OP please read more about Williams, heck even just type it into Chat or Gemini or whatever. The people here telling you CMU is the obvious choice are either intentionally not being helpful or are misinformed.

Anonymous wrote:I had to do a search to learn about Williams College. Never heard of it before. It might be a great school but not well known. CMU is famous and consistently in top 3 schools for engineering programs. E.g. for AI is #1, and MIT is #2.

Everyone who needs to know knows Williams: top companies, top phD, med school, law, everything. We toured it and my mathy kid thought too small, but there was no question it was an academic fit. They went for some of the ivies to get academics plus a slightly bigger school, and bigger surroundings.

Wait for Ivy day, OP, then revisit all admits.

Anonymous wrote:The decision will be DC's, but want to hear some thoughts on Williams vs CMU for Math. Advanced student (already completed Multivar calc and Linear algebra, plus self-studied more), looking to study pure math, and likely MS/PhD in future.

Either one will be great, pick based on fit as they are very different schools despite both being academically intense

I had to do a search to learn about Williams College. Never heard of it before. It might be a great school but not well known. CMU is famous and consistently in top 3 schools for engineering programs. E.g. for AI is #1, and MIT is #2.

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Anonymous wrote:I knew a lot of math majors from Williams who went to Brown for math PhDs. A ridiculously high number of people I personally knew as someone who majored in an unrelated subject at a tiny school, for what that's worth.

Does Brown have a good / competitive / strong PhD program? We toured several years ago and their undergrad math department seems fairly small.

Yes. I don't know about their undergrad program but they have strong grad programs in both pure and applied math.

More known for their applied- they have a few notable scholars. Their pure math is nothing enviable. Similar to NYU.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I knew a lot of math majors from Williams who went to Brown for math PhDs. A ridiculously high number of people I personally knew as someone who majored in an unrelated subject at a tiny school, for what that's worth.

Does Brown have a good / competitive / strong PhD program? We toured several years ago and their undergrad math department seems fairly small.

Yes. I don't know about their undergrad program but they have strong grad programs in both pure and applied math.

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Anonymous wrote:We know a math major currently transferring out of Williams due to major fit and QOL issues. He’s so far been underwhelmed by the department and wis he would’ve gone to his other choice, Uchicago. Really make sure a tiny school in the middle of nowhere with limited faculty is what you want.

Why on earth did he pick Williams over UChicago in the first place? UChicago for pure math is significantly better than Williams.

Williams is the #1 SLAC and that means a lot. A lot.

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Anonymous wrote:We know a math major currently transferring out of Williams due to major fit and QOL issues. He’s so far been underwhelmed by the department and wis he would’ve gone to his other choice, Uchicago. Really make sure a tiny school in the middle of nowhere with limited faculty is what you want.

Why on earth did he pick Williams over UChicago in the first place? UChicago for pure math is significantly better than Williams.

Well according to dcum, Williams is the best college to have ever existed and everyone immediately gets a PhD offer along with becoming an endowed professorship! I swear it’s like talking to MAGA when you slightly critique their rural mountain school with like 10 math faculty.

Anonymous wrote:We know a math major currently transferring out of Williams due to major fit and QOL issues. He’s so far been underwhelmed by the department and wis he would’ve gone to his other choice, Uchicago. Really make sure a tiny school in the middle of nowhere with limited faculty is what you want.

Why on earth did he pick Williams over UChicago in the first place? UChicago for pure math is significantly better than Williams.

Carnegie Mellon, duh. This may be the easiest answer to a thread in a while.

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Anonymous wrote:^^ Actually, Williams, CMU vs WashU

such different vibes, where does kid feel at home?

hear, hear!!!

There's your answer!

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Anonymous wrote:When you look at the top math reu, Duluth, very few spots across decades have gone to LAC students: https://sites.google.com/view/gallian-reu/additional-information/list-of-participants?authuser=0

SLACs are great, but the difference in talents and options between a medium elite university and Williams or Pomona (two gold standard LACs for math) is pretty vast.

Which other math REUs are considered "top"?

CMU SUAMI and SMALL are both pretty well known and important. Duluth is the best of the best, though.

How is Duluth so elite when the school itself isn't, even for undergrad mathematicians? Why wouldn't highschool wannabe mathematicians go to Duluth for undergrad to get guaranteed access to the same profs conducting these top REUs?

Joe Gallian is a legend and attracts the top math students across the country for the Duluth REU.

But that's irrelevant to OP's son's college decision.

Too bad he's retired.

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Anonymous wrote:When you look at the top math reu, Duluth, very few spots across decades have gone to LAC students: https://sites.google.com/view/gallian-reu/additional-information/list-of-participants?authuser=0

SLACs are great, but the difference in talents and options between a medium elite university and Williams or Pomona (two gold standard LACs for math) is pretty vast.

Which other math REUs are considered "top"?

CMU SUAMI and SMALL are both pretty well known and important. Duluth is the best of the best, though.

How is Duluth so elite when the school itself isn't, even for undergrad mathematicians? Why wouldn't highschool wannabe mathematicians go to Duluth for undergrad to get guaranteed access to the same profs conducting these top REUs?

Joe Gallian is a legend and attracts the top math students across the country for the Duluth REU.

But that's irrelevant to OP's son's college decision.

If your kid is actually serious about high-level pure math, this isn’t that close: Carnegie Mellon University wins.
Williams College is great—for a certain type of student. But for someone already ahead, it’s just limited. Small department, fewer advanced courses, fewer people working in niche areas. You will hit the ceiling.
CMU doesn’t really have that problem. Way more upper-level and grad classes, way more serious math happening, way more peers operating at a high level. If you want to push into real, PhD-level math early, that environment matters.
Williams will support you. CMU will actually keep up with you.

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Anonymous wrote:Don't forget the name the degree will confer as a factor. Williams is the #1 SLAC and that means a lot wherever path your kid ends up choosing in life. Not the most important factor, but we should all admit it can be a factor.

Look like we have a "#1 SLAC" troll here.

Please enlighten me! Did CMU's reputation change a lot since the late 90s? And for that matter did Williams's? Im in my late 40s, not a student, but a dcum