Are there any distinct advantages or disadvantages to studying math at a liberal arts college vs at a research university?
It depends on the specific school’s math department and its offerings.
It also depends on the student. A super-advanced student in math may find that an undergraduate-only school like many liberal arts colleges may not offer the graduate level course work and research opportunities that may exist at a PhD-granting school. “Super-advanced” in this context means having completed college math course work beyond the calculus 1-2 (or AP calculus BC) level while in high school; such a student is likely to want to take graduate level math courses as an undergraduate if s/he majors in math.
Williams’ math department is widely acknowledged as among the very best and has the awards to show for it.
And of course there’s Harvey Mudd…
In general, though, there are pros and cons. The cons? Fewer course offerings. The pros? No TA-led class sessions, close interaction with brilliant and accomplished professors, and, perhaps the best, all research opportunities are available to undergrads.
Wesleyan is an undergraduate oriented institution that offers graduate courses in math.
LACs (that I know of) that attract a high percentage of math majors:
Harvey Mudd: 14%
Williams: 13%
Hamilton: 10%
Bowdoin: 9%
Pomona: 9%
Simply perusing the course offerings at these schools should give you an idea as to whether they would be suitable for you in relation to your current level. A semester in Budapest from any of these schools is another way to pursue even greater mathematical depth during your undergraduate years.
There is no downside if you choose your school wisely. You should be able to look online at the available math courses for schools you are considering and focus your search on LACs that appear to have strong offerings in math.
You should also have the option of “Independent Studies”, classes where you and a professor can come up with a course of study that is not formally offered. That sounds very interesting.
For super-advanced math students who will skip the frosh/soph level math courses, the junior/senior (and graduate) level math courses are usually small faculty led courses even at large research universities, so this typical LAC advantage is less of an advantage for these students than it is for others.
Sure, but (A) “super-advanced math students” are by definition a minority within a minority and (B) if upper-level classes at big universities are small, then upper-level courses at tiny LACs are positively intimate (I had a 2-on-1 class with a poet who won the Pulitzer while I was in her class, for example…). Not that that’s inherently better of course, but it’s worth thinking about.
St. Olaf is known to have a strong math department. About 9% of students are math majors and it also offers the option of studying in Budapest per merc81’s comment above.
True, but the forum demographic does seem to have a decent number of students who would fit that description (far out of proportion to the overall high school senior population), based on such students listing of post-calculus-BC college math courses as part of what they took while in high school.
There was this article months ago but it was about science specifically not mathematics:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/chadorzel/2015/04/10/why-small-colleges-are-great-for-science-students/
It’s awesome awesome awesome!!! Okay, that’s a little over the top. But after high school, I was so done with math. I was pretty convinced I was bad at it, especially since so many of the boys were - in my mind, and in some of theirs too - “smarter” than me (found out later I was actually getting better grades than some of them. Whoops;) ).
But I took a chance since I knew having math on a college transcript could make a whole lot of difference to employers. With the smaller class ratio, the professors took notice and were able to help. In particular, going to a women’s college, the humanities courses that talked about sexism in math, helped me diagnose how I had absorbed sexism in math and was denying that I’m actually pretty good at math. The professors were great at encouraging me to pursue what I realized I was actually very, very into.
Now I tutor math courses, including the two I had thought I had struggled and was bad in during high school and am majoring in a very mathematically based field. Finished through diff eq, but probably going to take more just for fun. So, awesome!! And I really doubt I would have even bothered taking math if I hadn’t gone to a liberal arts college.
One of the disadvantages is no graduate math course. Pros is having small classes and one on on with the professors.
Haverford and Swarthmore are great options, offering opportunities at enrolled school, the other school as well as UPENN
Williams has definitely exceeded the other top LACs in the Putman Competition, if that means anything to you.
The Putman Competition certainly involves a challenging exam. In most years, the national median score, out of the possible 120 points, is zero.
(Sorry about the typos–it’s “Putnam,” not “Putman,” obvs.)
Same here (#16).
(Though I had my spelling on good authority, now.)