<p>According to wikipedia.com, Harvard finished first place 24 times( as of 2004) and MIT finished first place 5 times in William Lowell Putnam Mathematics Competition. I think MIT math & applied math department is about 5 times bigger than that of Harvard. and almost everyone at MIT is doing some kind of applied math( enginnering, physical sciences etc..)</p>
<p>Harvard Math is admitting about only 7 math PhDs per year and MIT is admitting about 30 PhDs per year. </p>
<p>I thought Harvard Math is like a 'sidkick' department at Harvard, but they are doing much better than MIT math people..</p>
<p>I also heard that most of the Top performers of american math competitions usually choose to attend Harvard instead of MIT or other schools.</p>
<p>Is this true ? </p>
<p>How come Math students at Liberal Arts school are doing much better than those at Science & Technology school in Putnam Math competitions ?</p>