<p>My son was admitted to HYP and is having some difficulty deciding which would be best. We are Americans living overseas, so our son was not able to attend any of the preview programs this month (although we visited these colleges during the summer). He wants to major in pure mathematics, but also loves acting and hopes to find extracurricular theatre opportunities--perhaps improv. He has also been on his high school's speech and debate team and hopes to continue debating in college. Of course besides his major in math, he would like to have a great overall undergraduate experience. As you know, he has to make a decision soon! I would really appreciate your thoughts regarding this dilemma.</p>
<p>All three schools will provide an excellent undergrad experience and excellent academics across the board. Yale has the edge for theater opportunities, Harvard or Princeton for math, depending on how advanced your son is. You may want to PM the poster marite, whose son is a pure mathematics major at Harvard. Has your son considered location as a deciding factor? In terms of location, these three schools are quite different, and one may appeal to him more than the others. Harvard is in Boston, a major metropolitan city and certainly the most exciting college town in the U.S. Yale is also in an urban setting, New Haven. Certainly less exciting than Boston, but a much more cohesive urban campus than Harvard's. Princeton is in a "faux suburb" -- very beautiful, but far calmer and quieter than either H or Y.</p>
<p>P.S. I didn't read your post carefully enough. I see you're Americans living abroad. Sorry if I gave pedantic detail about Boston v. New Haven. I imagine you understand the distinctions.</p>
<p>"hopes to find extracurricular theatre opportunities--perhaps improv."</p>
<p>I had a phenomenal experience in extracurricular theatre at Harvard. There's something for everyone and more than you could hope to take advantage of in four years. There are also two excellent improv troupes (that I know of -- there may be new ones, too).</p>
<p>dvk may have already seen this. But the following link the best post concerning Princeton and Harvard I have seen so far
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/princeton-university/499895-harvard-vs-yale-vs-princeton-math-major-theatre-interest.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/princeton-university/499895-harvard-vs-yale-vs-princeton-math-major-theatre-interest.html</a></p>
<p>In above post I meant to link to the post by shawbridge in that thread.</p>
<p>dvk is the OP on that thread as well.</p>
<p>For some other opinions on H v. Y, including a discussion of math, take a look at this thread: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/490329-harvard-yale-opinions-please.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/490329-harvard-yale-opinions-please.html</a></p>
<p>I'm not going to try to compare the Princeton and Harvard math departments in much detail. You can only attend one college, and that's true of my S.</p>
<p>He did visit Princeton and was bowled over by the math department. He was taken by the Chairman of the math department to tea and saw John Conway (he's a big fan) talking to some undergraduates. He got an extremely positive impression of the math department both in terms of excellence and friendliness. In the end, though, he chose not to apply to Princeton after being admitted SCEA at Harvard. His reasons had to do with the social scene rather than the academics. He likes being in a city and did not care for the eating clubs or the drinking.</p>
<p>Someone compared the 3 course sequence at Princeton with Harvard's introductory course and suggested Princeton's course(s) provide a more solid foundation. I would not know. But while Math 55 is often described at cramming four years worth of math into a single one, not every math major takes Math 55. Most take Math 23 or Math 25. Together with whatever other courses they would take concurrently or in their sophomore year, I assume it would amount to the same thing as the Princeton sequence.
As for more advanced courses, it is largely a matter of labeling. Harvard has a large number of courses described as "for both undergraduates and graduate students." I imagine that many of these courses would be considered advanced undergraduate courses at Princeton. I believe that veterans of both Math 55 and 25 enroll in these courses.
I recently took a look at the list of recent senior theses in math at Harvard; many were written under the guidance of quite senior faculty and well-known figures in their respective fields. S is considering doing his with one of two profs with whom he has developed good relations. They are both well-known mathematicians. He has also been mentored by junior faculty after expressing interest in reading up on some topic on his own. All in all, I would say, he has been pretty happy with his profs.
I don't know a great deal about the theater scene, except that there seem to be lots of opportunities for students to mount plays and musicals or merely perform in them. Plays are also performed in the summer and students who appear in them get free housing.</p>
<p>Basically, I think that the choice between Princeton and Harvard really ends up being about location and general social scene.</p>
<p>I really appreciate all the information and ideas and advice that you have given me. One other issue I failed to mention originally is that my son't first choice has been the University of Chicago--he loves the math program there and has become friends with a UChicago professor. However, Chicago has not offered an aid package even close to what HYP have, so he has ruled it out.</p>
<p>My son spent the weekend (it is Monday here in Korea) poring over the HYP websites (as well as reading the CC posts regarding my original post). He finally announced to us that because he wants to live in a city and go to a school with a strong math program, he has chosen Harvard. He thinks he would like to attempt Math 55 there (he has taken a number of advanced math course through EPGY). Marite, would it be possible for my son to e-mail (or contact through CC) your son? I know my son would love to be able to talk to a Harvard math concentrator. </p>
<p>Once again, thank you all for your helpful comments. I am new to CC, and I must say, I have learned so much from reading the CC posts.</p>
<p>I sent you a PM.</p>