of permissions description & a added a few commands

This page describes how to manage your files on the math department network, both remotely and locally.

==Connecting to the Network==

In order to manage your account, you first have to connect to the network. If you are in Evans, you can log onto one of the departmental computers (such as the ones in 1015 annex or 838) and instantly be on your math department account. Note that the only computers allowed to be physically connected to the network are the departmental ones. Therefore, if you want to connect from another computer, such as your laptop or home computer, you need to connect remotely. There are two kinds of programs that can connect your computer remotely, SSH and SFTP.

===SSH===

SSH stands for Secure Shell. For those who have used Telnet before, it is practically the same program except that is has encryption to securely transfer data. The department server no longer accepts connection requests from Telnet clients, so you have to use SSH if you want to connect.

SSH basically is a program that mimics the Terminal windows found on our department's computers. It is useful for editing files, changing file permissions and running basic programs like text editors or Pine email program. With a more elaborate setup, you can actually run programs such as web browsers remotely through SSH (but be warned, it can be an extremely slow process!).

* Windows: you need to download an SSH client. One option is [http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/ Putty]. Then use the SSH client to connect to <code>login.math.berkeley.edu</code>, using your usual departmental username and password.
* Mac: you already have SSH installed with your operating system. Just go to Utilities and click on Terminal. In the terminal window, type: <code>ssh -l <username> login.math.berkeley.edu</code> The <code>-l <username></code> part indicates to SSH that you want to log in with that specific username; if you don't include this text, then SSH will automatically use the account name on your computer (which probably won't be your departmental username).
* Unix: you probably have SSH preinstalled as well. Just open a terminal window and type in the same thing Mac users do.

Professor Vojta has the following [/computing/vojta/ssh.html reference].

===SFTP===

SFTP stands for Secure File Transfer Protocol, which is a secure version of FTP. As with Telnet, the department server no longer accepts connection requests from FTP, in order to increase network security.

As the name suggests, this program is primarily used to transfer files between the computer you are on and your account on the department network. Many SFTP clients have a graphical interface which make downloading and uploading very easy, and most also have an easy way of changing file and directory permissions.

If you have a command-line <tt>ssh</tt> program on your Mac or Unix computer, you probably have <tt>sftp</tt> as well. A recommendation for Windows is [http://winscp.net/ WinSCP].

==Using Unix commands==

Once you've logged into your account, either on one of the department's computers or using [[#SSH|SSH]], you will be presented with a Unix command line.

===Navigation===

Every file and directory has a path; if you think of the directories as a tree, then the path is just the path in the tree through all the subdirectories you need to get to that directory or file. For example, your account's home directory is <code>/home/u2/grad/<username></code>

* <code>cd <pathname></code> '''C'''hange '''d'''irectory to the one given in <pathname>. This command has a very fine distinction between absolute paths and relative paths. If the pathname does not begin with / then it signifies that you are talking about subdirectories of the current one. If it does begin with / then you are specifying the path from the root of the directory tree.
* <code>cd ..</code> Go up one level in the hierarchy.
* <code>cd</code> With no argument, this command returns you to your home directory.
* <code>pwd</code> Print current directory. This is really useful if you've forgotten what directory you're in.
* <code>ls</code> '''L'''i'''s'''ts the files and subdirectories of the present directory.
* <code>ls -a</code> Lists all the files and subdirectories in the present directory. This includes files which begin with a <code>.</code>, which are usually hidden: mostly settings files and other weird junk that usually you don't care about.
* <code>ls -l</code> Lists files and subdirectories with other information about them, including [[#Permissions|permissions]].

===Create, Move and Destroy===

The file server tends to treat directories very differently from files, so if you're going to do some major changes to you account heirarchy it's probably better to use a graphical SFTP program than trying to do this all in a terminal or SSH.

* <code>mkdir <name></code> '''M'''a'''k'''es a new '''dir'''ectory with the given name.
* <code>cp <filename> <pathname></code> Creates a '''c'''o'''p'''y of file <filename> in the directory given by <pathname>. The same caveat regarding pathnames applies as with <code>cd</code>. This assumes that the file is in the current directory. If you'd like to move a file in a different directory, you have to put the file's path instead of <filename>.
* <code>mv <filename> <pathname></code> '''M'''o'''v'''es a file to a different location. By specifying a filename at the end of the second path, you can also rename the file.
* <code>rm <filename></code> '''R'''e'''m'''oves (deletes) the file. Be careful because unlike moving a file to the trash, once you've typed the <code>rm</code> command there's no way to get the file back. For directories, you have to use:
* <code>rmdir <directoryname></code> '''R'''e'''m'''oves a '''dir'''ectory. You can only remove a directory if it is empty.

===Permissions===

Unix has different levels of permissions associated to files which control what you and other people can do. Somewhat confusingly, these are set using a 3 digit number, but the <code>ls -l</code> command displays them using a sequence of letters and dashes. There are many variations, but most of the time the following guidelines work:
* For things you want other people to see (such as web pages): use 644 (<code>rw-r--r--</code> in <code>ls -l</code>) for files and 755 (<code>rwxr-xr-x</code>) for directories.
* For things which you don't what other people to read: use 600 (<code>rw-------</code>) for files and 700 (<code>rwx------</code>) for directories.
The command for setting the permissions on a file is <code>chmod</code>, for example: <code>chmod 644 index.html</code>. For more details, read on.

There are three different permissions and three different classes of users to which these permissions can be assigned. The permissions are read (r), write (w), and execute (x). For files, read and write mean the obvious things. The execute permission gives the ability to run the file as a program. For directories, the interpretations are slightly different: the read permission is the ability to see the list of files in the directory, the write permission allows you to create, move, and delete files in the directory, and the execute permission is necessary to do anything with files in the directory or its subdirectories other than see the list of files in the directory itself. Note that the ability to delete a file depends on having write permission to the directory it's contained in, and not anything with the file itself.

The three classes of users which may be given each of these three permissions: owner (i.e. you), group, and others. By default on the math servers, files you create will belong to the <code>grad</code> group, which includes all graduate students. Each of these three classes is assigned some subset of the permissions above. The three-digit code is formed by having one digit for each class (in the order: owner, group, others), and the binary expansion of the digit represents the permissions (read = 4, write = 2, execute = 1). For example, 644 gives read and write permission to the owner and read permission to the group and others.

MediaWiki:Sidebar

2008-09-06T17:31:12Z

Dustin: Academic Tips no longer has anything not on the front page

Main Page

2008-09-06T17:30:25Z

Dustin: added links to teaching pages

Welcome to the UC Berkeley math graduate student wiki. We hope to provide information of use to you during your years as a graduate student at Berkeley.

* General information for [[Prospective Students|prospective students]], [[First Year Students|incoming students]], and [[Upper Year Students|continuing students]].
* Information about the [[First Year Students#Preliminary Exam|prelim]], the [[Language Exam|language exam]], and the [[Qualifying Exam|qualifying exam]].
* Lists of [[fellowships]], [[conferences]], [[Travel Grants|travel grants]], [[Summer Programs|summer programs]], [[Protected:Internships|summer internships]], [[postdocs]] (see also [[Applying for Postdocs|applying for postdocs]]), and [[Protected:Jobs|jobs]].
* [[Academic Books|Math books]] on various topics.
* [[Berkeley Life|Berkeley life]]: [[restaurants]].
* Being a GSI: [[Teaching Tips|teaching tips]] and [[emergency phone numbers]].
* Answers to computer questions:
** How to [[LaTeX basics|use LaTeX]].
** How to [[LaTeX Install|install LaTeX]] on your own computer.
** How to [[Webpage Guide|create a homepage]].
** How to [[File Management|manage files on the math department servers]].
** How to [[Software|get math software]].
** How to [/~gbergman/958_scanner.html use the copier in 958 Evans as a scanner].
** How to [[printing|print]] on the department's printers from your laptop.
** How to [[Proxy Servers|access MathSciNet and UC E-links from off-campus]].

Most pages can be edited by anyone who's logged in, and anyone can create an account. Feel free to add whatever you think might be of interest to the graduate student community.

Emergency phone numbers

2008-09-06T17:23:28Z

Dustin: Emergency Phone moved to Emergency phone numbers

Please make note of the following emergency numbers. This is especially relevant for GSI's should an emergency arise during section.

Emergency for Cell phones 642-3333 
Police (24-hours) 642-6760 
Emergency from campus phone or pay phone 911

If you forget these numbers you can always call the Front Office, 642-6550,
or Barbara Peavy at 642-2479 and we will call for help.

Emergency Phone

2008-09-06T17:23:28Z

Dustin: Emergency Phone moved to Emergency phone numbers

#REDIRECT [[Emergency phone numbers]]

Main Page

2008-08-28T21:14:30Z

Dustin: Added link to non-existent help on printing

Welcome to the UC Berkeley math graduate student wiki. We hope to provide information of use to you during your years as a graduate student at Berkeley.

* General information for [[Prospective Students|prospective students]], [[First Year Students|incoming students]], and [[Upper Year Students|continuing students]]
* Information about the [[First Year Students#Preliminary Exam|prelim]], the [[Language Exam|language exam]], and the [[Qualifying Exam|qualifying exam]]
* Lists of [[fellowships]], [[conferences]], [[Travel Grants|travel grants]], [[Summer Programs|summer programs]], [[Protected:Internships|summer internships]], [[postdocs]] (see also [[Applying for Postdocs|applying for postdocs]]), and [[Protected:Jobs|jobs]].
* [[Academic Books|Math books]] on various topics.
* [[Berkeley Life|Berkeley life]]: [[Restaurants]]
* Answers to computer questions:
** How to [[LaTeX basics|use LaTeX]].
** How to [[LaTeX Install|install LaTeX]] on your own computer.
** How to [[Webpage Guide|create a homepage]].
** How to [[File Management|manage files on the math department servers]].
** How to [[Software|get math software]].
** How to [/~gbergman/958_scanner.html use the copier in 958 Evans as a scanner].
** How to [[printing|print]] on the department's printers from your laptop.
** How to [[Proxy Servers|access MathSciNet and UC E-links from off-campus]].

Most pages can be edited by anyone who's logged in, and anyone can create an account. Feel free to add whatever you think might be of interest to the graduate student community.

Webpage Guide

2008-08-15T21:01:13Z

Dustin: More detailed instructions for setting up a page

This page provides a basic tutorial on how to create your own webpage on the math department server.

==Setting up a page==

This section explains how to create a webpage on the math department's servers, assuming you already know a little HTML. For some an introduction to HTML, see [[#Basic HTML|below]].

In your home directory, you need to create a directory called <tt>public_html</tt> with the appropriate permissions. You can do this from a math department computer or over [[File Management#SSH|SSH]] by typing:
<pre>
mkdir public_html
chmod 755 public_html
</pre>
All files and directories for your webpage will go in the <tt>public_html</tt> directory, and the directory and all its contents must have their [[File_Management#Permissions|permissions set]] so that others can read the files and read and execute the directories.

Additionally, inside <tt>public_html</tt>, you should have a file called <tt>index.html</tt>, which will be your homepage, i.e. the first page that pops up when someone visits your website.
You can edit this file in emacs by typing <tt>emacs public_html/index.html</tt>. An alternative to <tt>emacs</tt> is <tt>pico</tt>, which is very similar to the interface for writing emails in pine. When you're done, type <tt>chmod 644 public_html/index.html</tt> to give the file the right permissions. Your page should now be visible at <tt><nowiki>/~USERNAME/</nowiki></tt>. You can create other pages by creating other files in the <tt>public_html</tt> directory. For example, the file <tt>public_html/math1b.html</tt> will have the URL <tt><nowiki>/~USERNAME/math1b.html</nowiki></tt>.

For more information on managing files on the math department's computer and what the permissions mean, see the page on [[File Management|file management]].

===Potential problems===

Some thing which might go wrong when you try to view the page in a browser:
* Error 403: This means that you don't have the permission set correctly. To make sure the permissions are correct for your homepage, type:
<pre>
chmod 755 public_html
chmod 644 public_html/index.html
</pre>
* Error 404: This means that the web server couldn't find your file at all. Make sure you have the files in the <tt>public_html</tt> directory.
* Instead of your homepage, you get a page with a name like "Index of": This is what the web server does when there's no <tt>index.html</tt> file.

==Basic HTML==

Each individual webpage on your site corresponds to a file of the form <tt>name.html</tt> . An HTML file just consists of plain text with a couple commands that tell the browser to do something to the display (for example, make the text bold font). Just like in LaTeX, there are some special characters that tell the browser "I am giving you a command"; they are <, > and /. Every command takes the form <code><command></code>, and most commands also allow you to turn them off by typing <code></command></code>. For example, if you want to turn on bold font, type <code></code>. When you are done typing the text that you'd like bold, turn off bold font with <code></code>.

The nice thing about HTML is that it is very forgiving--even if you make a mistake it will try its best to render something in the browser. This makes it easy to see the mistake and usually makes it easy to see how to fix the mistake too. Commands are case-insensitive.

