Are these schools good for math (pure, or applied)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take NyU off and add some ivies and uchicago

Really? Ever hear of Courant? NYU is very good at math.

That's at the graduate level, though. I don't see any evidence of their undergraduate program being particularly rigorous.

Who said this is just about undergrad? Why do you make the rules?

And how do you determine if an undergrad program is rigorous? One of the smartest mathematicians I have ever met went to a completely random school for undergrad, mainly for financial reasons. They were highly motivated and did the work to get into an elite PhD program and went from there.

So we should just conclude that every college has a good math program since there’s always going to be an incredibly intelligent student who can make it work? What a useless comment.

I'm saying that it is very hard to differentiate between these schools at such a granular level and most people who are capable of doing so are likely doing better things with their lives than posting here. And that most people doing so might be doing it based on one or two data points, so I am pre-emptively shooting all of that down by providing a contrarian data point.

There are a handful of kids in America for whom the nuanced differences between different math departments truly matter. These kids are off the charts. You know them when you meet them (and you probably haven't met them). Skippy or Sanjay or Hong taking Calculus at TJ or Stuy as a freshman or sophomore does not qualify him in this group.

OP didn’t ask for nuances between them. They asked for confirmation of whether they were good programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take NyU off and add some ivies and uchicago

Really? Ever hear of Courant? NYU is very good at math.

That's at the graduate level, though. I don't see any evidence of their undergraduate program being particularly rigorous.

Who said this is just about undergrad? Why do you make the rules?

And how do you determine if an undergrad program is rigorous? One of the smartest mathematicians I have ever met went to a completely random school for undergrad, mainly for financial reasons. They were highly motivated and did the work to get into an elite PhD program and went from there.

So we should just conclude that every college has a good math program since there’s always going to be an incredibly intelligent student who can make it work? What a useless comment.

I'm saying that it is very hard to differentiate between these schools at such a granular level and most people who are capable of doing so are likely doing better things with their lives than posting here. And that most people doing so might be doing it based on one or two data points, so I am pre-emptively shooting all of that down by providing a contrarian data point.

There are a handful of kids in America for whom the nuanced differences between different math departments truly matter. These kids are off the charts. You know them when you meet them (and you probably haven't met them). Skippy or Sanjay or Hong taking Calculus at TJ or Stuy as a freshman or sophomore does not qualify him in this group.

This is true. The idea that some mom is posting to see which of these excellent institutions is good enough for her math inclined 16 year old is ridiculous. He’ll be fine any of these places (or UMD!) op.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NYU
Johns Hopkins
Rice
Harvey Mudd
UMich - I heard their Math Honors track is good?
Williams
Swarthmore
CMU

No. All these schools are horrible for math. Silly thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Although I'm not a particular fan of this site, it may offer you some ideas:

https://www.collegetransitions.com/blog/best-colleges-for-mathematics/

As a suggestion on LACs, if you have an interest in applied math, consider those with an available major in data science.

Applied math isn't data science. Statistics isn't data science either. They're different fields.

[Anonymous]

Brown is great for applied math

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Although I'm not a particular fan of this site, it may offer you some ideas:

https://www.collegetransitions.com/blog/best-colleges-for-mathematics/

As a suggestion on LACs, if you have an interest in applied math, consider those with an available major in data science.

Applied math isn't data science. Statistics isn't data science either. They're different fields.

This is what the University of Washington, for example, says about its data science track:

"The Data Science option in Applied Mathematics provides students with training in data science methods and practices through the study of statistical modeling, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and optimization, among other aspects of applied mathematics. "

Note that the term applied mathematics appears twice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Although I'm not a particular fan of this site, it may offer you some ideas:

https://www.collegetransitions.com/blog/best-colleges-for-mathematics/

As a suggestion on LACs, if you have an interest in applied math, consider those with an available major in data science.

Applied math isn't data science. Statistics isn't data science either. They're different fields.

This is what the University of Washington, for example, says about its data science track:

"The Data Science option in Applied Mathematics provides students with training in data science methods and practices through the study of statistical modeling, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and optimization, among other aspects of applied mathematics. "

Note that the term applied mathematics appears twice.

Cool. Different fields.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Although I'm not a particular fan of this site, it may offer you some ideas:

https://www.collegetransitions.com/blog/best-colleges-for-mathematics/

As a suggestion on LACs, if you have an interest in applied math, consider those with an available major in data science.

