<p>I am a PhD student in mathematics and I disagree with much of the advice above. Since math majors can’t do any meaningful research in college (unlike in most other fields), graduate applicants in math are judged primarily by the coursework that they have completed. You’ll be competing with students from research universities who have completed 2 years’ worth of graduate courses in college. As you may guess, you won’t find graduate-level courses at a liberal arts college…</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, I attended a liberal arts college but took graduate classes at a nearby research university during my sophomore through senior years. I was told - explicitly - by a professor at MIT that they don’t usually admit liberal arts graduates and that my graduate coursework was the only reason that they were willing to make an exception for me.</p>
<p>If you’d like to hear from a more “credible” source that liberal arts students are at a disadvantage, read the advice that Swarthmore gives to its graduate school-bound math majors:</p>
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<p><a href=“http://www.swarthmore.edu/Documents/academics/math/grad_GRE/MathGradSchool.pdf[/url]”>http://www.swarthmore.edu/Documents/academics/math/grad_GRE/MathGradSchool.pdf</a></p>