FWIW, I’ve been posting in the Michigan forum for years and there’s many, many examples of applicants applying on 10/31 or 11/1 (EA deadline) and getting accepted EA, including my D18. Date of application is NOT the reason for deferral or what is now called “postponement” by Michigan.
I’ve researched on CC back 5-8 years and I’ve seen posts each year about applying early, so Michigan will read your application. But that’s just not the case based upon the examples here on CC and also from my D’s HS class.
BTW, Michigan has an excellent math department. Math is not her major, but D has taken several upper division math courses.
Prior to this past admissions cycle, Michigan’s EA deadline has been 11/1 with all EA decisions (accepted, postponed and rejected) released by 12/24.
The RD deadline has been 2/1 with decisions being released in monthly waves of (EA postponed and RD) 2/1, 3/1 and 4/1.
In the last admissions cycle, the EA deadline was extended to 11/16 with all EA decisions released on 1/29. RD was pushed back as well.
Edit: I forgot to also add that I’ve read posts where Michigan applicants submit their applications weeks before the deadline and then are deferred/postponed. And often they continue to wait through the RD waves.
Stats and accomplishments are in the ballpark of my own kid’s. Mine also did Canada/USA (3x), AwesomeMath (1x) and considered MathiLy and HCSSiM.
I would rule out the LACs, frankly; of that group you identified, I think only Swarthmore has decent honors sequences, but we did not explore all of the LACs. It’s very easy to run out of courses for an advanced student who wants to move quickly at practically all LACs, especially given that many advanced courses are only offered intermittently and it’s easy to run into schedule problems with only one section of most topics.
In addition to Oxford/Cambridge, also consider adding reach schools like Princeton and especially Yale. The Princeton undergrad math program is fantastic for someone interested in research, and Yale has been trying to attract talented math students lately - USAMO and strong research interest might just be a tiny bit of a hook there. A surprising number of fellow campers from my kid’s Canada/USA summers chose Yale over more obvious STEM schools (but MIT was still probably the most popular).
Did they get the likely letter and attend Yale Engineering and Science weekend? I hear that Yale gets many strong STEM students that way, but in-person BullDog Days and YES weekend was canceled last year and this year.
I honestly do not know about YES, but I know a few received likelies, including one who ultimately picked Yale over Stanford, and another who chose Yale over Princeton. Again, though, many seemed to wind up at MIT. This was just this past cycle (HS class of 2021).
I should add that there are also a number of Canada/USA alumni from earlier years at Yale (so, my kid knew them when they were rising juniors and seniors and my own was a rising sophomore). No idea if they received likelies or attended YES, though.
OP, I would suggest that your kid contact some of the Canada/USA alumni at various schools for the “real scoop” at the schools - it’s easy to get contact information through the online alumni portal.
What about this list? Does it have enough matches and safeties?
Stats:
4.0 unweighted (school doesn’t weight or rank)
36 ACT
Hoping for National Merit Semifinalist
USAMO qualifier 11th grade, USAMJO qualifier 10th grade
USAPhO qualifier (11th and 10th)
AP classes: Calc BC (5), Physics M (5), Euro (3, lack of full test last year hurt him), Physics E&M, Lang, Microeconomics, Government, French, Psychology, Chemistry, Statistics, Computer Science
EC: Math Club (VP and President), Physics club (President), Science Bowl (President), Quiz Bowl, mentors middle school math club, Math Circle mentor, teaching math at summer school to incoming freshman
Attended MathILy 3 summers, Canada/USA Mathcamp 1 summer
ED Brown
EA University of Chicago
EA University of Michigan
You have done great research and he has a great math background. With his profile I would make absolutely sure that Brown is his first choice since it is binding and he is such a strong candidate.
I would also second the look at Yale. Yale has been taking some of the strongest math students from our state the past few years and my son has talked to some math students there and they love it and they rave about how friendly people are there.
Also not sure if you looked at Wesleyan. They are small and lots of professor contact but also have a graduate program in math so access to those courses.
St Olaf produces a lot of math phds and could be a safety but he probably won’t need it.
I would make sure your son has looked at all the math catalogs on his list and is excited about those. When my son did that, Rice went higher on the list and then Amherst fell off of it. (He heard that there is less of a community experience when students have to go to UMass to supplement courses).
Williams gets rave reviews for their math teaching but I am guessing you eliminated that for other reasons.
Carleton is a huge favorite of ours. They are always top ranked for LAC undergraduate teaching because they train their professors in how to teach (not as common as we would like to think!). And Northfield is such a lovely college town.
On Swarthmore, you may know this - there was a MathILy instructor who went there and said if you liked the MathILy style, you would love the honors sequences and style (long discussions) at Swarthmore. As your son knows, the culture and style of MathILy and Canada/USA are pretty different so whichever your son liked better may point you in a direction towards what type of undergrad program he would like better.
Very impressive stats. My daughter is into competition math as well. She always misses USA(J)MO by 10 ish difference. Just curious, why no MIT or Caltech or Stanford in the list?
He has been told that MIT doesn’t focus enough on undergrads. I’m not sure that is true though. I think Caltech is similar. Stanford has been on and off his list.
What does it mean that a college “doesn’t focus enough on undergrads”? If a student expects lots of handholding, maybe MIT/Caltech aren’t the right schools because they have certain academic expectation of their students. On the other hand, they do treat their undergrads as well as, and in some ways better than, any other school.
One thing MIT stresses is, opportunities are not served. That’s true probably with every top college. Some of my daughter’s school seniors are majoring in math at MIT/Princeton/UCB etc. They almost go through equal stress. Did you guys do the admission session? May be you want to talk to a graduate or phD student to understand the programs at MIT completely. Just my 2 cents.
Not handholding, but more access to professors instead of just grad students and research opportunities for undergrads. I have heard that at some of the more tech schools, math takes a back seat to CS and engineering, and the math might be more applied than pure.
OP, you’ve got a lot of myths and preconceptions and sorta/kinda’s in your impressions. You may have heard that at Tech schools math takes a back seat to CS and engineering, math “might” be more applied than pure.
Your kid needs to do some fact-checking. You are really operating with a ton of “we’ve heard”, much of which will not jive with reality once you explore. At the top tech schools, math IS both applied and pure. Two different disciplines, often equally strong. You can’t pick a college based on hearsay…
Professors almost all love to interact with students, especially the smart students these colleges have (that’s one of reasons most of them chose that career). Access to professors is not only a function of how busy these professors are (the better known and/or more productive professors tend to be busier), but also how proactive and flexible the students are. A student at a school like MIT/Caltech is presumed to be smart enough to seek out such opportunites. But don’t expect professors to help you with homeworks, though. You’re surposed to work with your fellow students and TAs on that sort of things.
Math is fundamental to CS and engineering, so I’m not sure by it taking “a back seat”. For CS, if you’re into CS theories, they are essentially pure math. If not, then the math is what most would characterize as applied math (same with engineering). Applied math is a very broad category and I’m not sure what your issue is.
I understand what you are saying. Although I would say prospective students can’t “know” everything about a school and there will always be a little hearsay. He has received advice from a professor who knows him well both mathematically and personality-wise. The professor knows where similar students have gone to school and either loved it or struggled or in between. In any case, I don’t really think he needs more reach schools.