Since he’s interested in smaller school with no Greek life, I wouldn’t dismiss small liberal arts colleges out of a fear of running out of math classes. My son was similar: pretty sure he wanted to be a math major, most interested in pure math, took two university classes past calc 2 as a senior. He ended up at Macalester, is majoring in math, has taken a ton of math classes (he’ll end up taking as many as he’s allowed to take, I believe) and won’t come close to running out of options. He’s doing a semester in Budapest in the spring (knock wood) where he’ll take 4 math classes. The liberal arts environment has been great for him as he does have other interests and has discovered new ones (he’s taken a ton of geography classes and will end up with at least a data science minor with a GIS focus; possibly a double major). They also offer tutorials for credit if you have a particular topic you want to dive into. Running out of upper level math classes is mostly an issue for those truly spectacular math kids who finished calculus in 8th grade or whatever and probably do need a school where they can take grad level classes. Or probably at small schools where math isn’t a popular major, but there are plenty of SLAC where that’s not the case.
What is their personality like? quiet, reserved, outgoing, risk taking, skateboarding, etc? Look at U Chicago (pricey).
Some of your best choices might already be listed (especially honors colleges at bigger schools), and I can’t imagine that the upper level math classes are going to be big, but here are some smaller schools that don’t have a big Greek focus that might have a math program of interest:
University of Chicago
Johns Hopkins
Carnegie Mellon
Rice University
Swarthmore
Brown
Hamilton College
Amherst
College of the Holy Cross
Worcester Polytechnic
Thank you - he is doing that, but is slightly overwhelmed by the amount of choices…
Yes, we had actually thought about Europe, as it would be cheap and lots of math. However, turns out the fact his school does not offer AP classes is a real draw back - he would need to pass roughly 5 AP tests on his own. We live in a fairly rural area, so finding schools that would let him just take AP tests while self studying has proven slightly difficult, especially in times of Covid. This would be plan B or C - take a gap year, get his associates, and then go to Europe. However he really is keen on continuing straight on to college.
Really? Interesting. I did not know this. (I basically have no clue as to studying math…) So, do math students usually take one of these subjects?
Cool. Thank you. I’ll put it on the list right away.
Thank you. Do you have any personal experience with it? My son had an appointment with someone from there and it was not a good meeting - the ao couldn’t answer any of the very specific questions my son had, it did not inspire much confidence in him. He (my son) seems to have understood that they only offer two years of their own math instructions, after that he would be in the same ‘structure’ as the regular science & letters students, so he didn’t think there was much benefit majoring in math through the ccs.
I thought it sounded pretty fab… small community in big school.
Yes, he did look at the STEP just for fun, I don’t, however know what he thought of them. As mentioned above the problem is his lack of APs, as far as we understand he needs them as prerequisites.
Oh, very impressed…
Thank you, this is very helpful. I don’t actually know if running out of math is a concern - he’s fully prepared to repeat his calc courses, for instance, if the college he goes to in the future offers the same courses with more depth/breadth - and students that are equally passionate.
His very aware that it’s hard to know what you don’t know - he is very self directed, just basically always taking the next class available because he is into it, but without knowledgeable guidance from anybody that actually knows about studying math.
He has been described as an ‘old soul’ - I’d say he’s a strong introvert that has a bit of a hard time approaching people, but can be very quirky and fun once you know him. Apart from math he is interested in history and politics and likes debating philosophical topics. He feels ‘we’ (as a society) are self censoring ourselves and is very interested in meeting and debating people with different worldviews. Always more comfortable with either adults or smaller kids, who he is very patient with, than with his peers.
Not a risk taker - he’s always been the kid that watches others doing something, then thinks about it and intellectually tries to figure it out before he attempts mastering whatever it is. However, he is good at persevering and doesn’t necessarily stop even if given the option.
He has been told that ‘he’ll find his people in college’ by multiple teachers, so he is very keen to go…
I’m sorry everybody, for answering in one big go - I am new to this site and thought answers would slot in underneath the original posts. I much appreciate everybody’s answers and will take them to heart. Thank you lots!
If he went Oxford (v Cambridge) he would only have to have 3- Calc BC & 2 others. Check out the MAT: MAT (Mathematics Admissions Test) | University of Oxford
It’s not as tough as the STEP paper, but more importantly you take it in November and it is central to being invited to interview in December.
Being in a rural area will make it tougher to find a test center (his HS can become one if they are willing to), but a high MAT score would pretty much assure an interview.
Regarding German, French, or Russian, the level of knowledge needed is to be able to read math research papers and understand them.
Math majors going on to PhD study who need to fulfill a foreign language requirement may want to choose one of those languages for foreign language study. Of course, since your student already knows German, that may be sufficient for this purpose, but learning French and/or Russian in addition may be additionally helpful.
Once past single variable calculus, multivariable calculus, and linear algebra, the “next class available” can go in multiple directions: analysis (real analysis, complex analysis), algebra (proof-focused linear algebra, abstract algebra, number theory), geometry and topology, logic, numerical analysis, and various other topics (including applied math topics; statistics, theoretical computer science, and operations research may be under the math department or may be their own departments). A pure math undergraduate will likely want to cover most of these areas at the junior/senior level (advanced students will take these earlier). Graduate students (and undergraduates dipping into graduate level math) will focus on a particular subarea.
I know of a kid in the Bay Area who didn’t attend high school at all, just did math on his own for fun, with no formal assessment (not even competitions). He was asked to get two S’s and was given a place (subsequently got a first and is now back at UCLA doing a PhD with Terence Tao).
Everyone at Cambridge knows the story of Ramanujan. An S in STEP 3 is the most impressive high school exam result available in the UK. Even more impressive if you can do it as a junior. After that the APs don’t matter - they are easy so just used to weed out unqualified Americans.
As opinion, your son would benefit from looking into Pomona, Reed, Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin, Hamilton and Haverford.
Thank you for your input. We’ve actually been to a few of these!
Our visit at Reed actually prompted me to ask for guidance here - much to the delight of my son the tour guide was a math major, so he bombarded her with questions, none of which she could answer. Not only that, but she seemed distinctly uninterested in her chosen major (or anything academic). We got the same impression from the ao and the other school representative available for questions (I didn’t catch what their title was), there was a huge focus on inclusiveness for various identities and the fun the school could provide, while each academic question was quickly skipped over without much detail. It distinctly did not give off the vibe of a school that would attract math kids. Now, before anybody feels misrepresented - Inclusivity is important, no question, but if every specific academic question is answered with something focusing only on one topic, it makes one wonder… and we are aware that this was one visit with a small subset of ‘school people’. However, we both had the same feeling afterwards.
Being unfamiliar with the US college branding etc. we feel quite lost in the barrage of pr claims coming our way, which is why we thought I’d ask here for (hopefully) less skewered, more knowledgeable view points.
My first semester freshman at Wesleyan University is one of a small group of freshmen in a mostly upperclassmen linear algebra class. He and these other mathematically advanced freshmen chose Wesleyan for the availability of advanced and graduate level math/science courses and degrees in an LAC environment. He is scheduled to take Discrete Mathematics next semester. So far, he is impressed with the teaching and resources for prospective math majors.