@Ynotgo yes, I was familiar with these numbers. I do not fall in the middle 50%. That’s rough. Thanks for posting them though. I have ignored Caltec primarily because of location (Test score ranges are insane as well)
@MYOS1634 I definitely looked at st olaf. Macalaster was always a reasonable comparison for me. I have considered applying to both, but in the list I posted i didn’t list that. What do you think? Add olaf? Replace Mac?
Yes it should. Mac is stronger for social science, St Olaf is stronger both for math and music.
Have you run the NPC to make sure your safeties are financially OK?
@MYOS1634 Of course, How could I claim that all schools appear to be affordable if I hadn’t?
@ManaManaWegi I’d add Brandeis and Rochester as matches for research universities. Possibility of merit aid, both are very strong for math and music and are small. Brandeis especially is excellent for math. Cornell may also be a low reach/match for a research university given your stats. It might be fine to apply there early decision if you like it there. It is very strong at math and music, well connected to the finance world has a strong brand and therefore may help you with employment after undergrad. It has honors math courses for the grad school bound and non-honors courses if you like math but find very rigorous math not for your liking.
Also look at schools that are good at CS; it’s very popular and appeals to math-minded people. UIUC and Cornell are fantastic for CS
The distribution of LACs/universities across your range doesn’t matter as long as you have chosen your particular schools carefully.
Regarding LACs in general, look for 1) at least 15 courses of potential interest to you at the level of multivariable calculus and up (you might take fewer courses than this, but not more) and 2) the opportunity to spend a semester of two in Budapest. With these conditions met, within a college with other attributes that appeal to you, I’d see few if any limitations with respect to the progress you could achieve in the realm of mathematics.
@merc1 @WalknOnEggShells What do you think about WashU?
@MYOS1634 I’m not sure if you have any particular insight on this, but how overt is the religious affiliation, and should I concerned with religion being prevalent in my academic carrier there and my learning experience?
WUStL would be excellent for math.
There’s a chapel on campus and there are pastors, a priest, an imam, and a rabbi available to students. All must take classes in religion and ethics, including one studying the bible as a text for various communities ('African Americans and the Bible ‘) or part of cultural references ("the apocalypse in the Bible and in fiction’), one class in Ethics applied to your major, and one more religion/philosophy/ethics class (any religious tradition, a specific aspect of one religion, or interdisciplinary perspectives). That’s all part of the general education curriculum alongside requirements in humanities, science, quantitative and communication skills…
It’s definitely not like at an evangelical college, where religious faith and doctrine are seen as truth - I’d say it’s a mix of seeing religion as a personal choice and a serious scholarly subject.
I don’t know if that’s reasonable or too much for you.
@MYOS1634 Thanks for the information. It won’t take olaf completely of my radar, but I would prefer a religiously unaffiliated school.