<p>Actually, I'm leaning toward Princeton.
But I want to know about how each college different from others academically.
If there are not many differences, I'll go to Princeton.</p>
<p>(If you don't mind, I want to know about Caltech, Dartmouth, Columbia and Duke as well.)</p>
<p>haha Fields Medal....</p>
<p>All of those schools are amazing at math. Anywhere you go you will get a great education in math, so pick whichever one suits you best</p>
<p>Thanks.
If anybody here attends one of those colleges with math major, I want to hear your opinions.</p>
<p>Wow. What a bunch of great acceptances!</p>
<p>I'd say to go to Duke because it's amazing.</p>
<p>But honestly... that's a Blue Devil bias.</p>
<p>I would personally eschew Harvard in favor of Princeton or Yale. MIT is probably great for math, I just don't know how happy someone would be there. </p>
<p>But then again, I have no solid evidence for any of this; my arguments for college are largely based on pathos, not ethos or logos.</p>
<p>Is there any special program for each college?</p>
<p>mathematics is one field where harvard actually does live up to its billing as the best university in america. that said, the others arent far behind. if i were you id make a decision between harvard, yale, princeton, mit and duke based on fit. so princeton it is!</p>
<p>Personally, I would think all 4 are equally amazing at the undergraduate level. Go with the school you like the most. I would probably chose MIT or Princeton.</p>
<p>Ok..I decide to choose between MIT and Princeton..
More opinions please for these two!!</p>
<p>Yale isn't at Harvard and Princeton's level in mathematics. If you truly are dreaming of a Fields Medal one day, MIT may not be the best place either. I'm in the honors math sequence at University of Michiigan and I've compared our homework sets to the "theoretical" freshmen sequences at both Harvard and MIT, and MIT's is laughable in comparison to both Harvard and Michigan. From what I've seen, even MIT"s theoretical classes aren't too heavy on theory, whereas Harvard (and probably Princeton) are great in that area. Harvard attracts better students and offers math 55, so that might be something that favors Harvard for you. But yeah, Princeton and Harvard are probably pretty similar and on a different level than the rest (unless you're looking into applied math, where MIT is probably the best).</p>
<p>i wouldnt say that mit is not the right place. the feel of its mathematics department is slightly different than those of other schools, but if the op has an interest in discrete mathematics or mathematical logic there is nowhere better to go. of course, some of this strength is derived from computing applications, but strength in these programs exists nonetheless. </p>
<p>as for princeton being above yale, i would agree (yale and duke would be fourth and fifth on my list). but i dont think the difference is as significant as chibearsfan implies.</p>
<p>I'd go Princeton, easily. Significantly more focus on the undergrad than MIT, and probably a much better environment, and it will all but shut you out of MIT post-grad.</p>
<p>Yale has two fields medalists on its faculty, and with the lowest number of math majors of the schools you've listed, it would provide you with the most personal attention and opportunities to do significant research.</p>
<p>Thanks.
One more thing..Where is the best(or easiest) place to become friendly with professors?
In other words, where can I interact or communicate a lot with them?</p>
<p>And..how about Dartmouth?
I got confused a little because one of my friends says 'Go to Dartmouth' over and over and over!</p>
<p>princeton for sure.</p>
<p>You would have lots of opportunities to interact with professors at MIT.</p>
<p>If you want more information about the MIT math program, you might want to PM mootmom or texas137, both of whom have sons who are majoring in math at MIT. I'm sure they would be happy to pass along any questions you might have to their sons.</p>
<p>Princeton or Harvard for undergrad math. Math is one of the few majors where undergrad school makes a real difference, because at Princeton and Harvard, you will really be challenged to do something great as a math major. MIT, of course, is very strong too.</p>
<p>you can't go wrong with duke, harvard, MIT, or princeton. those four schools all have outstanding undergraduate mathematics departments and have together dominated the putnam competition in recent years. i know most about princeton, whose current department chair is none other than andrew wiles, who famously proved fermat's last theorem, and who has been the subject of movies and plays in the years since. john nash, subject of another "modestly successful" film, also still haunts the halls. the attention you would get there is incredible. consider this, from the website:</p>
<p>"The Mathematics Department has 59 regular faculty members plus 16 visitors and research staff members in addition to 6 emeritus faculty in residence this year. There are currently 60 graduate students and 34 undergraduate majors."</p>
<p>in other words, there are almost two professors for every math major. if that's not enough, about a mile away from the princeton campus is the institute for advanced study, where einstein, oppenheimer, and von neumann once worked, and where at least <em>four</em> fields medalists currently do so (enrico bombieri, jean bourgain, pierre deligne, vladimir voevodsky). not to mention freeman dyson and edward witten, in the science school. princeton and the IAS enjoy a symbiotic relationship, especially the former's math dept and latter's school of math. good luck with your choice!</p>
<p><a href="http://www.math.princeton.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://www.math.princeton.edu/</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.math.ias.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://www.math.ias.edu/</a></p>
<p>wow..I knew some of them went to Princeton, but this is more than I knew. Thanks.
Only thing that makes me crazy is..Harvard's prestige and MIT's image of genius college(which is true for sure..)..Princeton seems best, but those things make me hard to decide..</p>
<p>I never thought of Duke's math department as "outstanding" or even "excellent" (at least in terms of other top 25 unis)...</p>
<p>Princeton is awesome for theory math. The guy that proved A^X + B^X does not equal C^X (Fermat's last theoreum) worked at Princeton, and still teaches there. Princeton also has a huge number of famous alumni, including John Nash.</p>