* <code><HTML></code> In principle, every .html file should begin with <code><HTML></code> and end with <code></HTML></code> to let the browser know that you are going to use HTML commands. But if you plan on just writing plain text, then this is not necessary.
* <code><Title></code> This is the title of the webpage--what appears in the top bar of the browser window. Be sure to turn it off after using it, so that all the text doesn't appear in that one bar!
* <code><Body></code> This delineates the body of the webpage: all the text, images, etc that you want to appear on the page should go in between the Body on and off commands.
* <code> </code> and <code></code> Notice that if you just type text in an HTML file, the browser will ignore all enter keystrokes. In general, browsers treat extra "whitespace" as just one click of the spacebar. To tell a browser that you would like a line break, use br. If you would furthermore like a blank line to start of the next paragraph of text, use p instead.
* <code></code>, <code></code>, <code></code>, and <code><s></code>. Bold, italic, underlined and strikethrough text, respectively.
* <code></code> Set many optional properties on the font. Size takes a number as an argument; align takes one of "right", "center" or "left" as its argument; and color takes an RGB value as its argument. An RGB (red-green-blue) value is simply a 6 digit base-16 number, which means the digits can take any value from 0 to 9 and A to F. The first two digits give you the amount of red, the next two give you green, the last two give you blue. For example, fa8072 yields a tasty salmon color. To turn all these properties off, you just have to type <code></code>.
* <code> <body background="file/URL" bgcolor="rrggbb" link="rrggbb" vlink="rrggbb"></code> The optional properties for the BODY command, which set the background and the colors of links. Background takes either a filename (from you public_html directory) or a URL of another website, and sets that as the background. If it is too small of an image, it will be tiled. Bgcolor sets the background to a solid color if you don't want an background image. It, like link and vlink, takes an RGB value to set the color. Link is the color of an unclicked link; vlink is the color of a clicked link.
* <code> <img src="file/URL"></code> For inserting an image onto you webpage. The argument for src is either a filename or pathname for an image in your public_html directory, or else a complete URL to an image elsewhere.
* <code> <A HREF="URL">text</A> </code>. For links to pages on your site or on other sites. This can also be used to link to a PDF file or some other file for download. The URL is either the full URL for some other website (including the initial <tt>http://</tt>), or else just a pathname for an html file in your public_html directory. When the link is clicked, this is the page the browser directs you to. "Text" is just the text of hyperlink. For example, you may want the text to say "Solutions to Homework 9", but the URL will be something like "solutions9.pdf".
* <code> <mailto: emailaddress></code>. Creates a link that when clicked will open up the user's email program to send an email to "emailaddress". It is highly advised that you do NOT use this, but instead use Javascript to conceal your email address from spammers. See [[#Concealing_Your_Email_From_Spammers | below]] for ways to conceal your email address.

==Learning More HTML==

If you come across a webpage and want to know how they did that, you can try looking at the webpage's source. Most browsers have a View Source option in their menu; this will bring up the HTML page which you can examine.

Also, there are many other HTML tutorials and reference guides. One reference can be found [http://www.htmlhelp.com/reference/wilbur/ here].

==Concealing Your Email From Spammers==

Spammers use automated programs called webcrawlers to browse through webpages searching for email addresses. If your email address is just written in plain text in the HTML file (especially if you use the <code>mailto</code> command) a webcrawler will pick it up and you will get more spam. There are a few ways to conceal your email address from webcrawlers. We have listed them below, in increasing difficulty of implementation (which also happens to be increasing order of strength).

* Use words instead of punctuation. Many primitive webcrawlers are designed to look for the @ symbol and then copy the text around it. If you write words, like <code>mgsa AT math DOT berkeley DOT edu</code>, many webcrawlers will not realize it is an email address. This is a pretty commonly implemented trick to fool webcrawlers, but it's easy for a spammer to adapt and include searches for "AT <word> DOT" and still find your email. However, if your email address has some natural form, then you can use that in the description and webcrawlers will not be able to get it. For example: <code>my last name AT math DOT berkeley DOT edu</code>.
* Another way to fool webcrawlers who search for @ is to replace @ with an image of the symbol @. Webcrawlers cannot "see" what an image says, so this method completely works. The only downside is that someone trying to copy your email address has to remember to add the @ symbol. A large selection of images can be found doing an Google advanced image search for "at.gif" with the requirement that all images be small size.
* Javascript is used to embed Java programs in HTML and we can use it in a very simple way to conceal the <code>mailto:</code> command from spammers. This is the method used by the math department and MGSA to hide email addresses on their websites. This method also allows viewers to simply copy and paste email addresses into their email programs. To use it for a math.berkeley.edu email address, copy the following code into your HTML file where you would normally have a <code>mailto:</code> command.
<code><script type="text/javascript"> 
GoFish=new Array() 
GoFish[0]="%3c%61%20%68%72%65%66%3d%" + "22%6d%61%69%6c%74%6f%3a" 
GoFish[1]="YOUR_NAME_HERE" + "%40%6d%61%74%68%2e%62%65%72%6b%" 
GoFish[2]="65%6c%65%79%2e%65%64%75%22%3e" + "YOUR_NAME_HERE" 
GoFish[3]="%40%6d%61%74%68%2e%62%65%" + "72%6b%65%6c%65%79%2e%65%6" 
GoFish[4]="4%75%3c%2f%61%3e" + "" 
OutString=""; 
for (j=0;j<GoFish.length;j++){ 
OutString+=GoFish[j]; 
}document.write(unescape(OutString)); 
</script> 
</code>

In the two spots where it says YOUR_NAME_HERE you have to put the hexadecimal code for your username. This [http://centricle.com/tools/ascii-hex/ hex generator] will output the hexadecimal code for your username.

MediaWiki:Sidebar

2008-08-14T05:20:44Z

Dustin: Moved housing, current events link no longer works

Main Page

2008-08-14T05:18:30Z

Dustin: Protected: no longer limits viewability

Welcome to the UC Berkeley math graduate student wiki. We hope to provide information of use to you during your years as a graduate student at Berkeley.

* General information for [[Prospective Students|prospective students]], [[First Year Students|incoming students]], and [[Upper Year Students|continuing students]]
* Information about the [[First Year Students#Preliminary Exam|prelim]], the [[Language Exam|language exam]], and the [[Qualifying Exam|qualifying exam]]
* Lists of [[fellowships]], [[conferences]], [[Travel Grants|travel grants]], [[Summer Programs|summer programs]], [[Protected:Internships|summer internships]], [[postdocs]] (see also [[Applying for Postdocs|applying for postdocs]]), and [[Protected:Jobs|jobs]].
* [[Academic Books|Math books]] on various topics.
* [[Berkeley Life|Berkeley life]]: [[Restaurants]]
* Answers to computer questions:
** How to [[LaTeX basics|use LaTeX]].
** How to [[LaTeX Install|install LaTeX]] on your own computer.
** How to [[Webpage Guide|create a homepage]].
** How to [[File Management|manage files on the math department servers]].
** How to [[Software|get math software]].
** How to [/~gbergman/958_scanner.html use the copier in 958 Evans as a scanner].
** How to [[Proxy Servers|access MathSciNet and UC E-links from off-campus]].

Most pages can be edited by anyone who's logged in, and anyone can create an account. Feel free to add whatever you think might be of interest to the graduate student community.

MediaWiki:Loginsuccess

2008-08-14T03:41:52Z

Dustin: Instructions to change skin

'''You are now logged in to {{SITENAME}} as "$1".'''

Surprised that the layout changed when you logged in? To change the layout, go to [[Special:Preferences|Preferences]], click on "Skin", choose "Modern", and click "Save".

Main Page

2008-08-11T22:24:58Z

Dustin: Restaurants, scanner instructions

Welcome to the UC Berkeley math graduate student wiki. We hope to provide information of use to you during your years as a graduate student at Berkeley.

* General information for [[Prospective Students|prospective students]], [[First Year Students|incoming students]], and [[Upper Year Students|continuing students]]
* Information about the [[First Year Students#Preliminary Exam|prelim]], the [[Language Exam|language exam]], and the [[Qualifying Exam|qualifying exam]]
* Lists of [[fellowships]], [[conferences]], [[Travel Grants|travel grants]], [[Summer Programs|summer programs]], [[Protected:Internships|summer internships]], [[postdocs]] (see also [[Applying for Postdocs|applying for postdocs]]), and [[Protected:Jobs|jobs]].
* [[Academic Books|Math books]] on various topics.
* [[Berkeley Life|Berkeley life]]: [[Restaurants]]
* Answers to computer questions:
** How to [[LaTeX basics|use LaTeX]].
** How to [[LaTeX Install|install LaTeX]] on your own computer.
** How to [[Webpage Guide|create a homepage]].
** How to [[File Management|manage files on the math department servers]].
** How to [[Software|get math software]].
** How to [/~gbergman/958_scanner.html use the copier in 958 Evans as a scanner].
** How to [[Proxy Servers|access MathSciNet and UC E-links from off-campus]].

Certain pages (those beginning with <tt>Protected:</tt>) are only viewable by logged in users, so that the content remains within the Berkeley math community. Most pages can be edited by anyone who's logged in, and anyone can create an account. Feel free to add whatever you think might be of interest to the graduate student community.

UCB Math Wiki:Book sources

2008-08-11T15:55:31Z

Dustin: BestWebBuys, UC catalog

Find the book at the following online booksellers and price comparison sites:
* [http://www.addall.com/New/Partner.cgi?query=MAGICNUMBER&type=ISBN AddALL]
* [http://www.pricescan.com/books/bookDetail.asp?isbn=MAGICNUMBER PriceSCAN]
* [http://www.bestwebbuys.com/books/compare/isbn/MAGICNUMBER BestBookBuys]
* [http://search.barnesandnoble.com/bookSearch/isbnInquiry.asp?isbn=MAGICNUMBER Barnes & Noble]
* [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=MAGICNUMBER Amazon.com]
You can also search for it in the [http://melvyl.cdlib.org/F/?func=find-b&find_code=020&request=MAGICNUMBER University of California catalog].

UCB Math Wiki:Book sources

2008-08-11T15:26:39Z

Dustin: New page: Below is a list of links to other sites that sell new and used books, and may also have further information about books you are looking for: * [http://www.addall.com/New/Partner.cgi?query=...

Below is a list of links to other sites that sell new and used books, and may also have further information about books you are looking for:
* [http://www.addall.com/New/Partner.cgi?query=MAGICNUMBER&type=ISBN AddALL]
* [http://www.pricescan.com/books/bookDetail.asp?isbn=MAGICNUMBER PriceSCAN]
* [http://search.barnesandnoble.com/bookSearch/isbnInquiry.asp?isbn=MAGICNUMBER Barnes & Noble]
* [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=MAGICNUMBER Amazon.com]

First Year Students

2008-08-11T05:00:45Z

Dustin: /* Preliminary Exam */ dates

The first year, and especially the first month, at Berkeley can be pretty overwhelming with all the tasks that you have to do. Settling into a new place, taking your prelim and fulfilling all the bureaucratic hurdles can be quite a whirlwind. The information below explains many of the situations you will probably face in your first year, and hopefully will make them all seem manageable. It's in your best interest to read through all this information at least once before arriving; they can provide a handy reference for navigating through your first year.

==Location==
The Math Department is located in [http://www.berkeley.edu/map/maps/BC45.html Evans Hall], the tall, grey building in the center of campus. The department occupies the 7th through 10th floors of the building. The graduate office is 965 Evans; the main lounge is 1015 Evans; and the computer clusters are in 731, 838 and 1015 (Annex) Evans. The vice-chair for graduate affairs is [/~tataru/ Daniel Tataru]. Pop in and say hi to him when you get here, as he'll be glad to know you're here.

==Email and ID Cards==
To get a math.berkeley.edu email address, see Kathy Santos in 920 Evans your first week here. She can also give you a key to the
computer cluster and the copy room.

To get a UC Berkeley ID card, you have to go to the Cal1 office in Lower Sproul (on the ground floor of Cesar Chavez Student Center).

==Orientation==
On the afternoon of the first day of the prelim, there is a departmental orientation for first-year students. Much of the information on this site, such as establishing residency, will be talked about in greater detail, as well as some additional topics. This is also a great opportunity to ask questions about the program. The ever-helpful Barb Waller will email you with a location and time once it's known.

==Preliminary Exam==
The Prelim is a 6-hour written exam testing your undergraduate math background. It's given once a semester, and you must pass within your first three semesters. Thus, you only have three opportunities to take it, so you should take it every semester until you pass. And most students would agree, it's in your best interest to pass the first time.

===Date===
The exam is always scheduled for the Monday and Tuesday the week before classes start, from 9am to 12pm each day, in 60 Evans Hall. This room is located on the ground floor of Evans (not to be confused with the first floor or the basement), along the hall on the eastern side of the building. The fall 2008 exam is scheduled for August 18 and 19.

===Workshops===
There are prelim workshops in the weeks before each exam. These workshop, led by graduate students, include informal problem-solving sessions and summaries of the material you're expected to know. Prelim workshop webpages are available from: [/~carnahan/prelim/ 2003 (Algebra)], [/~borisp/prelim/ 2006 (Analysis)], and [/~matic/index.php?options=gl|workshan 2008 (Analysis)]. See also [/~anton/written/AnalysisPrelim/AnalysisPrelim.pdf these notes] from an analysis workshop (in 2004?) courtesy of Anton.

===Structure===
The prelim is split over the course of two days. Each day, you are given nine questions and have three hours to submit solutions for at most six of them. On one day, five of the questions will be in algebra and four will be in analysis, and on the other day, the reverse distribution will occur. The questions are graded out of 10 points, so a perfect score is 120 points. To put the caliber of the exam into perspective, in the last five years, the minimum passing score has ranged from 53 to 68.

