<p>Please name a few schools whose undergraduate mathematics is as strong as that of WashU, and explain your opinion.</p>
<p>Also, I have heard mixed things/anectodal evidence about WashU - from multiple-choice exams in toughest calculus course to very strong math department which sends graduates to MIT. What is the case, really?</p>
<p>Do you really mean as strong as WUSTL, or are you looking for schools that are at least as strong in mathematics? And what would you suggest the criteria should be? After all, teaching the courses that usually make up an undergraduate level mathematics degree is something dozens, even hundreds of universities do extremely well. It is when you get to the next level (PhD level and post doc) that schools like MIT separate themselves from the rest, but even then it depends heavily on what branch of mathematics one chooses to specialize. But differentiating various universities ability to teach math at the undergrad level is not a useful exercise and is virtually impossible to make meaningful.</p>
<p>Just be assured that if you have a high aptitude for math, you will receive an excellent education at WUSTL. WUSTL students are among the brightest in the country, so I am sure that many do end up at MIT, Cal Tech, Carnegie-Mellon, Princeton and many of the other top graduate programs.</p>
<p>The real question I think you should be asking is whether WUSTL is a good fit for you overall. Forget about math as a major. How about all the other aspects of WUSTL. Do they appeal to you? After all, something like 70-75% of your courses will not be in mathematics. And of course there are numerous other factors involved in having a great college experience. That will have far more to do with WUSTL being the right school for you than their math department, which you can count on being more than capable of providing undergraduates with all they can handle and being prepared for the finest grad schools. That is why schools like WUSTL are so highly regarded.</p>
<p>Thanks for your reply, though, to be frank, it wasn’t very helpful.</p>
<p>I’m looking for schools which are at WUSTL’s level in math, not much higher, not much lower, so I get an idea of where WUSTL stands.</p>
<p>“After all, teaching the courses that usually make up an undergraduate level mathematics degree is something dozens, even hundreds of universities do extremely well.”</p>
<p>We agree to disagree. “Extremely well”: top 5-6 private universities, top 2-3 public universities, top 2-3 LAC’s. </p>
<p>To be clear, let’s put some criteria:</p>
<ul>
<li>Proportion of school’s math majors which get PhDs(Above 40% for some schools, below 10% for others. BIG difference)</li>
<li>Undergraduate math research - awards won by Wash U students and so on. Do Wash U undergraduates co-write papers with faculty, for example?</li>
<li>Performance in undergraduate math contests(e.g. Putnam)</li>
<li>Depth of courses</li>
<li>Highly accomplished professors, esp. if they have solid research careers(Yes, some say that an outstanding researcher may be a disastrous professor. My view is that just having the chance to share ideas with such a personality is a great chance)</li>
</ul>
<p>“Forget about math as a major.”</p>
<p>Well, I hope this isn’t representative of WUSTL.</p>
<p>I’m looking for more input here, and I would really like to hear from as many current math majors at WUSTL as possible. Only two days left, please help.</p>
<p>First, you misunderstood my statement “forget math as a major”. I didn’t mean you shouldn’t major in math. I meant that for the purposes of evaluating where you might be happiest as a student, take that out of the equation for that moment. Sorry I wasn’t clearer, but I thought the context made it obvious.</p>
<p>Also sorry you didn’t find this helpful, but I was a double major in chemistry and math (not at WUSTL and many years ago). Unless you are a super math prodigy, I think your take on the undergraduate experience is a bit off. What do you base your statement about only the top 5-6 privates, 2-3 publics and 2-3 LAC’s teaching undergraduate mathematics extremely well? As a high school senior (I assume) what experience do you have to back that up?</p>
<p>If you are truly in the top 0.5% of math minds for your age, then by all means you should probably try to attend a school with cutting edge work in a subfield you enjoy. Otherwise, there are indeed quite a few schools that can provide you with the education required to progress to the top grad schools. WUSTL is one of them.
It is virtually impossible to compare schools that way.</p>
<p>I didn’t misunderstand your statement(it would’ve been pretty nonsensical if you had said: “Don’t major in math”). I simply saw your advice as something like: First care about how you’d fit in at the university, then care about the math major. My view is, however, that a university can’t be a fit for me if I don’t like its math major, and all the other school aspects(except aid, which if not enough prevents me from attending) should be taken into consideration only after I’ve decided that the math major is satisfactory.</p>
<p>As for my statement regarding the schools where math is thought extremely well, I used the criteria indicated in my previous post, as far as data was accessible to me. No matter which of my specific conditions you choose, you’ll always find the same names, like Stanford, Berkeley, Harvard, Princeton, MIT and a few others, which hints at the fact that these schools, and only these in the US, are truly excellent in math.</p>
<p>There is still a (rather small) chance that some other schools have extremely good math teaching. However, if for instance they aren’t known for any significant undergrad research, that should indicate that the math majors aren’t as competitive as they are at the above-mentioned schools. As you must know, mathematics nowadays is a pretty social activity, and having an oustanding community of math majors can only help. Therefore, no matter how excellent the teachers, if the students’ achievements fall behind those of top schools, that university cannot be considered extremely good for math.</p>
<p>Of course, I’m not asking whether WUSTL is on par with Princeton or MIT. I’m just trying to get an estimate of how good actually is, so I can decide for myself whether I should apply or not.</p>
<p>Thanks once again for your input.</p>
<p>What are your stats and accomplishments? Are you “one in a million” kind of math person?</p>
<p>What you are looking for is now much clearer. For the vast majority of students the best fit at a university is not centered around their major. But if having a math department that is at the level you are suggesting, with enough scholars to have sufficient collaboration, is that critical to you as an undergrad, then I understand why you ask these things. I have to say, there are only a handful (relatively speaking) of undergrads at a level where this would be such an important criterion, but perhaps you are indeed one of those. If so, then I suggest you speak with 2 or 3 professors in the department doing work in areas of interest to you. You might get satisfactory answers on here, but it is rather a long shot and your time is quite short. Find out who the head of the department is and talk with them. Ask very specific questions.</p>
<p>Did you apply for one of their scholarships? </p>
<p>Specifically,</p>
<p>Arthur Holly Compton Fellowships in Physical Sciences and Mathematics</p>
<p>Entering freshmen who apply for the Compton Fellowships plan to pursue undergraduate majors in earth and planetary sciences, environmental earth sciences, mathematics, or physics. Compton finalists will be invited to be interviewed by faculty; from this group, up to four Compton Scholars will be selected.</p>
<p>[Freshman</a> Academic Scholarship & Fellowship Programs | Undergraduate Admissions | Washington University in St. Louis](<a href=“http://admissions.wustl.edu/scholarships-financial-aid/Freshman-Academic-Scholarship-Fellowship-Programs/Pages/default.aspx]Freshman”>http://admissions.wustl.edu/scholarships-financial-aid/Freshman-Academic-Scholarship-Fellowship-Programs/Pages/default.aspx)</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for the input. I will decide tomorrow whether I’ll apply or not(and if yes, I’ll also apply for any merit aid). Mailing a WashU prof. seems like a good idea.</p>
<p>Still, I would really appreciate any(the more specific and detailed, the better) info from a current math major at WashU.</p>