Choosing Between Brown and Cornell for Pure Math

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I've been admitted to both Brown and Cornell, and I'm having a difficult time choosing between them. I plan on majoring in mathematics. (I am really only interested in pure math, so applied math rankings don't matter to me). I've been doing a lot of reading, so I'll list the impressions I have so far, and I'd be happy to hear more opinions on any of these areas:</p>

<ul>
<li>Brown is better at teaching undergraduates in general (smaller classes, more access to professors, etc)</li>
<li>It would be easier to take graduate level courses and do undergraduate research at Brown (not sure on this one, but presumably because of school/department size)</li>
<li>Brown is more selective than Cornell</li>
<li>Cornell has a much broader and more comprehensive selection of math courses than Brown (from looking at course catalogs)</li>
<li>Cornell is usually ranked higher than Brown for pure math (US News, Shanghai, etc)</li>
</ul>

<p>I am aware of the cultural and climatic differences, and I know they won't carry much weight in my final choice. Any opinions on quality of math programs and overall education would be greatly appreciated. I am also interested in knowing if there are any other significant criteria I haven't listed here that I should be considering. In particular, I'd be curious to know if Brown's lack of core curriculum would significantly affect the amount of math I could take. But, again, any opinions that could help in my decision are greatly appreciated.</p>

2

<p>How advanced are you in math? If you will be going straight to junior/senior level math as a frosh, then class size differences tend to be less significant, while availability of graduate level courses and research tend to be more significant.</p>

<p>You can check class sizes on the on-line schedules of many schools.</p>

3

<p>Upon further reading, I found that (surprisingly), Brown and Cornell have the same student to faculty ratio (9:1). That seems to indicate that students at either institution would have about equal access to research opportunities as undergraduates, unless there are other factors I’m not thinking of.</p>

4

<p>The student/faculty ratio for each department may vary compared to the entire school. Research opportunities could also vary based on the amount and type of research being done, and how much of the research opportunities are taken by graduate students.</p>