Math program

[enonimouse]

<p>Any information on math at Haverford (possibly pure math) would be helpful for junior getting his colleges-to-see list together. </p>

<p>How is the grad school acceptance for math? Are graduate level courses a realistic possiblity through Penn?</p>

[worldspirit]

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[b_r_um]

<p>

Are graduate level courses a realistic possiblity through Penn?

Officially, Haverford students are not allowed to take graduate classes at Penn. Unofficially, students can sometimes arrange to audit a graduate class for an independent study credit. I took 6 graduate classes at Penn this way, though I was an exception rather than the rule.</p>

<p>As much as I enjoyed my time in the math department at Haverford, I would not recommend it (or any other liberal arts college) for students who got accelerated in math beyond AP Calculus or are hoping to study math very intensely over the next 4 years. Math majors at Penn frequently start taking graduate courses in their 2nd year, sometimes even in their first. That’s simply not an option at a liberal arts college.</p>

<p>If your son might be interested in a PhD in pure math, I would urge him to attend a research university with a graduate program in pure mathematics. Unfortunately, having graduate courses on one’s undergraduate transcript is practically a pre-requisite for admission to the better graduate programs. I am currently the only liberal arts college graduate in the math PhD program at Stanford, and I was told that I had been the first liberal arts college student to be admitted to MIT or Princeton in a while. </p>

<p>But don’t just take my word for it. Here’s a blurb of advice that Swarthmore gives to its graduate school-bound math majors:

Finally, although there are grads of liberal arts colleges on the faculty of leading research departments (including our own Arthur Mattuck at MIT, Peter May at Chicago, and David Bayer at Columbia), many faculty, especially foreigners, just don’t know anything about liberal arts colleges and think they couldn’t possibly be good. </p>

<p>Does this mean you should give up? Of course not. It does mean you have an uphill fight to get into the best places, and that you will have to apply to a variety of places to ensure an acceptance with funding.

<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&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;