===Resources===
Here are some helpful study resources:
* [/graduate_prelim.html The prelim website], has a syllabus describing the material you are responsible for, copies of previous exams, and statistics of exam performance.
* Nearly a thousand problems from previous prelims, with complete solutions to most, have been published in the book "Berkeley Problems in Mathematics" by Paulo Ney de Souza. This is an excellent resource of problems and can be found at most [http://www.bestwebbuys.com/Berkeley_Problems_in_Mathematics-ISBN_0387204296.html?isrc=b-search book retailers].

==Residency==
If you are a US citizen that will be supported by the department (through a GSI or GSR position) in your second year and later, you must establish California residency within your first year. This is because the tuition and fees for residents are about half those for non-residents, and the departmental budget can support only so many non-residents. If you don't establish residency, it will cost you dearly, because you'll have to pay the difference in tuition out of your own pocket, and that will be several thousands of dollars.

So, here are the steps you need to complete to establish residency:
# Make a credit card purchase for something shortly after you arrive in Berkeley and save the credit card statement. It can also help if you save your boarding pass if you are flying to California. This is to establish the approximate date of your arrival in the state.
# Once you have a California address, change the official address the university has on file for you. This can be done easily via [https://sis.berkeley.edu/bearfacts/ Bearfacts], under the section 'Personal'. You will need your student ID number to access this site.
# Get a California Driver's License or State ID to replace your one from another state, and register your vehicle here. It is very IMPORTANT to do this within your first TWO WEEKS at Berkeley, otherwise you will probably be hassled about this from the Residency Office when you file for residency.
# Open a local checking account. Again, do this within your first month. Both these steps indicate your intent on remaining permanently within the state.
# Register to vote in California, and if an election comes around, make sure to vote.
# File California State Taxes your first year here and make sure that you are not claimed as a dependent that year by anyone who is not a California resident.
# Keep credit card and bank statements and make regular purchases by credit card or use the ATM regularly to verify that you have spent your time continuously in the state. The Residency Affairs office is most wary of where you spend your time when school is not in session; spending more than a couple weeks of the year in your previous state of residence can impede your establishment of residency. Travel to other locations for academic purposes is less of a problem, especially if you have documentation of your time spent there. But still, plan on spending most of your first year in California.
# File an online Residence Classification Petition (available on [http://bearfacts.berkeley.edu Bearfacts]) and submit the checklist and supporting documentation within a week of submitting the online petition. Instructions are given at the end of the online petition. The deadline for submission for the fall of your second year is usually towards the end of August; see the [http://registrar.berkeley.edu/GeneralInfo/stucal.html Student Calendar] for an exact date. However, the deadline for applying before fees are assessed is usually June 1. The difference between these two deadlines is that if you submit by the earlier deadline, and are classified as a resident, your fall fees will automatically be computed as if you were a resident and paid for by the department. If you submit by the later deadline, your fees will be automatically computed as if you are a non-resident and then later adjusted to the resident fees. This may mean that you might temporarily have to pay the difference between the non-resident and resident fees (a few hundred dollars), and will be refunded that money later in the semester.

More detailed information can be found in the welcome packet that will be sent to you by the math department and on the [http://registrar.berkeley.edu/Residency/legalinfo.html Residency website].

==International Students==
International Students should [http://internationaloffice.berkeley.edu/students/New/check_in.php stop by] the Berkeley International Office in [http://www.berkeley.edu/map/maps/DE67.html International House] during their first week on campus. This is a mandatory requirement of your visa. Non-mandatory, but quite useful, is the [http://internationaloffice.berkeley.edu/students/New/orientation_general.php orientation].

==Registering for Classes==
Incoming students must register for classes before the start of the fall semester. This is done easily enough via the online registration site for the university, [http://telebears.berkeley.edu Telebears]. A list of courses can be found [http://schedule.berkeley.edu here]. If you are teaching in the fall, the math department requires you to register for Math 300, the teaching workshop. It is strongly recommended that you see your academic advisor sometime in the first week or two of the semester to discuss your classes. The deadline for graduate students to add/drop classes without a fee is the end of the third week of instruction.

Students are required by the university to sign up for 12 units to be full-time. Seminars are a good way to fill up some extra units and to get to know a professor and his or her students better. You can take up to 4 units of seminar each semester.

Do not worry if a class you want to take fills up. There is always room in the class for math department grad students. Just sign up for some other classes temporarily, then talk to the professor on the first day of class about getting onto the roster. Once you are on the roster, be sure to drop the other classes you temporarily signed up for.

==Housing==
There are several options for housing at Berkeley. These include private rentals and university-owned housing. In general, unless you live in the subsidized housing for families, the prices for university housing are more expensive than those for private housing (i.e. less bang for your buck).

There are many houses, apartments and rooms for rent in the area around campus. Naturally, proximity to campus, size of the housing, and the number of people you share with can all play factors in the price. Housing close to campus can be as much as twice as expensive as comparable housing a mile or two away. Fortunately, public transit (including AC Transit buses and the BART) and biking are both convenient ways to get to campus, which many grad students use. We have a free unlimited transit pass for the AC Transit system, but unfortunately BART is not included. Driving to campus isn't recommended, because campus parking can be a nightmare and very expensive.

Most landlords are reluctant to rent to people they haven't met, so don't expect to get a room or an apartment before you move out here. However, most people manage to find a place within a week or two of moving here. If you have a friend to live with in the interim, or can find a place with a month-to-month lease where you can leave after one or two months, those can be temporary solutions.

There are several resources available for your search for housing:

* [http://www.craigslist.com Craigslist]. A free classifieds service for everything from housing, to dating, to miscellaneous things people are giving away for free. Considering it started in the Bay Area, it's definitely taken root here as an indispensible place to place ads. Almost everyone with a rental posts an ad on this site, and it's by far the biggest listing of rooms/houses/apartments to rent. This is probably a good place to start your search and to get an idea of the prices.
* [http://calrentals.housing.berkeley.edu/ CalRentals]. A University office administering a rental listings service. Placing listings is free, but there is a $20 fee for three months of access to view the listings. Landlords who advertise with Cal Rentals often prefer students as tenants.
* [http://housing.berkeley.edu/livingatcal/studentsfamilies.html Subsidized University Housing for Families]. UC Berkeley offers partially subsidized apartments to married students and students with families.
* [http://ihouse.berkeley.edu/ International House]. Located right next to campus, the I-House is another popular location for graduate students, especially those seeking to diversify their contacts outside the department.
* [http://www.usca.org/ Co-ops]. The co-ops are unique living experience, and each house has a different flavor. Several dozen people live in each house. Food, cooking, and cleaning responsibilities are all shared, which keeps the costs lower and distributes the maintenance work evenly among the members. The houses are also located very close to campus.
* [[Protected:Housing|MGSA Housing Page]]. Visit our own housing page to contact other math graduate students about potential rooming arrangements and housing availability. Requires you to be logged in as a user of our wiki.

First Year Students

2008-08-11T04:55:40Z

Dustin: /* Workshops */ links

The first year, and especially the first month, at Berkeley can be pretty overwhelming with all the tasks that you have to do. Settling into a new place, taking your prelim and fulfilling all the bureaucratic hurdles can be quite a whirlwind. The information below explains many of the situations you will probably face in your first year, and hopefully will make them all seem manageable. It's in your best interest to read through all this information at least once before arriving; they can provide a handy reference for navigating through your first year.

==Location==
The Math Department is located in [http://www.berkeley.edu/map/maps/BC45.html Evans Hall], the tall, grey building in the center of campus. The department occupies the 7th through 10th floors of the building. The graduate office is 965 Evans; the main lounge is 1015 Evans; and the computer clusters are in 731, 838 and 1015 (Annex) Evans. The vice-chair for graduate affairs is [/~tataru/ Daniel Tataru]. Pop in and say hi to him when you get here, as he'll be glad to know you're here.

==Email and ID Cards==
To get a math.berkeley.edu email address, see Kathy Santos in 920 Evans your first week here. She can also give you a key to the
computer cluster and the copy room.

To get a UC Berkeley ID card, you have to go to the Cal1 office in Lower Sproul (on the ground floor of Cesar Chavez Student Center).

==Orientation==
On the afternoon of the first day of the prelim, there is a departmental orientation for first-year students. Much of the information on this site, such as establishing residency, will be talked about in greater detail, as well as some additional topics. This is also a great opportunity to ask questions about the program. The ever-helpful Barb Waller will email you with a location and time once it's known.

==Preliminary Exam==
The Prelim is a 6-hour written exam testing your undergraduate math background. It's given once a semester, and you must pass within your first three semesters. Thus, you only have three opportunities to take it, so you should take it every semester until you pass. And most students would agree, it's in your best interest to pass the first time.

Date: The exam is always scheduled for the Monday and Tuesday the week before classes start, from 9am to 12pm each day, in 60 Evans Hall. This room is located on the ground floor of Evans (not to be confused with the first floor or the basement), along the hall on the eastern side of the building.

===Workshops===
There are prelim workshops in the weeks before each exam. These workshop, led by graduate students, include informal problem-solving sessions and summaries of the material you're expected to know. Prelim workshop webpages are available from: [/~carnahan/prelim/ 2003 (Algebra)], [/~borisp/prelim/ 2006 (Analysis)], and [/~matic/index.php?options=gl|workshan 2008 (Analysis)]. See also [/~anton/written/AnalysisPrelim/AnalysisPrelim.pdf these notes] from an analysis workshop (in 2004?) courtesy of Anton.

===Structure===
The prelim is split over the course of two days. Each day, you are given 9 questions and have three hours to submit solutions for at most six of them. On one day, 5 of the questions will be in algebra and 4 will be in analysis, and on the other day, the reverse distribution will occur. The questions are graded out of 10 points, so a perfect score is 120 points. To put the caliber of the exam into perspective, in the last five years, the minimum passing score has ranged from 53 to 68.

===Resources===
Here are some helpful study resources:
* [/graduate_prelim.html The prelim website], has a syllabus describing the material you are responsible for, copies of previous exams, and statistics of exam performance.
* Nearly a thousand problems from previous prelims, with complete solutions to most, have been published in the book "Berkeley Problems in Mathematics" by Paulo Ney de Souza. This is an excellent resource of problems and can be found at most [http://www.bestwebbuys.com/Berkeley_Problems_in_Mathematics-ISBN_0387204296.html?isrc=b-search book retailers].

==Residency==
If you are a US citizen that will be supported by the department (through a GSI or GSR position) in your second year and later, you must establish California residency within your first year. This is because the tuition and fees for residents are about half those for non-residents, and the departmental budget can support only so many non-residents. If you don't establish residency, it will cost you dearly, because you'll have to pay the difference in tuition out of your own pocket, and that will be several thousands of dollars.

So, here are the steps you need to complete to establish residency:
# Make a credit card purchase for something shortly after you arrive in Berkeley and save the credit card statement. It can also help if you save your boarding pass if you are flying to California. This is to establish the approximate date of your arrival in the state.
# Once you have a California address, change the official address the university has on file for you. This can be done easily via [https://sis.berkeley.edu/bearfacts/ Bearfacts], under the section 'Personal'. You will need your student ID number to access this site.
# Get a California Driver's License or State ID to replace your one from another state, and register your vehicle here. It is very IMPORTANT to do this within your first TWO WEEKS at Berkeley, otherwise you will probably be hassled about this from the Residency Office when you file for residency.
# Open a local checking account. Again, do this within your first month. Both these steps indicate your intent on remaining permanently within the state.
# Register to vote in California, and if an election comes around, make sure to vote.
# File California State Taxes your first year here and make sure that you are not claimed as a dependent that year by anyone who is not a California resident.
# Keep credit card and bank statements and make regular purchases by credit card or use the ATM regularly to verify that you have spent your time continuously in the state. The Residency Affairs office is most wary of where you spend your time when school is not in session; spending more than a couple weeks of the year in your previous state of residence can impede your establishment of residency. Travel to other locations for academic purposes is less of a problem, especially if you have documentation of your time spent there. But still, plan on spending most of your first year in California.
# File an online Residence Classification Petition (available on [http://bearfacts.berkeley.edu Bearfacts]) and submit the checklist and supporting documentation within a week of submitting the online petition. Instructions are given at the end of the online petition. The deadline for submission for the fall of your second year is usually towards the end of August; see the [http://registrar.berkeley.edu/GeneralInfo/stucal.html Student Calendar] for an exact date. However, the deadline for applying before fees are assessed is usually June 1. The difference between these two deadlines is that if you submit by the earlier deadline, and are classified as a resident, your fall fees will automatically be computed as if you were a resident and paid for by the department. If you submit by the later deadline, your fees will be automatically computed as if you are a non-resident and then later adjusted to the resident fees. This may mean that you might temporarily have to pay the difference between the non-resident and resident fees (a few hundred dollars), and will be refunded that money later in the semester.

More detailed information can be found in the welcome packet that will be sent to you by the math department and on the [http://registrar.berkeley.edu/Residency/legalinfo.html Residency website].

==International Students==
International Students should [http://internationaloffice.berkeley.edu/students/New/check_in.php stop by] the Berkeley International Office in [http://www.berkeley.edu/map/maps/DE67.html International House] during their first week on campus. This is a mandatory requirement of your visa. Non-mandatory, but quite useful, is the [http://internationaloffice.berkeley.edu/students/New/orientation_general.php orientation].

