<p>I’m trying to decide between BC and Providence College. I am going to be a math major. Assuming everything else about the schools is equal (although maybe it’s not), does anyone know how their math programs compare? Thank you!</p>
<p>BC's math major is much more rigorous, requiring more depth and breadth. Just compare the number of math classes offered by both schools -- and also how frequently each is offered. Also look at the variety of topics offered and the research areas that the faculty is involved in.</p>
<p>BC no competition dude dumb question</p>
<p>^ @afitscher: Take it easy - it's a reasonable question, and your answer was unreasonable. I'm sure for a teenager you have a huge brain, but try not to be so sanctimonious. You're not at Emory yet.</p>
<p>@Disney (OP): IMO, BC wins hands-down. PC's math and science offerings are much weaker than BC's, mostly due to the issues that worried_mom raises about size of dept. plus number of offerings and tracks. You should be in the habit of checking out the on-line catalogs for the schools you have applied to in order to make sure you understand what courses they offer and how often. It is common at some smaller schools to list 30 or 40 courses in the catalog but only offer a fraction of them on any regular basis. Also, I believe PC has math and comp sci and all other related topics rolled into one small dept.. lack of grad studies in math. And I would suspect (but don't know for sure) that at BC the CSOM math requirements force BC to keep their math dept up to snuff. </p>
<p>You can probably find out on-line what the trend has been for the depts.. are they growing (adding) profs, or are they static? Has the trend been upward in terms of # grads in the dept, or is it slowing/shrinking? I know BC has data like this on-line re: grad stats. I have seen a link to it on here before. If you want applied math vs pure math then that figures into it as well. I think PC may be more pure only, whereas BC can accomodate both tracks, based largely on size.</p>
<p>Look at this BC link and you can see research opportunities at BC. See if PC has a similar guide on-line:
<a href="http://www.bc.edu/publications/factbook/meta-elements/pdf/07-08/07-08_fact_book.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.bc.edu/publications/factbook/meta-elements/pdf/07-08/07-08_fact_book.pdf</a></p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your responses! afitscher, I know that it is a pretty stupid/obvious question; I visited both of the schools and it was pretty clear to me that Providence's math program exists just for the sake of providing every student with their one math core class. I just wanted to get an unbiased opinion from some people on here before crossing PC off of my list officially. Thanks for your help guys, I appreciate it!</p>