Anonymous
Post 03/11/2025 20:35     Subject: Re:Pomona Vs Williams

Compare Pomona/Mudd faculty to Williams and see which covers more areas that DC is interested in.
Anonymous
Post 03/11/2025 18:04     Subject: Re:Pomona Vs Williams

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Kid is likely going to have this dilemma, so interested in more recent answers!



I would pick Pomona so kid could also take classes at Mudd. Best of both and the location is much better than Williams. But if DC prefers Williams, then sure. Great school! Can't go wrong, honestly.

I agree. I have spent a good amount of time in both areas. The vibe of the Claremont Colleges is much more chill, yet very studious. You see people out and about more because of the sun. There is more choice in terms of courses, people, activities because all the colleges are sitting next to each other. In Williamstown there is a three block strip of businesses/restaurants and the campus of 2k students. Beautiful very cold area of MA. Academically, you will not go wrong either way. It is a personal choice as to which sort of culture you want your academic experience set in, and how many people you feel the need to have around you for social choice and activities that you want to get involved in, and number of choices of places to walk to. Also Mudd math/STEM classes are far superior to Williams.
Anonymous
Post 03/11/2025 11:57     Subject: Pomona Vs Williams

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:For math superstars, aren’t you better off going to a large university where you can take graduate level courses when you run out of undergraduate offerings. You can also hang out with math PhDs. What is the appeal of being with 2000 students for 4 years isolated from civilization. Sounds like a nightmare to me

The average kid at both Williams and Pomona is ridiculously smart. I can't imagine such kids--being the default at both schools--frequently run out of undergrad math offerings, particularly at Pomona where students also have access to Mudd's classes. Of course, if you happen to have a true math prodigy like Terrance Tao, then, yes, you should go to Princeton, MIT, or UCLA at age 16. But such prodigies are rare. And the advantage of Williams or Pomona is that you will get a truly well-rounded education with ample room to explore other disciplines.


Princeton's full first semester math = 3 weeks of Mudd's first semester math. At Mudd, kids don't have only calculus 1, they study calculus 1-3.
Teaching calc 1 in three weeks doesn't seem productive.

Clearly it works well at Mudd, since they're a top feeder for mathematics grad school. Back when I was a physics major at an LAC, we had mathematical methods of physics and calc 1 and 2 were done well over a month, so it is certainly possible, but you have to dedicate time.
Anonymous
Post 03/11/2025 09:06     Subject: Pomona Vs Williams

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:For math superstars, aren’t you better off going to a large university where you can take graduate level courses when you run out of undergraduate offerings. You can also hang out with math PhDs. What is the appeal of being with 2000 students for 4 years isolated from civilization. Sounds like a nightmare to me

The average kid at both Williams and Pomona is ridiculously smart. I can't imagine such kids--being the default at both schools--frequently run out of undergrad math offerings, particularly at Pomona where students also have access to Mudd's classes. Of course, if you happen to have a true math prodigy like Terrance Tao, then, yes, you should go to Princeton, MIT, or UCLA at age 16. But such prodigies are rare. And the advantage of Williams or Pomona is that you will get a truly well-rounded education with ample room to explore other disciplines.


Princeton's full first semester math = 3 weeks of Mudd's first semester math. At Mudd, kids don't have only calculus 1, they study calculus 1-3.
Teaching calc 1 in three weeks doesn't seem productive.
Anonymous
Post 03/11/2025 08:57     Subject: Re:Pomona Vs Williams

Anonymous wrote:Kid is likely going to have this dilemma, so interested in more recent answers!



I would pick Pomona so kid could also take classes at Mudd. Best of both and the location is much better than Williams. But if DC prefers Williams, then sure. Great school! Can't go wrong, honestly.
Anonymous
Post 03/11/2025 03:16     Subject: Re:Pomona Vs Williams

Anonymous wrote:Kid is likely going to have this dilemma, so interested in more recent answers!

