Math

Colleges and Universities A-Z Williams College
1

<p>Hi everyone,</p>

<p>I'm interested in majoring in math...could anyone give me a feel for how the math program is at Williams? and maybe compare it to other LAC's?</p>

2

<p>Its miles ahead of the math departments at comparable LACS (despite what the forthcoming anti-Williams trolls might suggest). The caliber of research undertaken by the Williams math faculty rivals that of the top research universities, and the quality of instruction rivals that of any other top LAC.</p>

3

<p>Williams might have the best teaching math department of any college or university in the country. It's pretty good.</p>

4

<p>The math program is very strong at Williams; there have been numerous discussions here and on EphBlog citing examples of the strength not only of the faculty but the graduates as well (and their placement into top programs after Williams). In addition, there are excellent opportunities for student investigation during summers, both as summer research fellows and SMALL participants. A good place to begin would be the math department site at williams.edu: <a href="http://www.williams.edu/mathematics/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.williams.edu/mathematics/&lt;/a> (click on "Majors" then "Postgraduate Plans" to see what recent alums are doing/have done).</p>

5

<p>Agreed. My freshman year, I was one of over 100 students to take multivariable calculus fall semester. That's unheard of at other schools. I took five classes in the department and greatly enjoyed all but one (a tutorial on linear algebra, which was useful if a bit dull). The SMALL research experience is great for getting into math grad school after college, although most of the participants are not from Williams. If you're interested in math and liberal arts, you're not going to do much better than Williams.</p>

6

<p>alright thanks guys!</p>

<p>what are other liberal arts colleges that have a good reputation in math, that could rival Williams?</p>

7

<p>See the middle column in Table 7 (page 45) of the December 2005 Hoxby study/"Revealed Preference-based Rankings for Students with Tastes for Various Fields of Study" (Wellesely, Amherst, Swarthmore are also in the top 15, in addition to Williams) at
<a href="http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/hoxby/papers/revealedprefranking.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/hoxby/papers/revealedprefranking.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

8

<p>I go to Amherst, but I must admit that Williams has a much better math department than we do.</p>

9

<p>this is very reassuring...i really liked Williams, and to know that it has a good math reputation is a big plus!</p>