Sophomore twins are starting to look into colleges, need some advice on finding matches and safeties for son who is advanced in math and will probably be a Math/Comp Sci major.
With 2 in college at the same time, full need colleges will be the most affordable. Safety will be in-state University of Maryland, but son really wants a smaller experience. He is very interested in Rice and Williams and will probably apply to one early decision if net price calculator continues to work out. His brother is interested in Harvard (brother has already won National Awards in his field of interest) and both are legacies. I’m not comfortable with so many high reaches and would like a more balanced list.
Math twin attended Williams Math camp (virtual) this summer and likes the idea of studying at a LAC and is fine with rural. He will complete Calc A/B and Calc C this year and will take Linear Algebra and Multi Variable Calc junior and senior year. Both courses are taught at his HS. He is Math Team captain, code team leader in Robotics, plays the trombone, competes in some competitive programming competitions and straight A’s to date. He knows python, C++ and a little Java. He is hoping to get an internship next summer.
He hasn’t taken SATs since 7th grade which was 1330 (650 M and 680R). His most recent timed practice test was 1510 with a perfect score on the math. NMF may be a possibility and if so he is interested in UTD (especially the CS2 program).
He generally does not want to go to school in the South, but is open to certain schools. He is a D&D playing kid not interested in partying, more interested in a quirky marching band or orchestra options. Trombone teacher says he could major in performance, not interested but would like options to continue playing.
I would like schools that can be reach from the East Coast with a direct flight or better yet in driving distance of Mid-Atlantic. After 4 years of Grinnell and Covid, being close is important to Mom, son wants to go far. He like Boston but not NYC.
Williams, Rice and Harvard all appear in a Princeton Review sampling (available in the print edition), “Great Schools for Mathematics Majors.” From there you can get to other highly selective schools that appear — such as Amherst, Haverford, Brown, Hamilton, Bowdoin, Harvey Mudd, Pomona and Reed — to a few less selective alternatives.
Being so advanced in math (likely will have completed most or all of the frosh/soph level math courses for math majors), he will want to check on the breadth and depth of offerings of junior/senior/graduate level math courses at each college under consideration. Some LACs that would be suitable for math majors at normal level (calculus frosh year) or +1 level (calculus senior year in high school) could be inadequate for more advanced students in terms of running out of math offerings. Some colleges may emphasize particular applied areas like finance or high school teaching, with more limited offerings in other math areas.
If he wants to combine math with CS, some areas of math may be of particular interest, such as algebra, number theory, cryptography, (in)completeness, (un)decidability, combinatorics.
@merc81 Math twin might warm up to Harvard because he feels he has a better chance as a legacy, but that’s not a good reason to apply esp. early decision.
The issue is crafting a balanced list. My older two had no problem finding matches and safeties they liked. First son went to Northeastern, but almost went to a special program at UMBC. Second son was deciding between Grinnell and Beloit until the last minute.
Regarding University of Maryland, upper level math courses are likely to be small, but computer science courses are likely to be large. You can look at class sizes here: https://app.testudo.umd.edu/soc/ .
Due to the popularity of computer science, do not be surprised if many colleges have larger class sizes in computer science than in many other subjects, or limited access to computer science courses or the computer science major.
@Mom24boys he sounds a lot like D20; loves math, robotics and D&D, spent the summer coding Python on a research team. She wound up finding her “people” a large southern school; the honors college truly won her over. Her friends didn’t enter the first ticket lottery because they have a large d&d campaign that day. As far as LACs that fit the bill, I know it’s in NC, but Davidson comes to mind. Great academics, small town with easy access to Charlotte (banking and tech hub, so great for internships), great jazz ensemble and orchestra…not sure what the NPC would look like for him.
We really like Utah as a safety for outdoorsy kids. Great merit aid for top stats (4.0 UW is a big advantage for auto merit), and 30 competitive full rides per year.
The math program is strong and the top STEM student has won a Churchill scholarship in each of the last 5 years and gone on to a top PhD program. Here’s an example math winner: https://science.utah.edu/students/scott-neville-churchill/
Though not doing math, D (4.0UW/35ACT/8 5s in APs) has had a great time there, she loves the skiing and outdoor lifestyle. It’s not a small school overall but the Honors College is much smaller and if you win one of the full rides then the cohort structure of the scholarship provides a very tight knit group who live together and have classes together.
Note that some of these schools indicate additional majors in statistics, and that Harvey Mudd registers 44 additional majors in “Mathematics and Computer Science,” and that Rice reports 18 additional majors in “Computational and Applied Mathematics.” Note as well that different sources may indicate different figures from those above, particularly when double majors have been fully included.
What about Amherst, which comes with the ability to take classes at UMass Amherst? I don’t know how strong UMass Amherst is in math, but know they are very strong in CS and AI. Easy enough to research.
@Merc81 Son would love to apply to Harvey Mudd, but very little chance it would be affordable. If he goes to Rice he plans on majoring in Computational and Applied Mathematics.
When I visited Hamilton with 2nd son, I loved the school. It’s one of the few small schools I could see both twins attending. Other twin will major in Economics. What do you know about Hamilton’s computer science program?
Still looking for that unicorn school, not highly selective, small to medium with strong math and comp sci. I will look into St. Olaf. He is concerned it too religious, I know it isn’t heavily religious, I think only a visit would be able to tell if he is comfortable. Hoping those will be possible again someday.
@Twoin18 Utah is an interesting idea, will have him investigate. He doesn’t ski but loves to mountain bike and I’m sure that would be great in Utah.
Culturally, would a non-religious Jewish, atheist, pro-tax liberal be comfortable in Utah?
Close friend’s D graduated from St. Olaf. She’s agnostic and found it not very religious at all. From their own website the school says that the majority of students don’t identify with any religion. She absolutely adored her time there.
@Tigerwife92 I think his safeties will ultimately include large state schools with honors programs. Did your D20 choose her school over her in-state option and if so why? I would have to convince him that another state’s flagship university had more to offer than Maryland.
He doesn’t like the size of Maryland, the size of the courses, the partying (which I know will happen anywhere), the condition of the dorms (no AC, history of mold which sadly along with bad advice from on campus health center led to the death of a local student last year). However, he does know the CS department is excellent, intern opportunities are close and the price is hard to beat. Maryland seems to re-invent it’s Honors program every few years, so waiting to see what is next. I will say I know lots of kids who have gone to Maryland and they ended up happy, finding their “people”, getting a good education and good jobs. I think whatever your in-state school is you get to know it almost too well, and start to focus on faults instead of opportunities.
As far as Davidson, great school, but would it be a fit for a kid not interested in fraternities and politically liberal.