<p>Hey everyone,</p>
<p>I was checking out the williams v princeton thread and thought it was pretty good.</p>
<p>What is Williams math known for (beyond the great teachers)? for example, princeton has a sick analysis series </p>
<p>also, does williams have math modeling and is it any good?</p>
<p>i checked the williams math site under alumns, and it doesnt seem many people go on to top phd programs. is there a reason for that. williams physics is pretty sick at grad placement</p>
<p>the only thing that I know about williams math is that they actually offer more courses than princeton. you should check out both course catalogs (use google). they do offer math modeling, but it is only offered every other year.</p>
<p>Whether williams’s classes are of the same rigor as princeton, I do not know. williams math department is supposed to be very nurturing, which is why 10% of students at williams major in it. this may keep some less intense students in the major, which may decrease the difficulty and cycle so on. I do know that princeton math program is not that nurturing and that most of the attention goes to the all-star undergrads.</p>
<p>tboyle: If you think a cut-throat, competitive, weed out kids style is appealing than Williams might not be appealing for you. However, I can assure you that no departments at Williams lack rigor, and in an independent assessment (Boalt Scale of UCBerkley) Williams is the second only to Swarthmore in the difficulty of earning an A in a class. This includes Harvard, Princeton, Reed, Chicago et al.</p>
<p>Although very selective, Williams is not a cut-throat environment, no comparison to the rigor of Princeton. There is a high energy level and emphasis put on the successful student-athlete in a nurturing way, is a smaller school in a remote location, nonetheless, high achieving students with very selective admissions standards, even for most athletes.</p>
<p>mythmom: Where did you hear that Williams is second to Swarthmore in difficulty of earning an A?</p>
<p>dchow08: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/239566-lacs-grade-deflation-inflation.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/239566-lacs-grade-deflation-inflation.html</a></p>
<p>mythmom: i am not trying to give my personal preference in education competitiveness, but I can tell you that I definitely have a problem with the extent Princeton’s weeding out. It is so bad that even though williams is 2.5 times smaller, it has nearly 2x as many math majors! (it should be noted that at princeton you cannot double major, so there may be many cs or physics guys who would otherwise major but do not at pton.) I do not know too much about the rigor and difficulty of williams math so I don’t want to comment too much on it, but difficult grading and rigor of the course content-wise do not go hand in hand. I have had teachers who take off significant points for not having organized work, even though the work was all correct or teachers who stick intensely to a grading curve. I got a lower grade each respective course than I would someplace else, but the rigor was not changed. I am not saying that this is the case at williams, but that bolt scale was also university wide, not specific to the math department.</p>
<p>I still love williams and am really interested too about learning more of their math dept. Does anyone know the criteria for the teaching awards that the williams math faculty have?</p>
<p>Bump (10char)</p>
<p>Info about the MAA’s Haimo Awards [url=<a href=“http://www.maa.org/Awards/Haimo_Recipients.html]here[/url”>http://www.maa.org/Awards/Haimo_Recipients.html]here[/url</a>]</p>
<p>I believe all 4 Williams winners are still with the dept</p>