==Registering for Classes==
Incoming students must register for classes before the start of the fall semester. This is done easily enough via the online registration site for the university, [http://telebears.berkeley.edu Telebears]. A list of courses can be found [http://schedule.berkeley.edu here]. If you are teaching in the fall, the math department requires you to register for Math 300, the teaching workshop. It is strongly recommended that you see your academic advisor sometime in the first week or two of the semester to discuss your classes. The deadline for graduate students to add/drop classes without a fee is the end of the third week of instruction.

Students are required by the university to sign up for 12 units to be full-time. Seminars are a good way to fill up some extra units and to get to know a professor and his or her students better. You can take up to 4 units of seminar each semester.

Do not worry if a class you want to take fills up. There is always room in the class for math department grad students. Just sign up for some other classes temporarily, then talk to the professor on the first day of class about getting onto the roster. Once you are on the roster, be sure to drop the other classes you temporarily signed up for.

==Housing==
There are several options for housing at Berkeley. These include private rentals and university-owned housing. In general, unless you live in the subsidized housing for families, the prices for university housing are more expensive than those for private housing (i.e. less bang for your buck).

There are many houses, apartments and rooms for rent in the area around campus. Naturally, proximity to campus, size of the housing, and the number of people you share with can all play factors in the price. Housing close to campus can be as much as twice as expensive as comparable housing a mile or two away. Fortunately, public transit (including AC Transit buses and the BART) and biking are both convenient ways to get to campus, which many grad students use. We have a free unlimited transit pass for the AC Transit system, but unfortunately BART is not included. Driving to campus isn't recommended, because campus parking can be a nightmare and very expensive.

Most landlords are reluctant to rent to people they haven't met, so don't expect to get a room or an apartment before you move out here. However, most people manage to find a place within a week or two of moving here. If you have a friend to live with in the interim, or can find a place with a month-to-month lease where you can leave after one or two months, those can be temporary solutions.

There are several resources available for your search for housing:

* [http://www.craigslist.com Craigslist]. A free classifieds service for everything from housing, to dating, to miscellaneous things people are giving away for free. Considering it started in the Bay Area, it's definitely taken root here as an indispensible place to place ads. Almost everyone with a rental posts an ad on this site, and it's by far the biggest listing of rooms/houses/apartments to rent. This is probably a good place to start your search and to get an idea of the prices.
* [http://calrentals.housing.berkeley.edu/ CalRentals]. A University office administering a rental listings service. Placing listings is free, but there is a $20 fee for three months of access to view the listings. Landlords who advertise with Cal Rentals often prefer students as tenants.
* [http://housing.berkeley.edu/livingatcal/studentsfamilies.html Subsidized University Housing for Families]. UC Berkeley offers partially subsidized apartments to married students and students with families.
* [http://ihouse.berkeley.edu/ International House]. Located right next to campus, the I-House is another popular location for graduate students, especially those seeking to diversify their contacts outside the department.
* [http://www.usca.org/ Co-ops]. The co-ops are unique living experience, and each house has a different flavor. Several dozen people live in each house. Food, cooking, and cleaning responsibilities are all shared, which keeps the costs lower and distributes the maintenance work evenly among the members. The houses are also located very close to campus.
* [[Protected:Housing|MGSA Housing Page]]. Visit our own housing page to contact other math graduate students about potential rooming arrangements and housing availability. Requires you to be logged in as a user of our wiki.

First Year Students

2008-08-11T03:47:30Z

Dustin: /* Housing */ wikify, internal link

The first year, and especially the first month, at Berkeley can be pretty overwhelming with all the tasks that you have to do. Settling into a new place, taking your prelim and fulfilling all the bureaucratic hurdles can be quite a whirlwind. The information below explains many of the situations you will probably face in your first year, and hopefully will make them all seem manageable. It's in your best interest to read through all this information at least once before arriving; they can provide a handy reference for navigating through your first year.

==Location==
The Math Department is located in [http://www.berkeley.edu/map/maps/BC45.html Evans Hall], the tall, grey building in the center of campus. The department occupies the 7th through 10th floors of the building. The graduate office is 965 Evans; the main lounge is 1015 Evans; and the computer clusters are in 731, 838 and 1015 (Annex) Evans. The vice-chair for graduate affairs is [/~tataru/ Daniel Tataru]. Pop in and say hi to him when you get here, as he'll be glad to know you're here.

==Email and ID Cards==
To get a math.berkeley.edu email address, see Kathy Santos in 920 Evans your first week here. She can also give you a key to the
computer cluster and the copy room.

To get a UC Berkeley ID card, you have to go to the Cal1 office in Lower Sproul (on the ground floor of Cesar Chavez Student Center).

==Orientation==
On the afternoon of the first day of the prelim, there is a departmental orientation for first-year students. Much of the information on this site, such as establishing residency, will be talked about in greater detail, as well as some additional topics. This is also a great opportunity to ask questions about the program. The ever-helpful Barb Waller will email you with a location and time once it's known.

==Preliminary Exam==
The Prelim is a 6-hour written exam testing your undergraduate math background. It's given once a semester, and you must pass within your first three semesters. Thus, you only have three opportunities to take it, so you should take it every semester until you pass. And most students would agree, it's in your best interest to pass the first time.

Date: The exam is always scheduled for the Monday and Tuesday the week before classes start, from 9am to 12pm each day, in 60 Evans Hall. This room is located on the ground floor of Evans (not to be confused with the first floor or the basement), along the hall on the eastern side of the building.

===Workshops===
There are prelim workshops in the weeks before each exam. These workshop, led by graduate students, include informal problem-solving sessions and summaries of the material you're expected to know. Old prelim workshop webpages can be found [/~carnahan/prelim/ here] and [/~sassaf/prelim/index.html here]

===Structure===
The prelim is split over the course of two days. Each day, you are given 9 questions and have three hours to submit solutions for at most six of them. On one day, 5 of the questions will be in algebra and 4 will be in analysis, and on the other day, the reverse distribution will occur. The questions are graded out of 10 points, so a perfect score is 120 points. To put the caliber of the exam into perspective, in the last five years, the minimum passing score has ranged from 53 to 68.

===Resources===
Here are some helpful study resources:
* [/graduate_prelim.html The prelim website], has a syllabus describing the material you are responsible for, copies of previous exams, and statistics of exam performance.
* Nearly a thousand problems from previous prelims, with complete solutions to most, have been published in the book "Berkeley Problems in Mathematics" by Paulo Ney de Souza. This is an excellent resource of problems and can be found at most [http://www.bestwebbuys.com/Berkeley_Problems_in_Mathematics-ISBN_0387204296.html?isrc=b-search book retailers].

==Residency==
If you are a US citizen that will be supported by the department (through a GSI or GSR position) in your second year and later, you must establish California residency within your first year. This is because the tuition and fees for residents are about half those for non-residents, and the departmental budget can support only so many non-residents. If you don't establish residency, it will cost you dearly, because you'll have to pay the difference in tuition out of your own pocket, and that will be several thousands of dollars.

So, here are the steps you need to complete to establish residency:
# Make a credit card purchase for something shortly after you arrive in Berkeley and save the credit card statement. It can also help if you save your boarding pass if you are flying to California. This is to establish the approximate date of your arrival in the state.
# Once you have a California address, change the official address the university has on file for you. This can be done easily via [https://sis.berkeley.edu/bearfacts/ Bearfacts], under the section 'Personal'. You will need your student ID number to access this site.
# Get a California Driver's License or State ID to replace your one from another state, and register your vehicle here. It is very IMPORTANT to do this within your first TWO WEEKS at Berkeley, otherwise you will probably be hassled about this from the Residency Office when you file for residency.
# Open a local checking account. Again, do this within your first month. Both these steps indicate your intent on remaining permanently within the state.
# Register to vote in California, and if an election comes around, make sure to vote.
# File California State Taxes your first year here and make sure that you are not claimed as a dependent that year by anyone who is not a California resident.
# Keep credit card and bank statements and make regular purchases by credit card or use the ATM regularly to verify that you have spent your time continuously in the state. The Residency Affairs office is most wary of where you spend your time when school is not in session; spending more than a couple weeks of the year in your previous state of residence can impede your establishment of residency. Travel to other locations for academic purposes is less of a problem, especially if you have documentation of your time spent there. But still, plan on spending most of your first year in California.
# File an online Residence Classification Petition (available on [http://bearfacts.berkeley.edu Bearfacts]) and submit the checklist and supporting documentation within a week of submitting the online petition. Instructions are given at the end of the online petition. The deadline for submission for the fall of your second year is usually towards the end of August; see the [http://registrar.berkeley.edu/GeneralInfo/stucal.html Student Calendar] for an exact date. However, the deadline for applying before fees are assessed is usually June 1. The difference between these two deadlines is that if you submit by the earlier deadline, and are classified as a resident, your fall fees will automatically be computed as if you were a resident and paid for by the department. If you submit by the later deadline, your fees will be automatically computed as if you are a non-resident and then later adjusted to the resident fees. This may mean that you might temporarily have to pay the difference between the non-resident and resident fees (a few hundred dollars), and will be refunded that money later in the semester.

More detailed information can be found in the welcome packet that will be sent to you by the math department and on the [http://registrar.berkeley.edu/Residency/legalinfo.html Residency website].

==International Students==
International Students should [http://internationaloffice.berkeley.edu/students/New/check_in.php stop by] the Berkeley International Office in [http://www.berkeley.edu/map/maps/DE67.html International House] during their first week on campus. This is a mandatory requirement of your visa. Non-mandatory, but quite useful, is the [http://internationaloffice.berkeley.edu/students/New/orientation_general.php orientation].

==Registering for Classes==
Incoming students must register for classes before the start of the fall semester. This is done easily enough via the online registration site for the university, [http://telebears.berkeley.edu Telebears]. A list of courses can be found [http://schedule.berkeley.edu here]. If you are teaching in the fall, the math department requires you to register for Math 300, the teaching workshop. It is strongly recommended that you see your academic advisor sometime in the first week or two of the semester to discuss your classes. The deadline for graduate students to add/drop classes without a fee is the end of the third week of instruction.

Students are required by the university to sign up for 12 units to be full-time. Seminars are a good way to fill up some extra units and to get to know a professor and his or her students better. You can take up to 4 units of seminar each semester.

Do not worry if a class you want to take fills up. There is always room in the class for math department grad students. Just sign up for some other classes temporarily, then talk to the professor on the first day of class about getting onto the roster. Once you are on the roster, be sure to drop the other classes you temporarily signed up for.

==Housing==
There are several options for housing at Berkeley. These include private rentals and university-owned housing. In general, unless you live in the subsidized housing for families, the prices for university housing are more expensive than those for private housing (i.e. less bang for your buck).

There are many houses, apartments and rooms for rent in the area around campus. Naturally, proximity to campus, size of the housing, and the number of people you share with can all play factors in the price. Housing close to campus can be as much as twice as expensive as comparable housing a mile or two away. Fortunately, public transit (including AC Transit buses and the BART) and biking are both convenient ways to get to campus, which many grad students use. We have a free unlimited transit pass for the AC Transit system, but unfortunately BART is not included. Driving to campus isn't recommended, because campus parking can be a nightmare and very expensive.

Most landlords are reluctant to rent to people they haven't met, so don't expect to get a room or an apartment before you move out here. However, most people manage to find a place within a week or two of moving here. If you have a friend to live with in the interim, or can find a place with a month-to-month lease where you can leave after one or two months, those can be temporary solutions.

There are several resources available for your search for housing:

* [http://www.craigslist.com Craigslist]. A free classifieds service for everything from housing, to dating, to miscellaneous things people are giving away for free. Considering it started in the Bay Area, it's definitely taken root here as an indispensible place to place ads. Almost everyone with a rental posts an ad on this site, and it's by far the biggest listing of rooms/houses/apartments to rent. This is probably a good place to start your search and to get an idea of the prices.
* [http://calrentals.housing.berkeley.edu/ CalRentals]. A University office administering a rental listings service. Placing listings is free, but there is a $20 fee for three months of access to view the listings. Landlords who advertise with Cal Rentals often prefer students as tenants.
* [http://housing.berkeley.edu/livingatcal/studentsfamilies.html Subsidized University Housing for Families]. UC Berkeley offers partially subsidized apartments to married students and students with families.
* [http://ihouse.berkeley.edu/ International House]. Located right next to campus, the I-House is another popular location for graduate students, especially those seeking to diversify their contacts outside the department.
* [http://www.usca.org/ Co-ops]. The co-ops are unique living experience, and each house has a different flavor. Several dozen people live in each house. Food, cooking, and cleaning responsibilities are all shared, which keeps the costs lower and distributes the maintenance work evenly among the members. The houses are also located very close to campus.
* [[Protected:Housing|MGSA Housing Page]]. Visit our own housing page to contact other math graduate students about potential rooming arrangements and housing availability. Requires you to be logged in as a user of our wiki.

First Year Students

2008-08-11T03:40:53Z

Dustin: Fixed formatting, updated links

The first year, and especially the first month, at Berkeley can be pretty overwhelming with all the tasks that you have to do. Settling into a new place, taking your prelim and fulfilling all the bureaucratic hurdles can be quite a whirlwind. The information below explains many of the situations you will probably face in your first year, and hopefully will make them all seem manageable. It's in your best interest to read through all this information at least once before arriving; they can provide a handy reference for navigating through your first year.