Applied math isn't data science. Statistics isn't data science either. They're different fields.

This is what the University of Washington, for example, says about its data science track:

"The Data Science option in Applied Mathematics provides students with training in data science methods and practices through the study of statistical modeling, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and optimization, among other aspects of applied mathematics. "

Note that the term applied mathematics appears twice.

Cool. Different fields.

I'll go ahead and tell you that they need to restructure the department because the God of Math has decided.

[Anonymous]

Tell UW, that is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Although I'm not a particular fan of this site, it may offer you some ideas:

https://www.collegetransitions.com/blog/best-colleges-for-mathematics/

As a suggestion on LACs, if you have an interest in applied math, consider those with an available major in data science.

Applied math isn't data science. Statistics isn't data science either. They're different fields.

This is what the University of Washington, for example, says about its data science track:

"The Data Science option in Applied Mathematics provides students with training in data science methods and practices through the study of statistical modeling, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and optimization, among other aspects of applied mathematics. "

Note that the term applied mathematics appears twice.

It's all 'applied' mathematics obviously. Historically, universities didn't quite know where to put the AI/ML/Statistical learning. Some put them with stats, CS, or math. Ultimately unless you're gunning for a PhD these days 'Data Scientist' to future employers means 'scripting things in Python' or 'building a dashboard'.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NYU
Johns Hopkins
Rice
Harvey Mudd
UMich - I heard their Math Honors track is good?
Williams
Swarthmore
CMU

My kid is into math - likes both pure and applied. Qualified for USAJMO & USAMO and has a few other activities/achievements in math. Objectively would be among the top 50-100 students for their grade in math.

We looked wide and far and talked to a few actual students from different universities. Every T100 college has a strong math program that would meet the needs of your undergraduate student. Every college we looked at had enough really strong math students that your kid would have a good peer group at these places. So quality of the undergraduate math program is not something to worry about. All the things your kid would be doing at undergraduate level are not going to be any different. For graduate and PhD, yes you need to look deeper.

Look at other things, this is a non-issue. DC is going to one of HYPSM, but would have been fine with any of the colleges on their list which rank all the way to T75.

[Anonymous]

Can't speak to anywhere but UChicago, but the Math 183-185 sequence, which is applied math for anyone going into exact sciences, is fantastic for students who want mastery and are willing to do 20 hours / week on problem sets minimum. The point is--you're actually going to learn this stuff if you put in the work. It's basically all of freshman year and 1/3 of sophomore year. The only issue is that it's hard to go from that to being a Math major because they really tailor it for other majors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Although I'm not a particular fan of this site, it may offer you some ideas:

https://www.collegetransitions.com/blog/best-colleges-for-mathematics/

As a suggestion on LACs, if you have an interest in applied math, consider those with an available major in data science.

Applied math isn't data science. Statistics isn't data science either. They're different fields.

This is what the University of Washington, for example, says about its data science track:

"The Data Science option in Applied Mathematics provides students with training in data science methods and practices through the study of statistical modeling, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and optimization, among other aspects of applied mathematics. "

Note that the term applied mathematics appears twice.

It's all 'applied' mathematics obviously. Historically, universities didn't quite know where to put the AI/ML/Statistical learning. Some put them with stats, CS, or math. Ultimately unless you're gunning for a PhD these days 'Data Scientist' to future employers means 'scripting things in Python' or 'building a dashboard'.

I'll add that an undergraduate data science major will often include an applied domain of the student's choice, such as government, environmental science, or sociology.

In any case, I believe the suggestion that the OP consider colleges will an available major in data science is a sound one. Doing so could maintain such an option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take NyU off and add some ivies and uchicago

Really? Ever hear of Courant? NYU is very good at math.

That's at the graduate level, though. I don't see any evidence of their undergraduate program being particularly rigorous.

Who said this is just about undergrad? Why do you make the rules?

And how do you determine if an undergrad program is rigorous? One of the smartest mathematicians I have ever met went to a completely random school for undergrad, mainly for financial reasons. They were highly motivated and did the work to get into an elite PhD program and went from there.

It's pretty reasonable to assume it's for undergrad, as grad students can talk to professors rather then DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Ga Tech should be on there.