@merc81 thanks for the responses.
Could you shine some light on the possible upsides of universities? Anything beyond the different education strategy? There are things like national name recognition and more resources that are generally related to larger universities, but I’d like to know if there are other possible advantages to going with a university style education.
@momcinco I have found the people on this site to be quite helpful overall. I will probably continue to come here for advice.
Affordability is definitely very important. Before I even look at a college I check NPCs. Since they are just an estimate, I will generally give wiggle room if the financial aid estimate is not exactly what I need. Though I have been told that generally with small business families the estimates are high, but I haven’t really validated that.
@ManaManaWegi : The aspect of any particular style of education that may not be especially obvious to you at this point is the difference between paper fit and in-person fit. So, hypothetically, should you visit a university – or any school – and love your experience there, then I’d say that should be sufficient to validate its further inclusion among your choices.
More specifically, though, should you have intellectual interests you imagine exploring in college beyond your core interest in mathematics, consider this as part of your screening criteria. So, for example, if you think you may appreciate electives in subjects such as geosciences, astronomy, archaeology, or creative writing, research their availability to your own satisfaction.
That said, some of your LAC choices offer ~700+ courses, and will rival your university options even in this area.
OP just curious based on your criteria how do Michigan and Cornell make that list?
@clarinetdad16 Michigan was included for specific personal family reasons. Cornell was included because of the limited time I put into my run through the book for the first time. The goal was to mark broadly, and at the time, Cornell seemed to be a close enough fit based on what I was looking at.
OP, I thought you wanted a very small school.
“After going through the colleges [described in Fiske], I found that I had overwhelmingly marked liberal arts colleges.”
The OP’s selection of predominantly smaller schools emerged organically from his search method.
What math will you have completed by high school graduation? If more advanced than single variable calculus (calculus AB or BC), then you may want to consider whether graduate level math courses are offered. Some LACs do offer graduate level math courses, but others may be too limiting for a student that advanced.
Regardless of how advanced you are, you may want to consider how many and what type of junior and senior level math courses each school offers. Some departments may have a greater emphasis on pure math (analysis, algebra, topology/geometry, logic, etc.), while others may have a more applied emphasis (operations research, statistics, computing, preparation for teaching high school math, etc.). Some may include statistics and/or computer science courses under the same department, while others may have these as separate departments.
Junior and senior level math courses are often small, even at big universities, but frosh and soph level math courses can be large at big universities, unless small honors sections are offered.
@ucbalumnus Only up to calc BC.
Unfortunately, the highest level math course offered at my school is regular calculus. During my junior year, I took Ap calc ab online (skipping pre-calc) with the intention of taking a more advanced calculus course at my local 4-year college. Unfortunately again, the terms and times of the college’s course offerings changed unexpectedly making my plan impossible (unless I skip out on a majority of my orchestra class for half the year, unacceptable). It seems the plan now is to take AP calc BC during my senior year, which I have heard will be majority review for me. I’m looking for alternatives still.
I’m certainly considering focus, as far as the general/pure math vs. the applied math (Even though real world math problems are important, abstract math concepts are just much more interesting); I prefer theory. I should be considering graduate level courses…
Thanks for the insight.
The course catalogue descriptions for your schools of interest will help further inform your search process. If you can identify ~9-15 math courses of potentially strong appeal to you, then that college’s program may be suitable for your goals.
Irrespective of your choice of college, a semester in Budapest may be an advisable opportunity for expanding math course options.