==Location==
The Math Department is located in [http://www.berkeley.edu/map/maps/BC45.html Evans Hall], the tall, grey building in the center of campus. The department occupies the 7th through 10th floors of the building. The graduate office is 965 Evans; the main lounge is 1015 Evans; and the computer clusters are in 731, 838 and 1015 (Annex) Evans. The vice-chair for graduate affairs is [/~tataru/ Daniel Tataru]. Pop in and say hi to him when you get here, as he'll be glad to know you're here.

==Email and ID Cards==
To get a math.berkeley.edu email address, see Kathy Santos in 920 Evans your first week here. She can also give you a key to the
computer cluster and the copy room.

To get a UC Berkeley ID card, you have to go to the Cal1 office in Lower Sproul (on the ground floor of Cesar Chavez Student Center).

==Orientation==
On the afternoon of the first day of the prelim, there is a departmental orientation for first-year students. Much of the information on this site, such as establishing residency, will be talked about in greater detail, as well as some additional topics. This is also a great opportunity to ask questions about the program. The ever-helpful Barb Waller will email you with a location and time once it's known.

==Preliminary Exam==
The Prelim is a 6-hour written exam testing your undergraduate math background. It's given once a semester, and you must pass within your first three semesters. Thus, you only have three opportunities to take it, so you should take it every semester until you pass. And most students would agree, it's in your best interest to pass the first time.

Date: The exam is always scheduled for the Monday and Tuesday the week before classes start, from 9am to 12pm each day, in 60 Evans Hall. This room is located on the ground floor of Evans (not to be confused with the first floor or the basement), along the hall on the eastern side of the building.

===Workshops===
There are prelim workshops in the weeks before each exam. These workshop, led by graduate students, include informal problem-solving sessions and summaries of the material you're expected to know. Old prelim workshop webpages can be found [/~carnahan/prelim/ here] and [/~sassaf/prelim/index.html here]

===Structure===
The prelim is split over the course of two days. Each day, you are given 9 questions and have three hours to submit solutions for at most six of them. On one day, 5 of the questions will be in algebra and 4 will be in analysis, and on the other day, the reverse distribution will occur. The questions are graded out of 10 points, so a perfect score is 120 points. To put the caliber of the exam into perspective, in the last five years, the minimum passing score has ranged from 53 to 68.

===Resources===
Here are some helpful study resources:
* [/graduate_prelim.html The prelim website], has a syllabus describing the material you are responsible for, copies of previous exams, and statistics of exam performance.
* Nearly a thousand problems from previous prelims, with complete solutions to most, have been published in the book "Berkeley Problems in Mathematics" by Paulo Ney de Souza. This is an excellent resource of problems and can be found at most [http://www.bestwebbuys.com/Berkeley_Problems_in_Mathematics-ISBN_0387204296.html?isrc=b-search book retailers].

==Residency==
If you are a US citizen that will be supported by the department (through a GSI or GSR position) in your second year and later, you must establish California residency within your first year. This is because the tuition and fees for residents are about half those for non-residents, and the departmental budget can support only so many non-residents. If you don't establish residency, it will cost you dearly, because you'll have to pay the difference in tuition out of your own pocket, and that will be several thousands of dollars.

So, here are the steps you need to complete to establish residency:
# Make a credit card purchase for something shortly after you arrive in Berkeley and save the credit card statement. It can also help if you save your boarding pass if you are flying to California. This is to establish the approximate date of your arrival in the state.
# Once you have a California address, change the official address the university has on file for you. This can be done easily via [https://sis.berkeley.edu/bearfacts/ Bearfacts], under the section 'Personal'. You will need your student ID number to access this site.
# Get a California Driver's License or State ID to replace your one from another state, and register your vehicle here. It is very IMPORTANT to do this within your first TWO WEEKS at Berkeley, otherwise you will probably be hassled about this from the Residency Office when you file for residency.
# Open a local checking account. Again, do this within your first month. Both these steps indicate your intent on remaining permanently within the state.
# Register to vote in California, and if an election comes around, make sure to vote.
# File California State Taxes your first year here and make sure that you are not claimed as a dependent that year by anyone who is not a California resident.
# Keep credit card and bank statements and make regular purchases by credit card or use the ATM regularly to verify that you have spent your time continuously in the state. The Residency Affairs office is most wary of where you spend your time when school is not in session; spending more than a couple weeks of the year in your previous state of residence can impede your establishment of residency. Travel to other locations for academic purposes is less of a problem, especially if you have documentation of your time spent there. But still, plan on spending most of your first year in California.
# File an online Residence Classification Petition (available on [http://bearfacts.berkeley.edu Bearfacts]) and submit the checklist and supporting documentation within a week of submitting the online petition. Instructions are given at the end of the online petition. The deadline for submission for the fall of your second year is usually towards the end of August; see the [http://registrar.berkeley.edu/GeneralInfo/stucal.html Student Calendar] for an exact date. However, the deadline for applying before fees are assessed is usually June 1. The difference between these two deadlines is that if you submit by the earlier deadline, and are classified as a resident, your fall fees will automatically be computed as if you were a resident and paid for by the department. If you submit by the later deadline, your fees will be automatically computed as if you are a non-resident and then later adjusted to the resident fees. This may mean that you might temporarily have to pay the difference between the non-resident and resident fees (a few hundred dollars), and will be refunded that money later in the semester.

More detailed information can be found in the welcome packet that will be sent to you by the math department and on the [http://registrar.berkeley.edu/Residency/legalinfo.html Residency website].

==International Students==
International Students should [http://internationaloffice.berkeley.edu/students/New/check_in.php stop by] the Berkeley International Office in [http://www.berkeley.edu/map/maps/DE67.html International House] during their first week on campus. This is a mandatory requirement of your visa. Non-mandatory, but quite useful, is the [http://internationaloffice.berkeley.edu/students/New/orientation_general.php orientation].

==Registering for Classes==
Incoming students must register for classes before the start of the fall semester. This is done easily enough via the online registration site for the university, [http://telebears.berkeley.edu Telebears]. A list of courses can be found [http://schedule.berkeley.edu here]. If you are teaching in the fall, the math department requires you to register for Math 300, the teaching workshop. It is strongly recommended that you see your academic advisor sometime in the first week or two of the semester to discuss your classes. The deadline for graduate students to add/drop classes without a fee is the end of the third week of instruction.

Students are required by the university to sign up for 12 units to be full-time. Seminars are a good way to fill up some extra units and to get to know a professor and his or her students better. You can take up to 4 units of seminar each semester.

Do not worry if a class you want to take fills up. There is always room in the class for math department grad students. Just sign up for some other classes temporarily, then talk to the professor on the first day of class about getting onto the roster. Once you are on the roster, be sure to drop the other classes you temporarily signed up for.

==Housing==
There are several options for housing at Berkeley. These include private rentals and university-owned housing. In general, unless you live in the subsidized housing for families, the prices for university housing are more expensive than those for private housing (i.e. less bang for your buck).

There are many houses, apartments and rooms for rent in the area around campus. Naturally, proximity to campus, size of the housing, and the number of people you share with can all play factors in the price. Housing close to campus can be as much as twice as expensive as comparable housing a mile or two away. Fortunately, public transit (including AC Transit buses and the BART) and biking are both convenient ways to get to campus, which many grad students use. We have a free unlimited transit pass for the AC Transit system, but unfortunately BART is not included. Driving to campus isn't recommended, because campus parking can be a nightmare and very expensive.

Most landlords are reluctant to rent to people they haven't met, so don't expect to get a room or an apartment before you move out here. However, most people manage to find a place within a week or two of moving here. If you have a friend to live with in the interim, or can find a place with a month-to-month lease where you can leave after one or two months, those can be temporary solutions.

There are several resources available for your search for housing:

<ul>
<li>[http://www.craigslist.com Craigslist]. A free classifieds service for everything from housing, to dating, to miscellaneous things people are giving away for free. Considering it started in the Bay Area, it's definitely taken root here as an indispensible place to place ads. Almost everyone with a rental posts an ad on this site, and it's by far the biggest listing of rooms/houses/apartments to rent. This is probably a good place to start your search and to get an idea of the prices.
<li>[http://calrentals.housing.berkeley.edu/ CalRentals]. A University office administering a rental listings service. Placing listings is free, but there is a $20 fee for three months of access to view the listings. Landlords who advertise with Cal Rentals often prefer students as tenants.
<li>[http://housing.berkeley.edu/livingatcal/studentsfamilies.html Subsidized University Housing for Families]. UC Berkeley offers partially subsidized apartments to married students and students with families.
<li>[http://ihouse.berkeley.edu/ International House]. Located right next to campus, the I-House is another popular location for graduate students, especially those seeking to diversify their contacts outside the department.
<li>[http://www.usca.org/ Co-ops]. The co-ops are unique living experience, and each house has a different flavor. Several dozen people live in each house. Food, cooking, and cleaning responsibilities are all shared, which keeps the costs lower and distributes the maintenance work evenly among the members. The houses are also located very close to campus.
<li>[/~mgsa/w/index.php/Protected:Housing MGSA Housing Page]. Visit our own housing page to contact other math graduate students about potential rooming arrangements and housing availability. Requires you to be a logged in user of our wiki.
</ul>

Main Page

2008-08-11T02:24:05Z

Dustin: Added links to travel grants and summer programs

Welcome to the UC Berkeley math graduate student wiki. We hope to provide information of use to you during your years as a graduate student at Berkeley.

* General information for [[Prospective Students|prospective students]], [[First Year Students|incoming students]], and [[Upper Year Students|continuing students]]
* Information about the [[First Year Students#Preliminary Exam|prelim]], the [[Language Exam|language exam]], and the [[Qualifying Exam|qualifying exam]]
* Lists of [[fellowships]], [[conferences]], [[Travel Grants|travel grants]], [[Summer Programs|summer programs]], [[Protected:Internships|summer internships]], [[postdocs]] (see also [[Applying for Postdocs|applying for postdocs]]), and [[Protected:Jobs|jobs]].
* [[Academic Books|Math books]] on various topics.
* [[Berkeley Life|Berkeley life]]
* Answers to computer questions:
** How to [[LaTeX basics|use LaTeX]].
** How to [[LaTeX Install|install LaTeX]] on your own computer.
** How to [[Webpage Guide|create a homepage]].
** How to [[File Management|manage files on the math department servers]].
** How to [[Software|get software for your research]].
** How to [[Proxy Servers|access MathSciNet and UC E-links from off-campus]].

Certain pages (those beginning with <tt>Protected:</tt>) are only viewable by logged in users, so that the content remains within the Berkeley math community. Most pages can be edited by anyone who's logged in, and anyone can create an account. Feel free to add whatever you think might be of interest to the graduate student community.

MediaWiki:Sidebar

2008-08-11T02:11:12Z

Dustin:

MediaWiki:Sidebar

2008-08-11T02:05:59Z

Dustin: Changed "Wiki Guidelines" to "MGSA Wiki Homepage"

UCB Math Wiki:About

2008-08-11T01:58:36Z

Dustin: short description

MGSA is the Mathematics Graduate Student Association at the University of California, Berkeley. The MGSA Wiki is a place to provide academic and non-academic information and advice for graduate students in the mathematics department.

Main Page

2008-08-11T00:27:39Z

Dustin: Rewrote to provide an overview of wiki's content and links to lots of pages

Welcome to the UC Berkeley math graduate student wiki. We hope to provide information of use to you during your years as a graduate student at Berkeley.

* General information for [[Prospective Students|prospective students]], [[First Year Students|incoming students]], and [[Upper Year Students|continuing students]]
* Information about the [[First Year Students#Preliminary Exam|prelim]], the [[Language Exam|language exam]], and the [[Qualifying Exam|qualifying exam]]
* Lists of [[fellowships]], [[conferences]], [[Protected:Internships|summer internships]], [[postdocs]] (see also [[Applying for Postdocs|applying for postdocs]]), and [[Protected:Jobs|jobs]].
* [[Academic Books|Math books]] on various topics.
* [[Berkeley Life|Berkeley life]]
* Answers to computer questions:
** How to [[LaTeX basics|use LaTeX]].
** How to [[LaTeX Install|install LaTeX]] on your own computer.
** How to [[Webpage Guide|create a homepage]].
** How to [[File Management|manage files on the math department servers]].
** How to [[Software|get software for your research]].
** How to [[Proxy Servers|access MathSciNet and UC E-links from off-campus]].

Certain pages (those beginning with <tt>Protected:</tt>) are only viewable by logged in users, so that the content remains within the Berkeley math community. Most pages can be edited by anyone who's logged in, and anyone can create an account. Feel free to add whatever you think might be of interest to the graduate student community.

LaTeX Install

2008-08-10T22:44:48Z

Dustin: /* Installing MikTeX */ Fixed internal link

==Installation for Windows==

There are three easy steps for installing LaTeX on Windows:
* Install GhostView - for creating and viewing postscript (.ps) files
* Install MikTex - this is the standard LaTeX package for Windows
* Install a Text Editor - to type up your own LaTeX files or edit other people's files

All these components will take up approximately 400 MB on your computer, but have at least 600 MB free before installation to keep your computer running smoothly.

===Installing GhostView===

This step is so that you can create and view postscript (.ps) files.

