<p>“I would just note for the record that the Swarthmore sophmore e-mailed the chairman of the math department about future year course availability at 3-something on a Sunday afternoon and, apparently, had a reply back in a little over an hour.”</p>
<p>sophomore…chair of department…reply in just over an hour on a Sunday…</p>
<p>reply in just over an hour enough of a reason to go to a small LAC for math, history, economics, chemistry, literature for beer, a big school is generally much preferred … </p>
<p>At the big 10 school I went to they taught me 2+2=4 …but none of them bothered to learn my name …</p>
<p>Lafayette College is one of a very few LACs to offer engineering as a major (Swarthmore being another). It therefore has to have a very strong math department, not only to serve the math majors, but the engineering majors as well. See this link to the math course offerings at LC: [Lafayette</a> College](<a href=“http://ww2.lafayette.edu/~registra/catalog/]Lafayette”>http://ww2.lafayette.edu/~registra/catalog/) Note that the required courses for a BS in math are offered at least once per year; many are offered every semester.</p>
<p>As an engineering major (civil) at LC, I never had more than thirty students in my calculus sections, and the professors were all accessible for extra help via office hours. In contrast, my wife attended a Big Ten university. Her calculus sections had 100+ students, and the extra help was offered in a recitation by a grad student who did not speak English well.</p>
<p>The list of top scorers from recent Putnam competitions is dominated by MIT, Harvard, Cal Tech, Stanford, Princeton, and Duke. You have to go back quite a few years to find any LACs among the top teams or individuals. </p>
<p>Remember, however, that it’s just one specific competition and therefore just one data point to consider – or not – when looking at various math programs.</p>
<p>are there any schools that are known for teachers making personalized arrangements for students who fall out of the normal offerings? it seems like people say that the course offerings at LACs are limited, but 1on1 extra time with professors could be invaluable.</p>
<p>^ responding to that, I know Vassar (where I am an econ major who is considering a 2nd major in math) is very good about that. The chair of the math dept (who is brilliant) has an independent study course where students who are advanced and want to learn things not offered by the department study independently and meet with him once a week to report what they’ve learned and then do some further study with him for at least an hour.</p>