Carlton or Reed for a student who wants to study pure math?

[Anonymous]

Looking to build a good college list and would love some advice: My DC wants to study pure math, and by the time he graduates high school, would have completed Calc IV (multivariable calculus) and Linear Algebra. Both classes were fairly easy for him.

Would either Carlton or Reed be a good school for him to continue study math, mainly:
- are math classes there challenging?
- will he "run out of" higher level math classes during his undergrad years?
- will he find a good "math kid" crowd at either school?
- other things he should be aware?

He'll likely go on to get a masters or PhD in math.

He has other schools on his list (e.g. Umich, Wisconsin, etc), and his counselor suggested these two, and we're not familiar with either.

[Anonymous]

They are both large feeders to PhD programs (per capita) so I would guess they'd be good fits for someone who wants a small school.

[Anonymous]

Reed easily. He likely will be retaking the courses at Reed because they're more rigorous than what he's used to.

[Anonymous]

Depending on his stats he should consider Pomona/Mudd

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depending on his stats he should consider Pomona/Mudd

Mudd is already on his list!

Is Pomona also good in math?

[Anonymous]

https://www.carleton.edu/math/major/math-requirements/

[Anonymous]

St Olaf.

[Anonymous]

Someone up-thread mentioned PhD feeders. Any of the schools on this list (https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/top-feeders-phd-programs#math) would be great. (That's actually two lists, with overall count on the left, per-capita on the right.)

[Anonymous]

Reed. Guy who built our algo desk at GS, and the best I have ever seen went to Reed, PhD Stanford. He needed better social skills but he was and is the smartest person I have ever met.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depending on his stats he should consider Pomona/Mudd

Mudd is already on his list!

Is Pomona also good in math?

Very! A lot of Pomona-Mudd interaction for courses, but the professors at Pomona are very strong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looking to build a good college list and would love some advice: My DC wants to study pure math, and by the time he graduates high school, would have completed Calc IV (multivariable calculus) and Linear Algebra. Both classes were fairly easy for him.

Would either Carlton or Reed be a good school for him to continue study math, mainly:
- are math classes there challenging?
- will he "run out of" higher level math classes during his undergrad years?
- will he find a good "math kid" crowd at either school?
- other things he should be aware?

He'll likely go on to get a masters or PhD in math.

He has other schools on his list (e.g. Umich, Wisconsin, etc), and his counselor suggested these two, and we're not familiar with either.

Listen to the counselors who recommended U Michigan and the University of Wisconsin as your gifted son will need access to graduate level mat classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking to build a good college list and would love some advice: My DC wants to study pure math, and by the time he graduates high school, would have completed Calc IV (multivariable calculus) and Linear Algebra. Both classes were fairly easy for him.

Would either Carlton or Reed be a good school for him to continue study math, mainly:
- are math classes there challenging?
- will he "run out of" higher level math classes during his undergrad years?
- will he find a good "math kid" crowd at either school?
- other things he should be aware?

He'll likely go on to get a masters or PhD in math.

He has other schools on his list (e.g. Umich, Wisconsin, etc), and his counselor suggested these two, and we're not familiar with either.

Listen to the counselors who recommended U Michigan and the University of Wisconsin as your gifted son will need access to graduate level mat classes.

Multivaribe clc and linear is not particularly advanced for a math major. These days kids are coming in with some discrete math, combinatorics, and real analysis. I wouldn’t even begin talking about graduate coursework till the kid takes a rigorous our math course

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking to build a good college list and would love some advice: My DC wants to study pure math, and by the time he graduates high school, would have completed Calc IV (multivariable calculus) and Linear Algebra. Both classes were fairly easy for him.

Would either Carlton or Reed be a good school for him to continue study math, mainly:
- are math classes there challenging?
- will he "run out of" higher level math classes during his undergrad years?
- will he find a good "math kid" crowd at either school?
- other things he should be aware?

He'll likely go on to get a masters or PhD in math.

He has other schools on his list (e.g. Umich, Wisconsin, etc), and his counselor suggested these two, and we're not familiar with either.

Listen to the counselors who recommended U Michigan and the University of Wisconsin as your gifted son will need access to graduate level mat classes.

Multivariable calc and linear is not particularly advanced for a math major. These days kids are coming in with some discrete math, combinatorics, and real analysis. I wouldn’t even begin talking about graduate coursework till the kid takes a rigorous pure math course

Agreed. This kid is not going to run out of math courses. People here really don't know the level of mathematical talent that actually gets you to the point of needing graduate courses by sophomore year.

[Anonymous]

Reed and Carleton appear in a sampling in the print edition of the Princeton Review, "Great Colleges for Mathematics & Statistics Majors."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depending on his stats he should consider Pomona/Mudd

Mudd is already on his list!

Is Pomona also good in math?

It pretty consistently produces top students in mathematics. Here's a few I found.
Students |
https://www.pomona.edu/news/2025/11/24-chloe-marple-26-wins-top-national-mathematics-prize
https://www.pomona.edu/news/2024/01/16-zoe-batterman-24-wins-churchill-scholarship
https://www.pomona.edu/news/2023/07/21-peter-heckendorn-22-awarded-prestigious-coro-fellowship
https://www.pomona.edu/news/2023/01/10-vera-berger-23-awarded-prestigious-churchill-scholarship
https://www.pomona.edu/news/2021/01/11-elena-kim-21-awarded-2021-alice-t-shafer-mathematics-prize