You need to download GhostView, which consists of two parts, GSView and Ghostscript. [http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/gsview/index.htm Download] the most current versions of both and install them following the instructions in the self-extracting installation packages. Users of personal computers should install the Win32 versions of these packages.

===Installing MikTeX===

This is the crucial component of the installation and also the biggest on disk, consisting of more than 300 MB. Expect it to take about an hour to download and install, even with a fast connection and computer.

Go to the [http://miktex.org/ MikTex webpage] and choose Install MikTex from the left menu bar. Select the version you want to install (probably the newest) and follow the instructions. You usually have the choice between a basic install and a full install. If you have the room on your computer and plan to use LaTeX pretty heavily in the future, you might as well do a complete install, rather than having to [[#Installing_Extra_Packages|add packages later]]. (Note: this is pretty much unnecessary with newer versions of MikTeX, if you're always connected to the internet -- it downloads any packages you need on the fly, while compiling your tex documents.)

Once MikTeX is done installing, it will have created two directories full of many files: the <tt>MikTex</tt> directory and the <tt>texmf</tt> directory, the latter of which has all the executable files like <tt>latex.exe</tt> .

====Adding MikTeX to the PATH====
In Windows, the "PATH" is a list of directories which are automatically searches for executable files when you type a command on the command line. You should add the directory containing <code>latex.exe</code> to the PATH.

In Windows XP, go to Control Panel, click on 'System', go to the 'Advanced' tab, click on 'Environment Variables'. Scroll down the 'user variables' box until you find "PATH" (you may need to create it?), and add the appropriate directory, probably <code>c:\miktex\texmf\bin\</code>. Multiple entries in the PATH should be separated by semicolons (;).

===Installing a Text Editor===

Any text editor is sufficient to type up LaTeX documents, however some are specially designed with LaTeX in mind. These usually have buttons for common tasks and text highlighting/coloration for LaTeX environments like Math Mode.

Warning: do not type up LaTeX documents in word processing programs, such as MS Word. These programs "mark up" the text, meaning they have program-specific coding hidden in the file. The text you see on screen is much less than the actual text inside the file. The LaTeX compiler will encounter this extra coding and produce strange results.

It's recommended to use a text editor with LaTeX-specific features. Such a list can be found [[Text_Editor | here]].

For text editors without LaTeX in mind, you will have to create your LaTeX files in them (making sure to give them a .tex filename extension). Open the command prompt, navigate to the directory containing your file, and type <code>latex <filename></code> to compile the file. This produces several files, including a <code>.dvi</code> file. The DVI file can easily be converted to PS or PDF formats.

(Note, this requires that you have correctly set the PATH, as described above.)

===Installing Extra Packages===
Once you've been using LaTeX for a while, you may find that you need to install new/additional LaTeX packages. MikTeX makes this process very simple. Find MikTeX in your Start Menu and select <tt>MikTex Options</tt>. This is the file <tt>mo.exe</tt> in the same directory where you find <tt>latex.exe</tt> (usually this is <tt>C:\texmf\miktex\bin</tt> ).

Click on the <tt>Packages</tt> tab, then right-click the root of the directory tree (usually called 'MikTeX Packages'). The option 'Find Package' appears, so click it. Then type the name of the package you seek into the appropriate field and click 'Find Now'. Select the search result you want and click 'Goto'. Install if necessary.

==Installation for Mac==

===Installing LaTeX===

[http://www.tug.org/mactex/ MacTeX] is a complete LaTeX distribution for the Mac. It includes lots of TeX-related software, such as TeXShop, a graphical front end for editing and compiling LaTeX. Be warned that it's a 744 MB download, which is the price you pay for completeness.

A list of other text editors can be found [[Text Editor | here]].

===Installing Extra Packages===

Once you've been using LaTeX for a while, you may find that you need to install new/additional LaTeX packages.

==Installation for Linux==
If you're running something debian-like (including ubuntu), just type

sudo apt-get install latex

Easy, huh? You can now tex your documents with commands like

latex thesis

You might want to learn how to use emacs, which is often considered the-one-true-editor. On the other hand, it's a long and steep learning curve before you might believe that.

LaTeX basics

2008-08-10T22:43:45Z

Dustin: Latex Install redirect

LaTeX is the standard method of typesetting mathematics. It comes on all the department's computers. See [[LaTeX Install|here]] for instructions on installing it on your own computer. LaTeX's input can be edited in any text editor, but you may wish to use a [[Text Editor|specialized text editor]].

==Learning LaTeX==
[http://www.math.harvard.edu/texman/ "An Introduction to LaTeX"] and [http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~dwilkins/LaTeXPrimer/ "Getting Started with LaTeX"] are good introductions.

[http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/lshort/english/lshort.pdf "The Not-so-short introduction to LaTeX2e"] is very complete, and also written in a very easy to understand fashion. It's probably more useful as a reference than anything else &emdash; I don't recommend reading it cover-to-cover.

[http://www-math.mit.edu/~psh/exam/examdoc.pdf "Using the exam document class"] is a very readable introduction to a very useful document class.

Once you've learned the basics, a good idea is to get a LaTeX file from a more experienced user so that you can see their tricks in action, and just cut and paste. Even experienced LaTeX users do this from their own papers from time to time. For example, you can get the source of any paper on [http://front.math.ucdavis.edu the arXiv], which should lead to a fairly inexhaustible source of LaTeX tricks beyond the standard tutorials.

If you want to use the exam package, you could use [/~eep/teaching/M54sp06PF.tex this practice final].

==Diagrams==
The most popular package for drawing diagrams is XYpic. Drawing roughly rectilinear commutative diagrams is relatively easy (see the xyguide), but in fact, there is a lot more you can do with this package if you're willing to go through the steeper learning curve and learn xypic proper. Aaron Lauda has a lot of useful examples in [http://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/~al366/xytutorial.html his tutorial].

Other options include the <tt>amscd</tt> and <tt>diagrams</tt> packages which are less flexible, but easier for simpler commutative diagrams.

==Bibliographies==
Learn [http://cmtw.harvard.edu/Documentation/TeX/Bibtex/Example.html how to use BibTeX]. I promise you won't regret it later. Remember that you can get BibTeX citations from from [http://ams.rice.edu MathSciNet] or [http://front.math.ucdavis.edu the Front]. Somewhat obnoxiously, the standard BibTeX styles won't produce a citation to the arXiv, so you'll want an special BibTeX style. I use [/~bwebste/halpha.bst halpha.bst].

If ever want access to the LaTeX version of the bibliography that BibTeX has created, it's in the file *.bbl. If you submit a paper with BibTeX'ed bibliography to the arXiv, you should include the *.bbl file, NOT the *.bib.

LaTeX Install

2008-08-10T22:39:05Z

Dustin: Latex Install moved to LaTeX Install: Correct capitalization of LaTeX

==Installation for Windows==

There are three easy steps for installing LaTeX on Windows:
* Install GhostView - for creating and viewing postscript (.ps) files
* Install MikTex - this is the standard LaTeX package for Windows
* Install a Text Editor - to type up your own LaTeX files or edit other people's files

All these components will take up approximately 400 MB on your computer, but have at least 600 MB free before installation to keep your computer running smoothly.

===Installing GhostView===

This step is so that you can create and view postscript (.ps) files.

You need to download GhostView, which consists of two parts, GSView and Ghostscript. [http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/gsview/index.htm Download] the most current versions of both and install them following the instructions in the self-extracting installation packages. Users of personal computers should install the Win32 versions of these packages.

===Installing MikTeX===

This is the crucial component of the installation and also the biggest on disk, consisting of more than 300 MB. Expect it to take about an hour to download and install, even with a fast connection and computer.

Go to the [http://miktex.org/ MikTex webpage] and choose Install MikTex from the left menu bar. Select the version you want to install (probably the newest) and follow the instructions. You usually have the choice between a basic install and a full install. If you have the room on your computer and plan to use LaTeX pretty heavily in the future, you might as well do a complete install, rather than having to [[Latex_Install#Installing_Extra_Packages add packages later]]. (Note: this is pretty much unnecessary with newer versions of MikTeX, if you're always connected to the internet -- it downloads any packages you need on the fly, while compiling your tex documents.)

Once MikTeX is done installing, it will have created two directories full of many files: the <tt>MikTex</tt> directory and the <tt>texmf</tt> directory, the latter of which has all the executable files like <tt>latex.exe</tt> .

====Adding MikTeX to the PATH====
In Windows, the "PATH" is a list of directories which are automatically searches for executable files when you type a command on the command line. You should add the directory containing <code>latex.exe</code> to the PATH.

In Windows XP, go to Control Panel, click on 'System', go to the 'Advanced' tab, click on 'Environment Variables'. Scroll down the 'user variables' box until you find "PATH" (you may need to create it?), and add the appropriate directory, probably <code>c:\miktex\texmf\bin\</code>. Multiple entries in the PATH should be separated by semicolons (;).

===Installing a Text Editor===

Any text editor is sufficient to type up LaTeX documents, however some are specially designed with LaTeX in mind. These usually have buttons for common tasks and text highlighting/coloration for LaTeX environments like Math Mode.

Warning: do not type up LaTeX documents in word processing programs, such as MS Word. These programs "mark up" the text, meaning they have program-specific coding hidden in the file. The text you see on screen is much less than the actual text inside the file. The LaTeX compiler will encounter this extra coding and produce strange results.

It's recommended to use a text editor with LaTeX-specific features. Such a list can be found [[Text_Editor | here]].

For text editors without LaTeX in mind, you will have to create your LaTeX files in them (making sure to give them a .tex filename extension). Open the command prompt, navigate to the directory containing your file, and type <code>latex <filename></code> to compile the file. This produces several files, including a <code>.dvi</code> file. The DVI file can easily be converted to PS or PDF formats.

(Note, this requires that you have correctly set the PATH, as described above.)

===Installing Extra Packages===
Once you've been using LaTeX for a while, you may find that you need to install new/additional LaTeX packages. MikTeX makes this process very simple. Find MikTeX in your Start Menu and select <tt>MikTex Options</tt>. This is the file <tt>mo.exe</tt> in the same directory where you find <tt>latex.exe</tt> (usually this is <tt>C:\texmf\miktex\bin</tt> ).

Click on the <tt>Packages</tt> tab, then right-click the root of the directory tree (usually called 'MikTeX Packages'). The option 'Find Package' appears, so click it. Then type the name of the package you seek into the appropriate field and click 'Find Now'. Select the search result you want and click 'Goto'. Install if necessary.

==Installation for Mac==

===Installing LaTeX===

[http://www.tug.org/mactex/ MacTeX] is a complete LaTeX distribution for the Mac. It includes lots of TeX-related software, such as TeXShop, a graphical front end for editing and compiling LaTeX. Be warned that it's a 744 MB download, which is the price you pay for completeness.

A list of other text editors can be found [[Text Editor | here]].

===Installing Extra Packages===

Once you've been using LaTeX for a while, you may find that you need to install new/additional LaTeX packages.

==Installation for Linux==
If you're running something debian-like (including ubuntu), just type

sudo apt-get install latex

Easy, huh? You can now tex your documents with commands like

latex thesis

You might want to learn how to use emacs, which is often considered the-one-true-editor. On the other hand, it's a long and steep learning curve before you might believe that.

Latex Install

2008-08-10T22:39:05Z

Dustin: Latex Install moved to LaTeX Install: Correct capitalization of LaTeX

#REDIRECT [[LaTeX Install]]

Access to MathSciNet and UC eLinks from Home

2008-08-10T21:59:14Z

Dustin: /* Instructions */ updated library webpage

Even if you are not on campus, you can still remotely access all the services and subscriptions that are available when you are physically on the campus network. Examples of such services are: MathSciNet, UC e-Links, JStor, etc.

To do this, you need to enable your browser to use a proxy server. Basically, what this means is that your computer communicates with the internet through an intermediary, the proxy server. In this case, the intermediary is the University server. Websites like MathSciNet only see the intermediary and treat all requests as if they were coming from the university. This is how you get access.

'''Note:''' You should have proxy servers enabled only when you need them. Since you are going through the intermediary, every request for information requires 4 transfers instead of two. This can cause a noticeable slowdown in your internet speed. (Instead of You -> Website -> You it becomes You -> Proxy -> Website -> Proxy -> You).

==Instructions==

Taken directly from [http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/Help/proxy.html the University library site].

