S22 and I are visiting Brown 9/11-13. We are doing a campus tour on that Monday. Should we take Sunday to visit another school (possibly in Boston or Amherst)? Amherst and Harvard are both on his maybe list. Any other great math schools in that area? Or should we just enjoy Brown and Providence for the weekend? Thanks.
Our Brown trip included tours at Boston College and Northeastern - both of these on the same day.
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What about Tufts?
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You should definitely take advantage of the opportunity to visit at least one other college while you’re in the area. It will make the visit to Brown more productive by providing your son with a comparison.
Cambridge is closer than Amherst, so logistically that would be easier. With so many top colleges in & around Boston, you could probably do Harvard + either Tufts, Brandeis, BC, or BU. Another alternative would be Wesleyan, which is about as long a drive as Amherst but a little but easier admission and would therefore work as an alternative to Brown.
Does his interest go beyond pure Math? There are a lot of other disciplines which use Math and could therefore be of interest to a student who likes Math.
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If you are all about math - look at MIT
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He is mainly interested in pure math, a little but interested in physics and a little in computer science. He’ll probably get a PhD in math, but our neighbor who is an actuary has talked to him some about it.
Since the day before is a Sunday…you probably should check to see if any schools have official tours and info sessions, if you want those. Some might not.
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Yes, and some don’t begin their tour schedules until a little later in September.
Would it be worthwhile to walk around campuses by ourselves?
About 50% of students who declare a major coming out of high school, change their mind while they’re in college. In addition career opportunities for math majors are greater if they pair it with something else, for example Math major + Physics minor. If he’s going to shoot as high as Harvard, he might consider MIT where he would probably have more options for an interesting minor. He could definitely pursue the Actuary path with just a straight Math major. Wesleyan, by the way, is very strong in Math and Physics. There would be opportunities for advanced coursework not normally available at an LAC because they offer doctorates in both.
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Why is this response directed to me? All I did was suggest that this family check to see if tours are available on Sundays.
Walking around a campus and the area around it can give you a “feel” for the place. But you won’t have the chance to ask questions, and likely won’t be able to enter any buildings.
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Math plus computer science is a good option. If you are considering MIT, they even have a specific major for this.
https://math.mit.edu/academics/undergrad/major/course18c.php
As a math-related potential major, both Artificial Intelligence and Operations Research come to mind as options. However, picking a math related area would be some distance in the future at this point.
Both Amherst College and U.Mass Amherst are worth considering.
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Wesleyan actually has tours on Sundays
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I think I know students at MIT and Tufts if we decided to go to Boston.
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My apologies for directing the reply to you. It was an accident. Just me being dumb. 
Would it be completely crazy to fly to Philly, visit Haverford and Swarthmore on Saturday/Sunday, then drive to Providence on Sunday and see Brown on Monday? Or could you even take a train from Philly to Providence?
You can take a train from Philly to Providence. It’s a lovely ride.
If cost is not an issue, you could look into getting a sleeper car on Amtrak and spend most of the journey sleeping , if the timing works out. I have done sleeper cars on other (longer) trips and they are wonderful and make the journey into an adventure.
They have sleeper cars for two people and for families.
You can of course also sleep in the coach seats (lots of college students do), but it won’t be as comfortable.
6 hours by train from Philly to Providence. 1:15 hour by plane. Add the amount of time you need to be at airport in advance (2 hours?) Train is a few minutes from Brown (short cab ride). Airport is a 15 minute cab ride + time to get luggage.
Plenty to visit in Boston/Providence/New England. Plenty to visit in Philly/NJ/Baltimore. They seem like 2 separate trips to me.
I would suggest Williams which is about 3 hours from Providence (through a beautiful part of the country).
Williams has an excellent math program, one of the best among LACs, a small but highly respected physics program and very good CS.