How is the math major at Pomona? Everyone keeps suggesting Harvey Mudd to my son, but it’s core and HSA requirements seem huge. Do you love math at Pomona? How are the professors? Are there opportunities for research? Thanks.
Upper level math courses:
Pomona ( Mathematics - Pomona College - Acalog ACMS™ ): 9 pure math, 2* graduate-level pure math, 7 applied math, 7 statistics
Harvey Mudd ( Mathematics Course Descriptions | Harvey Mudd College ): 14 pure math, 2* graduate-level pure math, 10 applied math, 1 graduate-level applied math, 6 statistics, 2 theoretical CS
*Third and fourth semester real analysis; Pomona courses assumed to be intended to be graduate level due to same course numbers as Harvey Mudd third and fourth semester real analysis courses which are titled as graduate-level.
General education requirements:
Pomona ( Degree Requirements - Pomona College - Acalog ACMS™ ): ID 001 PO, one course in each of six areas (2 humanities, 1 social science, 1 history or area/cultural/ethnic studies, 1 science, 1 math), 3rd semester foreign language or equivalent (total 6 to 9 courses since the math requirement will be automatically fulfilled for a math major)
Harvey Mudd ( Common Core Curriculum | Harvey Mudd College and HSA Requirements for Graduation | HSA | Harvey Mudd College ): 1 CS, 1 engineering, 1 biology, 3 math, 2.5 physics, 1.5 chemistry, 0.5 college writing, HSA 10, 10 additional HSA courses including a 4-course concentration and courses from at least five different disciplines (total 18.5 courses, not counting the math courses already fulfilled for a math major)
Thank you. Do you know if they differ in teaching style? Like inquiry based learning vs straight lecture? Does Pomona have good research for math majors?
Ideally, you would want to ask a math major who has taken upper level math courses at both colleges (through cross registration) to find out if there is any significant difference in teaching styles.
Class sizes can be found in the class schedule at https://pomona.app.box.com/s/qtv481o442qwz29ht5hro0dpo0s2ho4y . Upper level math courses, whether at Pomona (suffix PO) or Harvey Mudd (suffix HM) or other Claremont colleges, appear to be small, which is typical of upper level math courses at even large universities.
If a desired course is not available at Pomona, students can cross-enroll at Harvey Mudd or any of the other 3 consortium schools, and vice versa. They are all adjacent and within walking distance.
The math department website is pretty informative and includes examples of undergraduate summer math research projects (pre pandemic)
and past examples of (required) senior theses from the past five years
There is a critical question that is not being asked. Is your son planning on graduate school or not? There are almost two kinds of math degrees out there - one for people going on to graduate school, and one for everyone else. The first is much, much tougher and more thorough. It is also more proof-based.
Admission to math graduate school is extremely competitive, and the variation in strength among graduate schools is large - much larger than in physics. (Where I am very familiar)
If your answer is “We’re not sure…we thought we’d wait until junior year, see where we are and then decide” that is pretty much a “no”. At that point it will be very late to jump on the grad school train.
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Yes, he plans to get a PhD in math. He definitely wants pure math and not applied math.
In that case, he should call the department and ask
- How many of their recent grads got into math grad school
- Where did they go?
Are they getting into Princeton and its peers? Or is it Kentucky and Temple and Auburn? (Solid schools but not Princeton’s peers) And if the latter, is your son OK with it?
I would also ask about time to degree. Proof-based real analysis or topology are surely not offered every semester and maybe not every year. How long does it take students to finish?
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Thank you. That is on his to-do list.
Harvey Mudd does try to appeal to the student with interests that are broadly STEM, but also go outside of STEM. The math department itself is excellent, with 60% of its students going on to PhDs. The math department also has excellent interdisciplinary joint majors with computer science, physics, or biology. As an undergraduate institution, its faculty does emphasize teaching. Since 2004, the Math Association of America’s Alder award for “Distinguished Teaching by a Beginning…Faculty Member” has been given to 5 of the professors at HMC, no other college has more than one. The American Math Society gave its very first ”Exemplary Program or Achievement in a Mathematics Department” award to Harvey Mudd. The student should take a look at the research areas of the math faculty to see if any of those are interesting the student. They should also look at the school info to see if the Harvey Mudd education philosophy matches the student.
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