'''Internet Explorer 6.0 and 5.x (MS Windows Only) '''
Dial-up Modem Connection with Internet Explorer 6.0 or 5.x

*select: Tools
*select: Internet Options...
*select: Connections
*in the Dial-up settings box find the icon with the name of your dial-up service, and click on the icon once to highlight it
*select: Settings...
*check the box next to: "Automatically detect settings"
*check the box next to: "Use automatic configuration script"
*enter this Address: http://proxy.lib.berkeley.edu:7777/proxy.pac
*click on OK
*click on OK on the Internet Options menu

'''Internet Explorer 6.0 and 5.x (MS Windows Only) '''
DSL or Cable-Modem Connection (LAN) with Internet Explorer 6.0 or 5.x

*Notes: (1) Some users report that Internet Explorer 6.0 needs to be configured as if for a dial-up connection when used with a DSL or cable-modem service. (2) There seem to be one or more versions of Internet Explorer 6.0 that have been modified by SBC for use with their DSL service. If you are using such a browser, look for a "DSL Settings" facility rather than the "LAN Settings" area.
*select: Tools
*select: Internet Options...
*select: Connections
*select: LAN Settings
*check the box next to: "Use automatic configuration script"
*enter this Address: http://proxy.lib.berkeley.edu:7777/proxy.pac
*click on OK
*click on OK on the Internet Options menu

'''Internet Explorer 4.x (MS Windows Only) '''

*Use Service Pack 1 (SP1) or Higher; SP2 Highly Recommended
*select View
*select Internet Options
*select the Connection tab
*in the Automatic configuration box click on Configure
*enter this URL: http://proxy.lib.berkeley.edu:7777/proxy.pac
*click on Refresh
*click on OK then OK again on the Internet Options menu

'''Internet Explorer 3.x (MS Windows Only) '''

*select View
*select Options
*select the Connection tab
*in the Automatic configuration box click on Configure
*enter this URL: http://proxy.lib.berkeley.edu:7777/proxy.pac
*click on OK then OK again on the Internet Options menu

'''Netscape 7.x, 6.x or 4.x '''

*select Edit
*select Preferences
*click on the '+' to the left of the Advanced option
*click on Proxies
*click on the Automatic proxy configuration button
*enter in the Configuration Location (URL): http://proxy.lib.berkeley.edu:7777/proxy.pac
*click Reload and OK

'''Netscape 7.x, 6.x or 4.x in Mac OSX '''

*select Netscape from the menu bar.
*select Preferences
*click on the triangle to the left of the Advanced option
*click on Proxies
*click on the Automatic proxy configuration button
*enter in the Configuration Location (URL): http://proxy.lib.berkeley.edu:7777/proxy.pac
*click Reload and OK

'''Netscape Navigator 3.x and 2.x '''

*select Options
*select Network Preferences
*select the Proxies tab
*click on Automatic proxy configuration
*enter in the Configuration Location (URL): http://proxy.lib.berkeley.edu:7777/proxy.pac
*click Reload and oK

'''Mozilla 0.9.x or 1.x '''

*select Edit
*select Preferences
*click on the '+' to the left of the Advanced option
*click on Proxies
*click on the Automatic proxy configuration button
*enter in the Configuration Location (URL): http://proxy.lib.berkeley.edu:7777/proxy.pac
*click Reload and OK

'''Mozilla 0.9.x or 1.x in Mac OSX '''

*select Mozilla from the menu bar.
*select Preferences
*click on the triangle to the left of the Advanced option
*click on Proxies
*click on the Automatic proxy configuration button
*enter in the Configuration Location (URL): http://proxy.lib.berkeley.edu:7777/proxy.pac
*click Reload and OK

'''Mozilla Firefox 2.x '''

*select Tools
*select Options
*select Advanced
*select the Network tab
*in the "Connection" box, click on "Settings"
*click on the Automatic proxy configuration radio button
*enter in the Automatic proxy configuration URL: http://proxy.lib.berkeley.edu:7777/proxy.pac
*click Reload and then OK to close the "Connection Settings" dialog box
*click OK to close the "Options" dialog box

'''Mozilla Firefox 1.x '''

*select Tools
*select Options
*click on "Connection Settings" at the bottom of the "General" section of the "Options" dialog box
*click on the Automatic proxy configuration button
*enter in the Automatic proxy configuration URL: http://proxy.lib.berkeley.edu:7777/proxy.pac
*click Reload and then OK to close the "Connection Settings" dialog box
*click OK to close the "Options" dialog box

'''Mozilla Firefox 2.x in Mac OSX '''

*select Firefox from the menu bar.
*select Preferences
*select the Advanced icon
*select the Network tab
*in the "Connection" box, click on "Settings" button to bring up the "Set Up Proxies to Access the Internet" dialog box>
*click on the "Automatic proxy configuration URL" radio button
*enter the "Automatic proxy configuration URL:" http://proxy.lib.berkeley.edu:7777/proxy.pac
*click Reload and OK to close the "Connection Settings" dialog box
*click OK to save your changes and exit the Preferences dialog box.

'''Mozilla Firefox 1.x in Mac OSX '''

*select Firefox from the menu bar.
*select Preferences
*select the General icon
*click on the "Connection Settings" button to bring up the "Set Up Proxies for Accessing the Internet" dialog box>
*click on the "Automatic proxy configuration URL" radio button
*enter the "Automatic proxy configuration URL:" http://proxy.lib.berkeley.edu:7777/proxy.pac
*click Reload and OK to close the "Connection Settings" dialog box
*click OK to save your changes and exit the Preferences dialog box.

'''Safari in Mac OSX '''

NOTE: Safari 2 under Mac OS 10.4.3 will work with the proxy service, as will Safari 1.2 under Mac OS 10.3.2. Safari 2 under 10.4 is problematic, and you should upgrade to the 10.4.3 level of the operating system if you hope to use Safari with the proxy service.
*Start up Safari, and choose "Preferences" from the "Safari" menu.
*Click on the "Advanced" icon.
*In the "Proxies:" option, click the "Change Settings..." button.
*System Preferences should start up automatically, with the "Network" panel open and "Proxies" selected. You may need to log in with your Administrator password to make these changes.
*Under "Select a proxy server to configure:", choose "Automatic Proxy Configuration." (You may need to scroll down the list to the end to see this choice).
*In the "Proxy Configuration File" text box, enter the URL for the CalNet-authenticating proxy server's configuration script: http://proxy.lib.berkeley.edu:7777/proxy.pac
*Click the "Apply now" button.
*Close the Network control panel.

It is not necessary to restart Safari to begin using the Library proxy server. There are, however, a number of caveats regarding the use of Safari with the proxy service.

File Management

2008-08-10T21:54:00Z

Dustin: /* Connecting to the Network */ location of computer labs. sftp on Mac/Unix

This page describes how to manage your files on the math department network, both remotely and locally. File uploading/downloading, directory creation, and setting permissions are among the topics covered belong.

===Connecting to the Network===

In order to manage your account, you first have to connect to the network. If you are in Evans, you can log onto one of the departmental computers (such as the ones in 1015 or 838) and instantly be on your math department account. Note that the only computers allowed to be physically connected to the network are the departmental ones. Therefore, if you want to connect from another computer, such as your laptop or home computer, you need to connect remotely. There are two kinds of programs that can connect your computer remotely, SSH and SFTP.

====SSH====

SSH stands for Secure Shell. For those who have used Telnet before, it is practically the same program except that is has encryption to securely transfer data. The department server no longer accepts connection requests from Telnet clients, so you have to use SSH if you want to connect.

SSH basically is a program that mimics the Terminal windows found on our department's computers. It is useful for editing files, changing file permissions and running basic programs like text editors or Pine email program. With a more elaborate setup, you can actually run programs such as web browsers remotely through SSH (but be warned, it can be an extremely slow process!).

* Windows: you need to download an SSH client. One option is [http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/ Putty]. Then use the SSH client to connect to <code>login.math.berkeley.edu</code>, using your usual departmental username and password.
* Mac: you already have SSH installed with your operating system. Just go to Utilities and click on Terminal. In the terminal window, type: <code>ssh -l <username> login.math.berkeley.edu</code> The <code>-l <username></code> part indicates to SSH that you want to log in with that specific username; if you don't include this text, then SSH will automatically use the account name on your computer (which probably won't be your departmental username).
* Unix: you probably have SSH preinstalled as well. Just open a terminal window and type in the same thing Mac users do.

Professor Vojta has the following [/computing/vojta/ssh.html reference].

====SFTP====

SFTP stands for Secure File Transfer Protocol, which is a secure version of FTP. As with Telnet, the department server no longer accepts connection requests from FTP, in order to increase network security.

As the name suggests, this program is primarily used to transfer files between the computer you are on and your account on the department network. Many SFTP clients have a graphical interface which make downloading and uploading very easy, and most also have an easy way of changing file and directory permissions.

If you have a command-line <tt>ssh</tt> program on your Mac or Unix computer, you probably have <tt>sftp</tt> as well. A recommendation for Windows is [http://winscp.net/ WinSCP].

===Navigation===

Every file and directory has a path; if you think of the directories as a tree, then the path is just the path in the tree through all the subdirectories you need to get to that directory or file. For example, your account's home directory is <code>/home/u2/grad/<username></code>

* <code>cd <pathname></code> Change directory to the one given in <pathname>. This command has a very fine distinction between absolute paths and relative paths. If the pathname does not begin with / then it signifies that you are talking about subdirectories of the current one. If it does begin with / then you are specifying the path from the root of the directory tree.
* <code>cd ..</code> Go up one level in the heirarchy.
* <code>pwd</code> Present working directory. This is really useful if you've forgotten what directory you're in.
* <code>ls</code> Lists the files and subdirectories of the present directory.
* <code>ls -a</code> Lists all the files and subdirectories in the present directory. This includes settings files and other weird junk that usually you don't care about.

===Create, Move and Destroy===

The file server tends to treat directories very differently from files, so if you're going to do some major changes to you account heirarchy it's probably better to use a graphical SFTP program than trying to do this all in a terminal or SSH.

* <code>mkdir <name></code> Makes a new directory with the given name.
* <code>cp <filename> <pathname></code> Creates a copy of file <filename> in the directory given by <pathname>. The same caveat regarding pathnames applies as with <code>cd</code>. This assumes that the file is in the current directory. If you'd like to move a file in a different directory, you have to put the file's path instead of <filename>.
* <code>mv <filename> <pathname></code> Exactly like copy, except it moves the file (so that the file no longer exists in the location it came from.
* <code>rm <filename></code> Removes (deletes) the file. Be VERY careful if you try to apply this command to a directory--many times the file server won't let you, but if it does and you type things in wrong, the results could be disastrous.

===Permissions===

In order for other people to be able to access your files (in particular, webpages) you have to set the permissions on files and directories appropriately. Every file and folder has many permission variables, but the three that are most relevant are denoted R (read), W (write), and X (execute). By default you have all these permissions and no one else does so if you want to give other people these permissions you have to actually adjust the permissions.

A user who has R permission on a file may view the file and R permission on a directory allows you to see the contents. W permission allows the user to change the file, including replacing or deleting it. Only trusted users should be given this permission, and in general it is best to only give yourself this permission. The X permission allows a user to execute a file--this is relevant if you have some sort of web script or other mini-program that external users might want to use.

There are three classes of individuals who may read, write or execute a file; they are Owner (=you), Group (on the math server, this will usually be just you also), and Others. For each set of users, you decide which permissions to give. Each file or directory has a three digit permission code: the first digit corresponds to the permissions for owner, the second digit corresponds to group, and third digit to others.

In general, private files should have permissions set to 600 (owner has RW) or 700 (owner has RWX). Public files (such as those needed for your webpage) should be set to 744 in general, or 755 if they are an executable file. Private directories should have permissions set to 700, while public directories should all be set to 755.

To change the file/directory permissions, type <code>chmod <3digitcode> <file/directoryname></code>

LaTeX basics

2008-08-10T21:46:42Z

Dustin: Reorganized: moved text editor stuff to text editor page. Added more basic introductions.

LaTeX is the standard method of typesetting mathematics. It comes on all the department's computers. See [[Latex Install|here]] for instructions on installing it on your own computer. LaTeX's input can be edited in any text editor, but you may wish to use a [[Text Editor|specialized text editor]].

==Learning LaTeX==
[http://www.math.harvard.edu/texman/ "An Introduction to LaTeX"] and [http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~dwilkins/LaTeXPrimer/ "Getting Started with LaTeX"] are good introductions.

[http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/lshort/english/lshort.pdf "The Not-so-short introduction to LaTeX2e"] is very complete, and also written in a very easy to understand fashion. It's probably more useful as a reference than anything else &emdash; I don't recommend reading it cover-to-cover.

[http://www-math.mit.edu/~psh/exam/examdoc.pdf "Using the exam document class"] is a very readable introduction to a very useful document class.

Once you've learned the basics, a good idea is to get a LaTeX file from a more experienced user so that you can see their tricks in action, and just cut and paste. Even experienced LaTeX users do this from their own papers from time to time. For example, you can get the source of any paper on [http://front.math.ucdavis.edu the arXiv], which should lead to a fairly inexhaustible source of LaTeX tricks beyond the standard tutorials.

If you want to use the exam package, you could use [/~eep/teaching/M54sp06PF.tex this practice final].

==Diagrams==
The most popular package for drawing diagrams is XYpic. Drawing roughly rectilinear commutative diagrams is relatively easy (see the xyguide), but in fact, there is a lot more you can do with this package if you're willing to go through the steeper learning curve and learn xypic proper. Aaron Lauda has a lot of useful examples in [http://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/~al366/xytutorial.html his tutorial].

Other options include the <tt>amscd</tt> and <tt>diagrams</tt> packages which are less flexible, but easier for simpler commutative diagrams.

==Bibliographies==
Learn [http://cmtw.harvard.edu/Documentation/TeX/Bibtex/Example.html how to use BibTeX]. I promise you won't regret it later. Remember that you can get BibTeX citations from from [http://ams.rice.edu MathSciNet] or [http://front.math.ucdavis.edu the Front]. Somewhat obnoxiously, the standard BibTeX styles won't produce a citation to the arXiv, so you'll want an special BibTeX style. I use [/~bwebste/halpha.bst halpha.bst].

If ever want access to the LaTeX version of the bibliography that BibTeX has created, it's in the file *.bbl. If you submit a paper with BibTeX'ed bibliography to the arXiv, you should include the *.bbl file, NOT the *.bib.

