Anonymous wrote:How would you rank the top LACs for mathematics. Here's mine
1) Carleton
2) 3Cs (Claremont Mckenna, Pomona, Harvey Mudd)
3) Williams
4) Wellesley College
5) Reed
6) Haverford
one should consider course availability, outcomes, and quality of instructors.

1) Reed
2) 3Cs
3)...
No One else.

Anonymous wrote:None. Who goes to a liberal arts college to major in mathematics? Go for gender theory or history of science or music, but let’s be for real- these institutions suck at real mathematics.

Mathematics is a liberal arts discipline.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They're all great options. Really can't go wrong with any of them. I'd recommend shifting your thinking from looking for the "best" to looking for the place where your kid is most likely to bring their best.

When you apply to graduate school, they will be demarcating who is from the "best" however. A Williams student will be looked upon much more favorably than a Harvey Mudd student than a Carleton student.

lol no, the only schools getting a boost are the likes of UChicago, MIT, Princeton, Caltech, Cambridge etc. In particular, students without a solid graduate level math background leaving undegrad are going to have a hard time handling the much harder PhD level courses and doing research. Most LACs, with a few exceptions, aren't going to be able to equip their students with such a background.

What exceptions?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Replace Wellesley with Swarthmore and Move it up to first, 6th should be Vassar

+1 . Got a very talented kid doing advanced Math at Swat. It is outstanding.

I concur.
Tenure Track Faculty At Swat: 18
Tenure Track Faculty At 3Cs: 38
Tenure Track Faculty at Williams: 12
Swat has invested heavily into a premier math program.

No grad level courses, excessive prerequisites for real analysis (typically the first distinctive math course taken - the earlier the better). Not impressed.

Williams, Mudd, and Reed are better in my opinion.

Williams Real Analysis Pre-Reqs: Linear Algebra, Discrete Mathematics (or two semesters of Calc 3)
Swarthmore pre-reqs: Linear Algebra, Calc 3 (one semester)
Harvey Mudd: Linear Algebra, Discrete Mathematics
Reed: Calc 3, Introduction to Analysis, Linear Algebra
So...you just lied?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They're all great options. Really can't go wrong with any of them. I'd recommend shifting your thinking from looking for the "best" to looking for the place where your kid is most likely to bring their best.

When you apply to graduate school, they will be demarcating who is from the "best" however. A Williams student will be looked upon much more favorably than a Harvey Mudd student than a Carleton student.

lol no, the only schools getting a boost are the likes of UChicago, MIT, Princeton, Caltech, Cambridge etc. In particular, students without a solid graduate level math background leaving undegrad are going to have a hard time handling the much harder PhD level courses and doing research. Most LACs, with a few exceptions, aren't going to be able to equip their students with such a background.

Anonymous wrote:you are all so weird you have me pulling my hair out

you have no idea and no way of knowing which of these schools is better for math or worse and the bottom line is it doesn't matter anyway

why does the college forum attract so many weirdos, egg heads, and nerds??

Sure you can, just compare the syllabi, course offerings, and prerequisites.

Are you really surprised that a thread on the best math programs attracted people who know a lot about math and math programs?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Be careful in this thinking. I know that we overemphasize the importance of SAT results, but at least for math the SAT scores need to be looked at.

Most LAC's have very low SAT scores so the chances that your talented math kid will be sitting next to someone who couldn't break 720 on the math SAT is quite high! He might not enjoy that very much.

A 720 in math would be impressive for a liberal arts school student.

760 is the 25th percentile at Harvey Mudd.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Replace Wellesley with Swarthmore and Move it up to first, 6th should be Vassar

+1 . Got a very talented kid doing advanced Math at Swat. It is outstanding.

I concur.
Tenure Track Faculty At Swat: 18
Tenure Track Faculty At 3Cs: 38
Tenure Track Faculty at Williams: 12
Swat has invested heavily into a premier math program.

No grad level courses, excessive prerequisites for real analysis (typically the first distinctive math course taken - the earlier the better). Not impressed.

Williams, Mudd, and Reed are better in my opinion.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Amherst math is a beloved department, and in fact the largest one on campus.

Who goes to Amherst for math? It's a prelaw school.

A little under a fifth of Amherst students, statistically

Still a prelaw school. Not a single grad of theirs is notable in mathematics.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They're all great options. Really can't go wrong with any of them. I'd recommend shifting your thinking from looking for the "best" to looking for the place where your kid is most likely to bring their best.

When you apply to graduate school, they will be demarcating who is from the "best" however. A Williams student will be looked upon much more favorably than a Harvey Mudd student than a Carleton student.

They're literally all on the list of top feeders to mathematics doctoral programs (Mudd > Carleton > Williams btw).

OP, you can't go wrong.

Williams is known for mathematics. You clearly aren't in the industry, so you aren't in the know. But SMALL is 1/2 Williams students and VERY prestigious.

Various schools with star faculty. Pomona has the current president elect of the MAA (and the first african american one!), Harvey Mudd has the ex-president of the MAA and fellow of the AMS, a famous "mathemagician," and one of the most famous african american mathematicians with her own PBS show, ted talk, and has assisted the WHO, and there are many other top faculty at other liberal arts colleges!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Amherst math is a beloved department, and in fact the largest one on campus.

Who goes to Amherst for math? It's a prelaw school.

A little under a fifth of Amherst students, statistically

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They're all great options. Really can't go wrong with any of them. I'd recommend shifting your thinking from looking for the "best" to looking for the place where your kid is most likely to bring their best.

When you apply to graduate school, they will be demarcating who is from the "best" however. A Williams student will be looked upon much more favorably than a Harvey Mudd student than a Carleton student.

They're literally all on the list of top feeders to mathematics doctoral programs (Mudd > Carleton > Williams btw).

OP, you can't go wrong.

Williams is known for mathematics. You clearly aren't in the industry, so you aren't in the know. But SMALL is 1/2 Williams students and VERY prestigious.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They're all great options. Really can't go wrong with any of them. I'd recommend shifting your thinking from looking for the "best" to looking for the place where your kid is most likely to bring their best.

When you apply to graduate school, they will be demarcating who is from the "best" however. A Williams student will be looked upon much more favorably than a Harvey Mudd student than a Carleton student.

They're literally all on the list of top feeders to mathematics doctoral programs (Mudd > Carleton > Williams btw).

OP, you can't go wrong.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They're all great options. Really can't go wrong with any of them. I'd recommend shifting your thinking from looking for the "best" to looking for the place where your kid is most likely to bring their best.

When you apply to graduate school, they will be demarcating who is from the "best" however. A Williams student will be looked upon much more favorably than a Harvey Mudd student than a Carleton student.

Not true. The more capable and achieving student at any of those schools would be recognized, have opportunities for term and summer research, etc

The risk isn't that the school isn't prestigious enough; it's that the school won't challenge a student to their full potential and no one will notice.

Anyway, you don't need to go to the "best" graduate school. The people who do that are mostly already well identified in high school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Amherst math is a beloved department, and in fact the largest one on campus.

But mediocre.

What makes it mediocre? They teach lots of students math and have a wide range of course offerings, which are further supplanted by cross registration opportunities at UMass.