I adore both campuses-they're my favorite amongst the liberal arts colleges. They're so alike that it is splitting hairs to differentiate the two. Williams has the advantage of tutorials, while Pomona has the advantage of The Claremont Colleges. Both are outdoorsy and have fantastic educational opportunities. If one gets into both, they'd have to think very long, considering between the two.
Anonymous
Post 02/28/2025 21:15     Subject: Pomona Vs Williams

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:For math superstars, aren’t you better off going to a large university where you can take graduate level courses when you run out of undergraduate offerings. You can also hang out with math PhDs. What is the appeal of being with 2000 students for 4 years isolated from civilization. Sounds like a nightmare to me

The average kid at both Williams and Pomona is ridiculously smart. I can't imagine such kids--being the default at both schools--frequently run out of undergrad math offerings, particularly at Pomona where students also have access to Mudd's classes. Of course, if you happen to have a true math prodigy like Terrance Tao, then, yes, you should go to Princeton, MIT, or UCLA at age 16. But such prodigies are rare. And the advantage of Williams or Pomona is that you will get a truly well-rounded education with ample room to explore other disciplines.


Princeton's full first semester math = 3 weeks of Mudd's first semester math. At Mudd, kids don't have only calculus 1, they study calculus 1-3.
Anonymous
Post 02/28/2025 20:54     Subject: Re:Pomona Vs Williams

Kid is likely going to have this dilemma, so interested in more recent answers!
Anonymous
Post 12/27/2024 12:58     Subject: Pomona Vs Williams

Anonymous wrote:For math superstars, aren’t you better off going to a large university where you can take graduate level courses when you run out of undergraduate offerings. You can also hang out with math PhDs. What is the appeal of being with 2000 students for 4 years isolated from civilization. Sounds like a nightmare to me

The average kid at both Williams and Pomona is ridiculously smart. I can't imagine such kids--being the default at both schools--frequently run out of undergrad math offerings, particularly at Pomona where students also have access to Mudd's classes. Of course, if you happen to have a true math prodigy like Terrance Tao, then, yes, you should go to Princeton, MIT, or UCLA at age 16. But such prodigies are rare. And the advantage of Williams or Pomona is that you will get a truly well-rounded education with ample room to explore other disciplines.
Anonymous
Post 12/27/2024 11:31     Subject: Re:Pomona Vs Williams

I’m wondering what special undergrads everyone is talking about that would run out of courses at these schools. You could start in real analysis 2 and still have enough coursework for graduation, and that would require exams in linear, vector calc, analysis, and real analysis and diffEQ before you could even get there.

Liberal arts colleges aren’t like universities where you specialize in a math field as early as possible. If you haven’t done basically every square side of math, they’re going to make you do that too. There’s no having finished math classes, unless you started college mathematics in middle school.
Anonymous
Post 12/27/2024 11:26     Subject: Pomona Vs Williams

Anonymous wrote:For math superstars, aren’t you better off going to a large university where you can take graduate level courses when you run out of undergraduate offerings. You can also hang out with math PhDs. What is the appeal of being with 2000 students for 4 years isolated from civilization. Sounds like a nightmare to me

What undergrad is hanging with PhD students? PhD students usually want to run away from undergrads. Also graduate math coursework is not collaborative…at all.
Anonymous
Post 12/27/2024 11:23     Subject: Pomona Vs Williams

Anonymous wrote:For math superstars, aren’t you better off going to a large university where you can take graduate level courses when you run out of undergraduate offerings. You can also hang out with math PhDs. What is the appeal of being with 2000 students for 4 years isolated from civilization. Sounds like a nightmare to me

Because schools like Mudd create more math PhDs per capita than any of those programs and have more graduate courses than most undergrads will ever need, even if very accelerated
Anonymous
Post 12/27/2024 11:11     Subject: Pomona Vs Williams

Anonymous wrote:For math superstars, aren’t you better off going to a large university where you can take graduate level courses when you run out of undergraduate offerings. You can also hang out with math PhDs. What is the appeal of being with 2000 students for 4 years isolated from civilization. Sounds like a nightmare to me


+1
Anonymous
Post 12/27/2024 11:07     Subject: Pomona Vs Williams

Pomona all night !
Anonymous
Post 12/27/2024 10:55     Subject: Pomona Vs Williams

Williams all day!