Text Editor

2008-08-10T21:37:32Z

Dustin: Reorganized around platform. Added TeXShop. Added text from LaTeX basics page.

Although LaTeX can be edited using any text editor, the following programs have features such as syntax coloring and built-in previewing for LaTeX.

==For more than one platform==
===TexMaker (Windows/Mac/Linux)===

Very well designed [http://www.xm1math.net/texmaker/ free editor] with buttons for compiling into dvi, ps, and pdf. Limited text coloring for different environments.

==For Windows==

===WinEdt===

Superb text editor for LaTeX. Highlights and colors text for the various environments. Matches parentheses, etc. Free trial for one month, then annoying popups start appearing, asking you to buy the [http://www.winedt.com/ program]. For students the price is $30.

===EditPad Lite===

[http://www.editpadpro.com/editpadlite.html EditPad], free version. Excellent text editor for general purposes, not specific to LaTeX.

===Notepad===

This is standard on all Windows operating systems.

==For Unix==

For the department computers, probably the best choice is Emacs with AucTeX.

===Emacs with AucTeX===

[http://doc.kom.aau.dk/reference_cards/ Here] are some very useful reference cards for Emacs and AucTeX commands.

To use AucTeX (and RefTeX), edit your .emacs file (you may not know it's there, but it is), for example with the shell command <pre>emacs ~/.emacs &</pre>
and insert the lines
<pre>(require 'tex-site)
(setq reftex-plug-into-AUCTeX t)
(add-hook 'LaTeX-mode-hook 'turn-on-reftex)
</pre>
After this, AucTeX will automatically start up any time you use a TeX document.

For your home computer, you may need to download these packages.

===Kile===
[http://kile.sourceforge.net/ Kile] for KDE.

==For Mac==
Since Mac OS X is based on Unix, you can also use any of the [[#For Unix|above programs]]. You can download some of the UniX packages using [http://www.finkproject.org/ Fink].

===TeXShop===
Freely available from http://www.uoregon.edu/~koch/texshop/texshop.html.

LaTeX Install

2008-08-10T20:43:36Z

Dustin: /* Installation for Mac */ MacTeX

==Installation for Windows==

There are three easy steps for installing LaTeX on Windows:
* Install GhostView - for creating and viewing postscript (.ps) files
* Install MikTex - this is the standard LaTeX package for Windows
* Install a Text Editor - to type up your own LaTeX files or edit other people's files

All these components will take up approximately 400 MB on your computer, but have at least 600 MB free before installation to keep your computer running smoothly.

===Installing GhostView===

This step is so that you can create and view postscript (.ps) files.

You need to download GhostView, which consists of two parts, GSView and Ghostscript. [http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/gsview/index.htm Download] the most current versions of both and install them following the instructions in the self-extracting installation packages. Users of personal computers should install the Win32 versions of these packages.

===Installing MikTeX===

This is the crucial component of the installation and also the biggest on disk, consisting of more than 300 MB. Expect it to take about an hour to download and install, even with a fast connection and computer.

Go to the [http://miktex.org/ MikTex webpage] and choose Install MikTex from the left menu bar. Select the version you want to install (probably the newest) and follow the instructions. You usually have the choice between a basic install and a full install. If you have the room on your computer and plan to use LaTeX pretty heavily in the future, you might as well do a complete install, rather than having to [[Latex_Install#Installing_Extra_Packages add packages later]]. (Note: this is pretty much unnecessary with newer versions of MikTeX, if you're always connected to the internet -- it downloads any packages you need on the fly, while compiling your tex documents.)

Once MikTeX is done installing, it will have created two directories full of many files: the <tt>MikTex</tt> directory and the <tt>texmf</tt> directory, the latter of which has all the executable files like <tt>latex.exe</tt> .

====Adding MikTeX to the PATH====
In Windows, the "PATH" is a list of directories which are automatically searches for executable files when you type a command on the command line. You should add the directory containing <code>latex.exe</code> to the PATH.

In Windows XP, go to Control Panel, click on 'System', go to the 'Advanced' tab, click on 'Environment Variables'. Scroll down the 'user variables' box until you find "PATH" (you may need to create it?), and add the appropriate directory, probably <code>c:\miktex\texmf\bin\</code>. Multiple entries in the PATH should be separated by semicolons (;).

===Installing a Text Editor===

Any text editor is sufficient to type up LaTeX documents, however some are specially designed with LaTeX in mind. These usually have buttons for common tasks and text highlighting/coloration for LaTeX environments like Math Mode.

Warning: do not type up LaTeX documents in word processing programs, such as MS Word. These programs "mark up" the text, meaning they have program-specific coding hidden in the file. The text you see on screen is much less than the actual text inside the file. The LaTeX compiler will encounter this extra coding and produce strange results.

It's recommended to use a text editor with LaTeX-specific features. Such a list can be found [[Text_Editor | here]].

For text editors without LaTeX in mind, you will have to create your LaTeX files in them (making sure to give them a .tex filename extension). Open the command prompt, navigate to the directory containing your file, and type <code>latex <filename></code> to compile the file. This produces several files, including a <code>.dvi</code> file. The DVI file can easily be converted to PS or PDF formats.

(Note, this requires that you have correctly set the PATH, as described above.)

===Installing Extra Packages===
Once you've been using LaTeX for a while, you may find that you need to install new/additional LaTeX packages. MikTeX makes this process very simple. Find MikTeX in your Start Menu and select <tt>MikTex Options</tt>. This is the file <tt>mo.exe</tt> in the same directory where you find <tt>latex.exe</tt> (usually this is <tt>C:\texmf\miktex\bin</tt> ).

Click on the <tt>Packages</tt> tab, then right-click the root of the directory tree (usually called 'MikTeX Packages'). The option 'Find Package' appears, so click it. Then type the name of the package you seek into the appropriate field and click 'Find Now'. Select the search result you want and click 'Goto'. Install if necessary.

==Installation for Mac==

===Installing LaTeX===

[http://www.tug.org/mactex/ MacTeX] is a complete LaTeX distribution for the Mac. It includes lots of TeX-related software, such as TeXShop, a graphical front end for editing and compiling LaTeX. Be warned that it's a 744 MB download, which is the price you pay for completeness.

A list of other text editors can be found [[Text Editor | here]].

===Installing Extra Packages===

Once you've been using LaTeX for a while, you may find that you need to install new/additional LaTeX packages.

==Installation for Linux==
If you're running something debian-like (including ubuntu), just type

sudo apt-get install latex

Easy, huh? You can now tex your documents with commands like

latex thesis

You might want to learn how to use emacs, which is often considered the-one-true-editor. On the other hand, it's a long and steep learning curve before you might believe that.

Scientific Software

2008-08-10T18:41:10Z

Dustin: Added software packages, fink

List of software which might be useful for graduate math:

* Mathematica, Maple, and MATLAB are all available on <tt>panda</tt>.
* [http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/ Octave] is a free program that runs most MATLAB code.
* [http://www.singular.uni-kl.de/ Singular], [http://www.math.uiuc.edu/Macaulay2/ Macaulay 2], and [http://cocoa.dima.unige.it/ CoCoA] are free programs for doing computational commutative algebra. The first two are available on <tt>panda</tt> with the command names <tt>Singular</tt> and <tt>M2</tt> respectively.
* [http://www.math.tu-berlin.de/polymake/ Polymake] is a free software package for computations with polytopes, polyhedra, etc. Available on <tt>panda</tt>.
* [http://magma.maths.usyd.edu.au/magma/ MAGMA] does computations with many algebraic objects. Not free, but available on <tt>panda</tt>.

All of these packages are either freely available or installed on <tt>panda</tt>, the math department's login server (also known as <tt>login.math.berkeley.edu</tt>). See [[File Management#SSH|here]] for instructions on connecting to <tt>panda</tt> from your personal computer.

See also the list of [[Text Editor|text editors]] for various operating systems.

===Fink===

[http://www.finkproject.org/ Fink] is a program for Mac OS X which makes it easy to install and update most of the free software packages above and many others as well.

File Management

2008-08-10T18:17:09Z

Dustin: /* Permissions */ chmod's arguments were backwards

This page describes how to manage your files on the math department network, both remotely and locally. File uploading/downloading, directory creation, and setting permissions are among the topics covered belong.

===Connecting to the Network===

In order to manage your account, you first have to connect to the network. If you are in Evans, you can log onto one of the departmental computers (such as the ones in 708) and instantly be on your math department account. Note that the only computers allowed to be physically connected to the network are the departmental ones. Therefore, if you want to connect from another computer, such as your laptop or home computer, you need to connect remotely. There are two kinds of programs that can connect your computer remotely, SSH and SFTP.

====SSH====

SSH stands for Secure Shell. For those who have used Telnet before, it is practically the same program except that is has stronger encryption to securely transfer data. The department server no longer accepts connection requests from Telnet clients, so you have to use SSH if you want to connect.

SSH basically is a program that mimics the Terminal windows found on our department's computers. It is useful for editing files, changing file permissions and running basic programs like text editors or Pine email program. With a more elaborate setup, you can actually run programs such as webbrowsers remotely through SSH (but be warned, it can be an extremely slow process!).

* Windows: you need to download an SSH client. One option is [http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/ Putty]. Then use the SSH client to connect to <code>login.math.berkeley.edu</code>, using your usual departmental username and password.
* Mac: you already have SSH installed with your operating system. Just go to Utilities and click on Terminal. In the terminal window, type: <code>ssh -l <username> login.math.berkeley.edu</code> The <code>-l <username></code> part indicates to SSH that you want to log in with that specific username; if you don't include this text, then SSH will automatically use the account name on your computer (which probably won't be your departmental username).
* Unix: you probably have SSH preinstalled as well. Just open a terminal window and type in the same thing Mac users do.

Professor Vojta has the following [/computing/vojta/ssh.html reference].

====SFTP====

SFTP stands for Secure File Transfer Protocol, which is a secure version of FTP. As with Telnet, the department server no longer accepts connection requests from FTP, in order to increase network security.

As the name suggests, this program is primarily used to transfer files between the computer you are on and your account on the department network. Many SFTP clients have a graphical interface which make downloading and uploading very easy, and most also have an easy way of changing file and directory permissions.

I do not know whether SFTP comes standard on Macs or Unix, but it may be worthwhile to install a program anyway since there are many free, well-written programs out there. A recommendation for Windows is [http://winscp.net/ WinSCP].

===Navigation===

Every file and directory has a path; if you think of the directories as a tree, then the path is just the path in the tree through all the subdirectories you need to get to that directory or file. For example, your account's home directory is <code>/home/u2/grad/<username></code>

* <code>cd <pathname></code> Change directory to the one given in <pathname>. This command has a very fine distinction between absolute paths and relative paths. If the pathname does not begin with / then it signifies that you are talking about subdirectories of the current one. If it does begin with / then you are specifying the path from the root of the directory tree.
* <code>cd ..</code> Go up one level in the heirarchy.
* <code>pwd</code> Present working directory. This is really useful if you've forgotten what directory you're in.
* <code>ls</code> Lists the files and subdirectories of the present directory.
* <code>ls -a</code> Lists all the files and subdirectories in the present directory. This includes settings files and other weird junk that usually you don't care about.

===Create, Move and Destroy===

The file server tends to treat directories very differently from files, so if you're going to do some major changes to you account heirarchy it's probably better to use a graphical SFTP program than trying to do this all in a terminal or SSH.

* <code>mkdir <name></code> Makes a new directory with the given name.
* <code>cp <filename> <pathname></code> Creates a copy of file <filename> in the directory given by <pathname>. The same caveat regarding pathnames applies as with <code>cd</code>. This assumes that the file is in the current directory. If you'd like to move a file in a different directory, you have to put the file's path instead of <filename>.
* <code>mv <filename> <pathname></code> Exactly like copy, except it moves the file (so that the file no longer exists in the location it came from.
* <code>rm <filename></code> Removes (deletes) the file. Be VERY careful if you try to apply this command to a directory--many times the file server won't let you, but if it does and you type things in wrong, the results could be disastrous.

===Permissions===

In order for other people to be able to access your files (in particular, webpages) you have to set the permissions on files and directories appropriately. Every file and folder has many permission variables, but the three that are most relevant are denoted R (read), W (write), and X (execute). By default you have all these permissions and no one else does so if you want to give other people these permissions you have to actually adjust the permissions.

A user who has R permission on a file may view the file and R permission on a directory allows you to see the contents. W permission allows the user to change the file, including replacing or deleting it. Only trusted users should be given this permission, and in general it is best to only give yourself this permission. The X permission allows a user to execute a file--this is relevant if you have some sort of web script or other mini-program that external users might want to use.

There are three classes of individuals who may read, write or execute a file; they are Owner (=you), Group (on the math server, this will usually be just you also), and Others. For each set of users, you decide which permissions to give. Each file or directory has a three digit permission code: the first digit corresponds to the permissions for owner, the second digit corresponds to group, and third digit to others.

In general, private files should have permissions set to 600 (owner has RW) or 700 (owner has RWX). Public files (such as those needed for your webpage) should be set to 744 in general, or 755 if they are an executable file. Private directories should have permissions set to 700, while public directories should all be set to 755.

To change the file/directory permissions, type <code>chmod <3digitcode> <file/directoryname></code>