It is actually very common to find great programmers who are also musicians. I have been told it’s the same part of the brain
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Very true of mathematicians as well. Noam Elkies springs to mind (google him if you think that kids applying to the Ivies are any more talented today than 40 years ago - hint, they’re not).
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Always has been the case that folks are multi-faceted. Though it seems like some people think people can only /only want to dive deep in one area.
Tom Lehrer is an even better example.
But you can have wide interests without being required (or even choosing) to take a wide variety of college classes.
“Always has been the case that folks are multi-faceted. Though it seems like some people think people can only /only want to dive deep in one area”
That’s what the OP said her son wanted to do, deep dive in math, a college where that’s all he takes, math courses. Just because someone says they love math doesn’t mean they love music like they love math. OP’s son plays piano and chess, but the OP’s question was a good place for math, not math and music. That could change of course as OP’s son goes through the admissions process.
True the OP had said a great place to dig deep for math. But the conversation had moved well off track from the original post. Many kept repeating thoughts that were either/or and related to LACs etc. Go back and look at the thread.
OP, I’m afraid the conversation has gotten a bit ahead of you. Let us know if any of this has been helpful.
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@BeekMom - Not sure you are still reading this, but I and others made the suggestion of math summer camps.
It’s all still a mess because of COVID, I think everything will be virtual again this summer (a real shame), but have your son look at this year’s problems for Mathcamp. The application just opened up, and it would be a fantastic way to spend five weeks this summer - I promise he will be as challenged as he wants to be, the curriculum is completely wide open, take as many or as few courses as you want.
Overview: Mathcamp: Fast Facts
This year’s entrance problems (they look fun): Mathcamp: The 2023 Quiz
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Yes, still here and still reading, and still feeling very grateful— I can’t tell you how helpful this thread has been, both the posts and the private messages I’ve received.
I realize too that some of the conversation has moved on to related topics, and is now of a more general interest, so I didn’t want to post and pull it back to just my kid’s needs.
But focusing on his situation for just a moment: yes, we are definitely looking into math camps. I’m sorry they’re mostly online this year, because I think living away from home for 6 weeks this summer would have been really helpful for transitioning to college. But it is what it is! He’s still drawn to taking a regular UCB math course over the summer, but I do think he’d love a math camp if he tried it. We’re looking into Canada-USA, PROMYS, and Stanford.
He is still very interested in applying to Oxbridge, and we’re looking for a STEP test center near us— it looks like there may be one in Hayward. I’m assuming they’d offer the Oxford test (MAT?) as well, but we have longer to set that up.
In addition to Oxbridge, he will probably take some long shots at Princeton, Harvard, Brown, and maybe a couple more. And in state he’ll definitely apply to UCB, UCLA, UCSD, UCD, and UCSB, for the Center of Creative Studies.
Besides that, we still plan to reach out to the Williams math dept to ask about his specific situation. Still on the fence about MIT, Cal Tech, Harvey Mudd— and those are additional long shots anyway.
So probably where we need to round out is target and safety schools (do I have those terms right?)— specifically, I’m assuming that state flagship schools with good grad math depts would be important to include. So far people have recommended: U of Michigan (but very hard to get into OOS), UIUC, U of Wisconsin, U of Washington— do any others come to mind?
Ideally (and this is mom talk again), I’d keep him out of a large and possibly overwhelming city (avoiding NYC for this reason, possibly avoiding Chicago), and I’d look for a place with an honors program and, of course, a great math dept where people might be interested in a kid like him.
Thanks again!
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@HazeGrey , Thank you for this detailed response— so helpful.
And also so helpful to get a recommendation for a particular college.
I’m glad your son has been happy at Oxford!
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Yes, in my earlier summary post i left out Swarthmore (with U Penn) and Amherst (with UM) as possible LAC’s that might work. Again, I realize that I am being mom-pulled toward the size and care of LAC’s for my particular kid; i realize he may need a larger U with a grad dept, and that’s probably where he’ll end up… but I will definitely explore these options 
Thank you for this helpful post!
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Plenty of pointy kids at Wesleyan. 
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UCLA is in Los Angeles, and UCB (where he appears to be doing fine taking classes) is in a somewhat city-like environment. Has he had any issues with the city-like environment taking classes at UCB (at least before COVID-19 when they were in-person)? Was he commuting there by public transportation?
With cross-registration situations, pay attention to commuting ease / difficulty and whether the colleges have synchronized calendars. Also, if “big city” is a concern, UPenn is in Philadelphia.
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Thanks for pointing out the difference between “forced” and “unforced” acceleration — I hadn’t thought about that, and my son’s acceleration is definitely not forced. His high school math dept stood in his way as much as they could, actually, and never allowed him to accelerate within the school.
We are lucky in that we’ve been saving for college since my son was born, and family members have contributed as well. I’m assuming we will be full-pay, but, again luckily, we can do that.
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He only started taking UCB classes last summer, so has never attended in-person. I’m guessing he would be nervous about commuting at first, but then it would be fine (like almost anything else).
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It shouldn’t be difficult to combine a summer course at UCB with Mathcamp, now that it is virtual. The added benefit would be that Mathcamp would almost certainly offer one-week in depth modules on interesting aspects of any course that he would likely take at UCB - for pure math and for variety, there is nothing like Mathcamp (PROMYS will be all number theory and much more structured; SUMaC is structured and generally more topology/algebra). Take a look at the 1-week course Mathcamp modules offered last year if you haven’t seen them: Mathcamp 2020 Classes
For super-elite universities, don’t overlook Yale, as it is actively trying to increase its talent level in undergraduate mathematics. No, it is not the equivalent of Princeton or Harvard for what we are talking about here, but for pure math, I’d place it stronger than Brown (which has always had an applied focus at least to my mind). Distribution requirements would of course be much greater at Yale, but that is not necesarily a bad thing for the pure mathematician.
For an OOS safety, University of Utah might be worth a look, strong in math, and a real possibility of substantial merit funding for talented students.
Good luck!
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This is all enormously helpful— thank you! Your summary of the various math camps is great— if I can only get my son to dive into one problem set, we’ll choose Mathcamp.
And thank you for Yale— absolutely going on the list. Your U of Utah recc, too, is very helpful.
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Yes, Utah is definitely a good OOS safety for pure math and convenient for California. Their best math students are very successful in securing Churchill scholarships and going on to top graduate programs:
The three winners above ended up with math PhD places at Stanford, Columbia and Michigan respectively after their Churchill scholarships.
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I second adding Yale. Among the HYPSM contingent, Yale is unique in that it actively recruits strong STEM kids. It rolls out the red carpet for them by offering likely letters to the strongest regular decision STEM applicants, and invites these likely letter recipients to Yale Engineering and Science Weekend (YES-W) with about 100 other really strong STEM kids.
And as far as avoiding big cities goes, UChicago is not in downtown Chicago. It is in Hyde Park which feels closer to a suburb. Very different than say NYU or Columbia.
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Things may have changed in the past four years, but that wasn’t my son’s experience with Yale. He was Yale’s home state HS math champ in 11th/12th grade. He also competed in the PUMAC and HMMT with a group called the New Haven Math Circle that was run by a Yale professor. That professor wrote to Yale admissions on my son’s behalf for Yale’s Math & Econ program. Didn’t hear a word from Yale other than a straight rejection RD.