<p>Right now, I'm trying to choose between W&M and UVA (yeah, just like everyone else). Ignoring academics, this would be an easy decision- I got a sense that I would want to attend W&M over UVA when I visited both last year, and I was somewhat underwhelmed when I visited UVA over spring break this year.</p>
<p>My problem is that I'm worried about the academic opportunities at W&M. I'm almost certainly going to major in mathematics, with the intention of continuing to grad school. I will probably enter with three semesters of credit in math, and I think that I might wind up wanting to take graduate-level classes before I graduate (I don't know how realistic of an expectation this is, but I'm studying at least some stuff on my own right now that's at that level). I'm worried that I won't have an opportunity to do so at W&M, especially after reading both schools' course catalogs for math- UVA seemed to have a lot more options.</p>
<p>Is this something that I should be worried about? I think I like W&M more, but I don't know if I want to choose it if I have better opportunities at UVA. If it helps, I got into both the Monroe and Echols programs (and the latter seems to be a better deal).</p>
<p>I am a current (graduating) math major at WM. People do go on to good grad schools from WM. I have two friends who got into top 10 graduate programs for math. There are a lot of great professors and classes, but it is true that we don’t have the diversity of upper-level and graduate classes offered by UVA. Some of the more advanced classes (Topology, Functional Analysis, Algebra II) are only offered every two years, and topology has only been offered once (my freshman year) during my four years here.</p>
<p>(The one exception to the lack of graduate classes is computational operations research, if that interests you at all.)</p>
<p>William and Mary, however, has very strong research opportunities which may not be as available at UVA. We certainly have enough math courses that you can build a strong foundation in all the main areas and keep decently busy through your time here. I ended up taking a lot of classes in other areas (physics, biology, chemistry) and didn’t have time to take all the math here.</p>
<p>Although our S had not decided on what major he will choose, he is very interested in math at W&M along with physic and chemistry. During the DFAS ,he spent quite a bit of time in the math dept. speaking with a professor there. The prof spent time talking with S about what would be a good starting point at W&M after taking linear algebra his senior year in high school. S also was very interested to listen to Olivia Walch’s presentation during the Monroe portion of the program. Olivia is a math major whose research focused on the “Conductivity of Patterns”(I hope I got that right :)) She said she started this project her 1st semester at W&M (she is a senior). You could see how excited she was not only about her research but how close she was with the math dept. and the professors there. Dad and I feel W&M is the perfect place for S to explore his delight in math and the sciences. Good luck to you. I know you will find the right place for you.</p>
<p>If you haven’t done so already we’d definitely recommend that you call the math department and ask about speaking with a professor in your area of interest to see what they might advise in terms of what’s available to you. Additionally, the great thing about W&M’s curriculum is the flexibility is provides so if you feel like you might be able to max our our math offerings you’ll have the opportunity to explore a minor or second major at W&M to augment your study in math. </p>
<p>As already mentioned, W&M has some great research opportunities for students and it can be a real asset for those planning on going to graduate school.</p>
<p>Oliva is pretty on top of things… she is a Murray Scholar, and a talented cartoonist.</p>