@Mwfan1921 Good suggestion, will have him investigate. Don’t know anything about their math or comp sci departments. But I know it’s the right size, not to far, but not to close to home, offers some significant merit and Richmond is a nice small city.
In the earlier days of CS, Hamilton professors cowrote a computer science textbook that was used nationally, and helped design a model CS curriculum for liberal arts colleges in general.
These articles should offer you a sense of Hamilton’s current computer science, math and economics programs:
https://www.hamilton.edu/news/story/comp-sci-department-hosts-college-computing-conference
https://www.hamilton.edu/news/story/mathletics-team-second-snow-bowl-win
Regarding St Olaf, note that its course in number theory (239) appears to be offered only through an (estimable) abroad program in Budapest: https://catalog.stolaf.edu/academic-programs/mathematics/#coursestext.
Carleton? Colorado School of Mines? U of Portland?
@2plustrio Carlton is on the list as a reach. Don’t know anything about U of Portland, but will have him look in to it. Hopefully, the current fires are not going to become the new norm (for thousands of reasons more important than my son’s college search).
Hadn’t considered Colorado School of Mines since son has wide range of interests outside of math and comp sci but probably worth a look at available courses. Just looked up distance to major airport and 30 miles seems doable if shuttles exist.
Richmond does not have an upper level number theory course:
https://math.richmond.edu/courses/index.html
There seems to be the possibility of such a course being added for fall 2021:
https://math.richmond.edu/courses/course-rotation.html
@ucbalumnus I guess there is a reason Princeton is his dream math department.
Son has been fighting our local school district for years to move ahead in math. He self studied and tested out of Alg 2 between 8th and 9th grade (he wanted to test out of Algebra in 7th but wasn’t allowed). When the school system saw his 7th grade SATs, they said he could enroll in CC classes but since he was in MS they would not be eligible for HS credit. And then this year due to Covid, our HS and MS changed to a 4by4 virtual schedule. Our school system does not allow students to skip Calc A/B so as soon as he heard he began to lobby to take both Calc A/B and Calc C in one year. It took a month of back and forth with the school system but that is now the plan.
He is much happier in school now, down side is college search is more complicated. I was very hesitant for him for move ahead this quickly, I know at some level he will hit a wall with math, but I’ll admit so far he was right and I was wrong.
I don’t think that would be an issue. This was what I wrote about Utah in the class of 2021 thread: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/22919257/#Comment_22919257 and
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/22919871/#Comment_22919871
@merc81 Son took at look at Hamilton and is very excited. I’m assuming it would still be a reach but less so then Williams or Rice. I ran the short price calculator and it would be financially doable.
Any idea how they would considering twins applying together, I guess this is a general question for all schools. I don’t think this would be an issue for large schools, but unsure about small and medium ones.
Since BYU appears to be less expensive for members of the CJCLDS than University of Utah is for Utah residents, it would not be surprising if the more religiously-oriented members of the CJCLDS mostly chose BYU over University of Utah.
Would Randall Research Scholars at Alabama interest him? There was a mom whose son was at graduate level math/physics in freshman year of college who loved his time there and is now in a great grad school.
https://honors.ua.edu/programs/randall-research-scholars-program/
Another vote for St Olaf.
St Olaf meets full need, and the class of 2020 included 69 mathematics majors, 55 statistics data science concentrators, 28 computer science majors and 3 math-bio-concentrators. (St Olaf doesn’t have minors, but does offer concentrations). It ranks highly in the number of students that go on to earn a PhD in math.
@merc81 mentioned that number theory is offered in Budapest. St Olaf has a January term where students take one course. Number theory is offered during J-term in Budapest, although most of the course is taught by a St Olaf professor. The students normally blog during their J-term in Budapest. Here is a link to the 2020 blog:
https://budapestnumbertheory.blogspot.com/
St Olaf also participates in the Budapest Semester in Mathematics (BSM) program, which allows students to take a semester of math classes taught in English by local professors in Budapest. In fact, Paul Humke, a St Olaf professor, was the North American director of BSM from 1987-2011. It should be of interest for students interested in number theory. Here is a link to the program:
https://budapestsemesters.com/introduction/
Good luck with your search!
“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”
That’s a pretty random list of colleges, outside of Harvard for math, here’s another one on Fields (nobel version of math) winners in the US:
-Harvard, Princeton, Berkeley, Chicago, MIT, Stanford, Columbia, NYU, SUNY-Stony Brook, Yale
If you’re considering places like Harvard, and want math and computer science, definitely look at small/med colleges like Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech, maybe Princeton, again depending on how many reaches you want. If you want more theory and less emphasis on CS, for sure Chicago should be on your list, along with Columbia.
Though as you know legacy makes you a match (gasp!) for Harvard (60% acceptance with your kid’s academic profile). Anyway for matches/safeties, look at colleges like NYU, RPI which may not be that far from Maryland.
We had an active poster on CC whose twin daughters chose Hamilton, and who would now be seniors there. One ran track and x-country and intended to pursue opportunities in the government department, the other had expressed an interest in studying biological sciences. Both were academically high achieving students in HS with high standardized scoring. Both were accepted without being waitlisted.
As an opinion, Hamilton represents a match school for highly accomplished students who demonstrate sincere interest.
@theloniusmonk My son read your 60% acceptance quote for Harvard and being the mathy kid that he is asked the source and or data set? Is that rate still applicable if you apply regular decision?
He has definitely looked into Stanford, MIT, Cal Tech. With MIT, it’s kind of strange that he has a better chance of getting into that other school in Cambridge. One of the things he really likes about Williams is the option to spend a semester at MIT. Princeton will be on the list if he doesn’t get into an ED school. He and I have a difference of opinion on going to CA for school, he is pro, I am anti. He looks at the Chicago essay questions for fun every year, so will look into that more (already on the list for Economic twin). I can’t see math twin being happy in NY, definitely not NYU had a cousin who just graduated (loved it), he is just wants a more contained, less urban environment.
RPI would probably not be affordable.
Have you been using the Net Price Calculators? RPI offers both merit and need-based aid, and if I recall, their calculator reflects that, plus it starts from a slightly lower price point. But top schools would offer enough need-based aid, correct? So to clarify, for matches and safeties you need to look at merit?
@CollegeMamb0 U of A was very impressive and kind to my oldest when he visited as a NMSF in 2013, but this son can’t be convinced to look.
@evergreen5 I’ve been using Net Price Calculators, but didn’t for RPI. Went off the experience of my 1st son, but different kid, different income and different time so will run NPC.
Top schools do offer enough need based aid. So I assume we would need significant merit for matches and safeties, don’t know exactly how much when budgeting for 2.
If merit scholarships are necessary, that makes it hard to find matches.
A merit scholarship that is automatic for stats (or National Merit status) can be a safety if admission is also assured. However, competitive merit scholarships are best considered to be reaches, since there is often little or no transparency about how difficult they are to get, unlike admission for which there is often a plethora of stats, Naviance plots at your high school, etc…
Surprised that nobody said Case Western yet.
What type of price point would you be trying to hit with merit only? At many schools, merit just reduces the need based aid so it is difficult to get a lower net price than just with need based only.