Chances for MMSS?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
1

<p>White-Male (midwest, not hooked)</p>

<p>gpa unweighted: 4.0
(hardest possible schedule)</p>

<p>Act-
English-33
Math-36
Reading-36
Science-34
Composite-35
writing-9</p>

<p>SAT II:
Math II: 800
Physics: 800
Chemistry: 770</p>

<p>APs
All 5s: Human Geography, Chemistry, Micro Econ, Macro Econ, US History, Physics B, Calc BC, Calc AB</p>

<p>Awards: AMC12 school winner (3000 students), AIME Qualifier, National Latin Exam gold medalist and silver medalist, elected senator at boy's state, model citizen award for county at boy's state, 1st team all conference lacrosse, leadership award for lacrosse, authored legislation in state senate, nominated to be on student panel to select schools principle</p>

<p>ECs: work 10 hours a week for small business, internship for us congresswoman, math tutoring, leadership training program for underclassmen, teenage ministry leader and organizer for church, church lector, church retreat leader/organizer, volunteer for chamber of commerce, trumpet in jazz band (2nd chair), write own economics blog ( Walking With Keynes ), lacrosse (4 year varsity, captain), model un, currently working on project that should decrease the number of misreported attendances in my school (not sure whether i will complete it by the time i apply)</p>

2

<p>i dont want to sound overly optimistic, but you in
ahhaha</p>

3

<p>You have a good chance. Even better if you’re ED. Only second chair in jazz band? That might cost you the golden ticket…haha</p>

4

<p>i thought mmss only took 20 people, so shouldnt it be way harder than just getting into the college?</p>

5

<p>He’s definitely not a for sure because nobody is. If you don’t get in freshman year you can apply after dominating the classes because people drop out. There are like 30 or 40 in the end.</p>

6

<p>The word is “Principal” If you are going to include it in your essay…get it right…spell-check won’t catch it. Good luck!</p>

7

<p>Way more than 20 people get in for freshmen entry since NU doesn’t get 100% yield. Also, many people are not aware of MMSS until it’s too late to apply for freshmen entry. That’s why it’s not as hard to get in as you may think. Sophomore entry is a lot harder because the yield is probably 100%.</p>

8

<p>kid, please dont apply this major. it is really a piece of joke. i was the top math student back in 2004 at NU and MMSS invited me to join and I rejected them right away. Seriously, unless you are a loser bound for cheap internship, dont apply.</p>

9

<p>^I’ve never heard of MMSS sending invites to prospies. It’s expected that interns don’t get paid like permanent employees; I am not sure what planet you came from.
[Current</a> Recruiters, Current Students, MMSS, Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences, Northwestern University](<a href=“http://www.mmss.northwestern.edu/students/recruiters.html]Current”>http://www.mmss.northwestern.edu/students/recruiters.html)
I wouldn’t call Blackstone, McKinsey, BCG, Booz, JP Morgan, Microsoft…“cheap” places.</p>

10

<p>Maybe I shouldn’t be that of a je*k here towards MMSS. But I really do not like this major that much.</p>

<p>This is what I wanted to say: this major has been way too much inflated as a stepping stone to some business internships and careers afterwards. In my personal opinion, any undergraduate education in a strong career oriented setting is an absolute failure because the real complex academic side of it would get succumbed to oversimplifications. The program also boasts itself having a rigorous training in Maths and however in reality, those Maths trainings are nothing in comparison to the Maths classes in the engineering school. As a result, it doesn’t give me the kind of sincerity and seriousness students deserve for an undergraduate education.</p>

<p>This major is more like a ‘how to interview for a finance job’ type of book sold on Amazon. According to some recent grads, it does prepare you relatively well for entry level jobs in certain types of financial industry. However, undergraduate studies should also need certain detailed depth in addition to breadth. Therefore, this major or program should be considered as equal as other majors. Successful rate in internships and entry level jobs should not be made, in anyway, a selling point of this major and Northwestern to attract potential students.</p>

<p>Ya Sam you are right, actually the pay for those internships are ok.</p>

11

<p>^Looks like you completely misunderstand the program. </p>

<ol>
<li><p>This is not a stand-alone major; everyone in MMSS has a second major, usually in econ or social sciences. Contrary to what you think, this program actually adds depth and breadth to one’s education.</p></li>
<li><p>The program was originally meant to help generate student interest in research careers in the social sciences. The curriulum is not “career-oriented”; it’s a wonderful program for people that want to go into academia. Professor Dale Mortensen, the economcis Nobel winner, was a teacher and advisor in the MMSS program for 28 years before he took a leave for University of Aarhus in Denmark. Most first-year PhDs in social sciences seriously lack math background required for serious research and have to take math modeling classes. MMSS students are way ahead in this regard “as undergrads”. That’s why Washington think-tanks like recruiting MMSS students even though they typically prefer candidates with advanced degrees. It just happens many consulting/business firms also seem to like MMSS students and that in turns draws more and more career-oriented students into the program. </p></li>
<li><p>I don’t know which engineering school in what country you went to. But math required in just about any engineering school is not that high level, at least in the US. Three semesters of Calculus, a course in linear algebra, and a course in differential equations are relatively light-weight compared to the math in MMSS. The honors Calculus sequence at McCormick may match MMSS in rigor (I am not sure) but that’s not the typical Calculus taught in most engineering schools.</p></li>
</ol>

12

<p>For those who are interested in this program, please note that MMSS requires a senior thesis. This is not some kind of watered-down or career-oriented business stats program, as xch12 assumes without doing any due diligence. After all, the program is called Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences, not “Math Methods for Business”.</p>

<p>Here’s the link to thesis library:
[Browse</a> by Year: 2010, MMSS Thesis Library, WCAS](<a href=“http://mmss.wcas.northwestern.edu/thesis/articles/browseyear]Browse”>Browse by Year: 2023 -- Thesis Library: Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences Program - Northwestern University)</p>

13

<p>My thesis is in that list :-).</p>

<p>Thank you for clarifying, Sam Lee. Indeed, xch120 clearly didn’t understand the major at all and doesn’t know what he’s talking about. It’s paired with another major. It just so happens most people take it with economics (which is what I did myself) but there’s no reason it couldn’t be taken with political science, psychology, sociology, etc. My fellow MMSS-ers have done ALL kinds of neat things, and not just “made a boatload of money on Wall Street.”</p>

14

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<p>He was head of the program when I was there and my adviser :-). He had a son who was at NU at the same time I was, as well. A very nice man.</p>