<p>I'm a junior right now and I'm still in the searching process for colleges. Can anyone tell me anything on McGill, Berkeley, UChicago, and Brown in terms of academic programs, average class size, attention to undergrad students, and social life.</p>
<p>Also, my current strongest area of interest is math. I am among the top 4 math students of my high school, but I am by no means a "beast" in math (I only qualified for AIME the first time in my life this year, 112.5 AMC 12). Can anyone tell me on the math programs at these four schools? Possibly particularly in applied maths.</p>
FWIW, here is the 2009 USNWR ranking for graduate programs in applied math:</p>
<p>1 New York University New York, NY
2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA
3 California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA
3 University of California–Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA
5 University of Minnesota–Twin Cities Minneapolis, MN 6 Brown University Providence, RI
7 Princeton University Princeton, NJ 7 University of California–Berkeley Berkeley, CA
9 Stanford University Stanford, CA
9 University of Texas–Austin Austin, TX
11 University of Michigan–Ann Arbor Ann Arbor, MI
12 Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA
12 University of Maryland–College Park College Park, MD
14 Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA
15 Cornell University Ithaca, NY
16 University of Washington Seattle, WA 17 University of Chicago Chicago, IL
18 Rice University Houston, TX
19 Purdue University–West Lafayette West Lafayette, IN
19 University of Arizona Tucson, AZ
21 University of Wisconsin–Madison Madison, WI </p>
<p>All your choices will provide a great math education.
I would wait until acceptances come out, then look at cost, environment, and other factors to base your decision.</p>
<p>McGill, Berkeley, Chicago, and Brown are all fantastic in their own right and each have their own strengths and weaknesses. Berkeley and Chicago traditionally have slightly stronger math departments overall than Brown, with McGill further back. You’ll have much smaller average class sizes and more personal attention at Chicago or Brown vs. Berkeley or McGill.</p>
<p>This is the ranking for graduate programs. Is there a ranking for math in undergraduate programs? How do these schools differ in the undergraduate level both in general and in maths?</p>
<p>From what my S (2nd year McGill) tells me: fantastic professors, huge class size, absolutely no hand holding and social life is the best!!
He had a 5 in AP CAlc and barely came out alive in CalcII - a bit better in Linear Algebra.</p>
<p>“All your choices will provide a great math education.
I would wait until acceptances come out, then look at cost, environment, and other factors to base your decision.”</p>
<p>I agree.</p>
<p>Additionally, take into consideration future goals upon completion of your math degree. If it’ll be a stepping stone for getting a job straight out of undergrad, then consider where you would want to live. Berkeley will obviously have stronger connections in the Bay Area and west coast, while Chicago will obviously be popular with employers in the Midwest/East Coast and Brown will dominate the East Coast.</p>
<p>Also, although you may think you want to major in Math, and I’m not saying that you won’t, consider the possibility that your interests my change. You don’t want to attend a school that caters towards your one major.</p>
<p>I’m still a junior so I can’t quite “wait until acceptances com out” any time soon. Right now I’m just trying to decide which schools to apply to.</p>
<p>liek, I don’t quite understand what you mean by “If it’ll be a stepping stone for getting a job straight out of undergrad, then consider where you would want to live”. Honestly I am more unsure about what career I want to pursue. I hope to attend graduate school, although I am also unsure what I will study there. For now I can only say I’m most interested in math and hope to study it in undergrad.</p>
<p>Can anyone say anything about average class sizes and how easy it is to get in touch with professors or advisors in these four schools?</p>
<p>From what I’ve gathered, Berkeley, Brown and Chicago are all excellent for math and applied math. They’re also peer schools in terms of academic prestige. however, they’re completely different and each one of them has its own different student “culture”. I’d say visit these universities and decide from there. Personally, I would choose Berkeley over Brown and Chicago purely because of the additional prestige it has outside the US. NorCal has also a much friendlier weather which is a huge factor for me.</p>
<p>I can’t comment about McGill but I’ve heard it’s fantastic school and is a huge name in Canada.</p>
<p>Here’s the more credible ranking of US universities that you may want to check out. It’s better than the USNews’ ranking. </p>
<p>*
Criteria:
**Academic Peer Assessment; Employer Assessment (Upper Level Management); Graduate and Professional School Admissions Officer Assessment; Quality of Student Body by SAT / SAT II; Quality of Student Body by GPA / Class Rank; Resources / Expenditure Per Student; Graduate /Professional School Attendance; Wage and Employment; Number of Applications / Desirability of School **</p>
<ol>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li><p>Massachusetts Inst. of Technology</p></li>
<li><p>California Inst. of Technology</p></li>
<li><p>Columbia</p></li>
<li><p>Penn</p></li>
<li><p>Chicago</p></li>
<li><p>Northwestern</p></li>
<li><p>Cornell</p></li>
<li><p>Johns Hopkins</p></li>
<li><p>Brown</p></li>
<li><p>UC Berkeley</p></li>
<li><p>Duke</p></li>
<li><p>NYU</p></li>
<li><p>Michigan</p></li>
<li><p>University of Virginia</p></li>
<li><p>Dartmouth</p></li>
<li><p>Univ. of Southern California</p></li>
<li><p>UCLA</p></li>
<li><p>Carnegie Mellon</p></li>
<li><p>Emory</p></li>
<li><p>Rice</p></li>
<li><p>Notre Dame</p></li>
<li><p>Vanderbilt</p></li>
<li><p>Georgetown</p></li>
<li><p>University of North Carolina</p></li>
<li><p>Tufts</p></li>
<li><p>William and Mary
*</p></li>
</ol>