Help me choose

College Search & Selection
1

Hi CC!

I am high school senior, and I need to decided where to go to college. I want to major in math and or computer science (but I prefer math). Academics is my main priority–I want to take as many hard classes as possible. I want to be in a place that is prestigious as well, has smart undergraduates / professors, and gives me many opportunities. I plan to get a PhD in a math-related area (economics, statistics, business, etc) and become a university professor.

I live in California so I get in-state tuition for UC. I qualify for very little need-based financial aid (but 60 thousand a year is still a lot of money).

I was lucky to be accepted to the following schools:

  1. UChicago
  2. UC Berkeley (I qualify for in-state tuition)
  3. CMU (in SCS)
  4. UPenn
  5. Cornell
  6. Duke
  7. Northwestern
  8. UMich
  9. USC (almost full scholarship)
  10. Boston University (full merit scholarship)
  11. UCLA
  12. UCSB, UCI, UCD

I currently believe that UChicago and UCB are my best choices. I kind of rule out CMU because I am not as interested in CS for undergraduate. UPenn also does not seem to fit me that well because I am not interested in business and politics–I assume these are UPenn’s top ranking areas. Please let me know if I am wrong.

Where should I go? Thank you for your help.

2

Cross off the ones that you feel aren’t a good fit. Then cross off the unaffordable if any. Then dig deep to figure out how far away from home you want to be. See what you have left.

3

Is cost of concern? If so, Cal, UCLA, USC and BU are your best options.

If cost is not a concern, Cal, Chicago, Michigan, UCLA, Cornell, Penn, Duke and Northwestern all have excellent Mathematics departments (in roughly that order). Between those, I would go with fit over rankings.

4

Congratulations on all the acceptances!

5

Berkeley, Chicago, UCLA, Michigan, Cornell, Duke, Penn, Northwestern

https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/mathematics-rankings

6

Did you visit any of these schools???
Having strangers on the web make suggestions, is one thing, but choosing where you will live for 4 years is another thing.
You need to feel where you will fit in. They are all very different.

7

Thank you all for your comments! I have visited Chicago and Berkeley and decided that, in terms of fitting in, I am fine with both. I do not know about the other places.

I appreciate your comments. The problem is that I understand how fit works and how rankings work. The main question I came to ask is, given my priorities, as described in the original question, which school will be best for me? How hard is the material? Are the students smart? How easy is it to get into math-related graduate school (research, teacher recs, etc)? Which degree has the most prestige? Is it worth to go to a private school vs Berkeley, given how expensive private school is? How easy is it to branch into business, economics, etc (double major)? Please let me know if you, CC, is unable to answer these questions. I cannot find the answer. Other priorities (distance from home, location, climate) I am already taking into account.

Thank you, Alexandre, for your comment. I did not know about undergraduate math rankings. Thank you, Dancer14, for your kind words.

8

I’d think you’d enjoy UChicago the most. You’d have to deal with the Core so if that doesn’t sound appealing then go elsewhere. If you think you might be interested in Economics then UChicago becomes an even better choice. You would save a lot of money at Cal and it’d be a great choice as well but you also might have trouble getting all your classes in 4 years and it might take longer. Class size would be larger as well.

9

UChicago is tailor made or you.

10

The University of Chicago COA = approximately $70,000 per year.

University of California–Berkeley COA = approximately $31,000 per year.

You do the math.

11

@Publisher nice joke.

The COA for UChicago is estimated at $77,331 for 18-19 so will probably average about 80K a year for your 4 years.

12

Northwestern University has an interesting major = MMSS Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences.

In another thread (" Notre Dame vs Northwestern"), a poster shares employment & placement results for graduates of this program for the years 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 & 2017.

Some entered PhD programs (for example, 2 earning PhDs at Stanford in economics & two getting a math PhD at MIT, UCLA PhD program Math, Vanderbilt Medical School MD/PhD program, Harvard Business School PhD program, Strategy, UNC PhD program Quantitative Psychology, among several other notable PhD programs).

13

You can get a strong undergraduate education at any of those, so no need to feel bad about crossing off unaffordable options. How much debt are you and your parents looking at for each? I suggest in-state or somewhere that gave you big merit.