<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I'm a prospective math major trying to decide which of these three institutions to attend in the fall. I'd be interested in any comments people had about the math programs at these universities. </p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Princeton is the place to go for math. My friend (USAMO person) chose Princeton out of the three.</p>
<p>Only Harvard has Math 55.</p>
<p>MIT has far more IMO medalists than any other school.</p>
<p>They also have around 40% of ALL Putnam Fellows for the past ten years.</p>
<p>Since 2000, the number of Putnam Fellows (top 5 individual performers at the Putnam competition) at each school has been:
MIT 18
Harvard 11
Princeton 5
Caltech 4</p>
<p>[William</a> Lowell Putnam Competition](<a href=“http://www.maa.org/awards/putnam.html]William”>http://www.maa.org/awards/putnam.html)</p>
<p>"Only Harvard has Math 55. " : but MIT students can take Math 55 at Harvard anyway</p>
<p>Actually, I know some people that tried to do that, but I don’t think it worked out for them. But I guess at MIT, they have classes like 18.0x4, 18.100, and 18.701, but I don’t know how they compare to Math 55.</p>
<p>My honest opinion is that it would be a little silly to go to Harvard just for Math 55. I mean firstly, most very smart math majors find out it’s not for them – even ones who may end up being more successful than some 55-ers in the future. Math 55 is an awesome course, but it’s for those who thrive under a high pressure learning environment. While all of MIT, Harvard and Princeton will be challenging for mathematics, it’s pretty clear that most of the courses offered at any of these, including Harvard, just won’t be as high pressure as Math 55. </p>
<p>I’d take a look at other factors in the departments. For one thing, what are the faculty reputed for, and what kinds of classes are most often offered + how do they compare with your interests, if you have anything of the sort already? For instance, if a school were obsessed with combinatorics, I’d probably feel terribly out of place in the math department there…I mean, even say, if all the undergraduates were doing stuff like that. </p>
<p>More important than “area of math” – because this is for undergrad, not grad, I’d check how the department’s philosophy fits with yours. How easy are they on transfer credits? How keen are they on testing? Some schools like tests, and others apparently like them less, and assign only long problem sets instead of having as many (if any) tests, which can be a good or bad thing. How cooperative is the environment? Talking about math tends to be how many people learn a lot of what they know. </p>
<p>Obviously, the nice thing about MIT and Harvard is that you can take courses at either when something isn’t offered at one of them. If I’d applied to all these schools and were choosing among them, I’d have to say MIT’s student culture appeals to me vastly the most, and yet Harvard’s math department appeals to me slightly more than either of the other two’s.</p>
<p>…I was just kidding, you know. 
</p>
<p>Math55 sounds great, but one class shouldn’t make or break your decision.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input everyone. If I chose to go to MIT, I’d be very interested in trying to take math55. However, I was concerned that it would be difficult to collaborate with other students in the course due to the fact that I wouldn’t living on campus with them.
I’d like any more comments about MIT students taking 55 and how they fared.</p>
<p>That said, 55 is only for freshmen year and it’s not going to seriously sway my decision.
I’m interested in studying one or a few of the following areas: Foundations/topology/set theory/logic. While, I have yet to formally research the programs at HPM specifically in these areas I’d appreciate anything you guys would have to say.</p>
<p>What are the prereqs for Math 55? Just curious. Is it a freshman class if you’ve placed out of calc or do you need classes like number theory, abstract algebra, etc. before taking it? I only heard about Math 55 after I graduated from MIT.</p>
<p>I think the only official prerequisite is Math 1, which is just single variable calculus.</p>
<p>Collegealum, it seems Math 55 requires not so much in terms of raw prerequisites as maturity, i.e. you should already be well-seasoned in reading and communicating mathematics. </p>
<p>OP – your concern about collaboration is definitely legitimate, but as I said, pick the school that’s right for you, and worry about 55 if you’re going to MIT or Harvard. I know that MIT is a very good topology school. </p>
<p>However, oddly enough if you’re interested in set theory or logic, Berkeley is supposed to be really amazing (I say this impartially as well, because I can’t bring myself to get into that type of material). Then again, unless you’re really really set on this stuff, I’d not base undergraduate decisions on such things.</p>
<p>EDIT – something tells me you should choose MIT, OP :)</p>
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<p>That’s good, but you’d be surprised how many people just think Harvard is the place to go because 55 is a sign of what it’s like.</p>
<p>Visit the math departments of all three schools before making a decision. E-mail to see if you can arrange an appointment with a faculty member (my daughter was able to do this at MIT quite easily in the physics department). I believe that all but one of the 2008 USAMO team members chose to matriculate at MIT. A visit will help you understand if MIT is the best fit for you.</p>
<p>How do you pass up MIT math? I think I’d give up a leg to go to MIT math… this is crazy talk. Even the general pubic perceives MIT as very mathy. You cannot beat MIT math, sorry.</p>
<p>Visit them all, talk to students, and see what you like most. There’s more to life than math.</p>
<p>Even if there isn’t more to life than math, you’ll learn best where you’re happiest. How do you like the campus, the people the culture, the course requirements and academic philosophy, the weather? As far as math goes, any of those schools should have more than sufficient resources for you.</p>
<p>^^yeah, I totally agree with findis. Remember, Fields medalist Ed Witten (created string theory) went to Brandeis for undergrad…and majored in journalism.</p>
<p>What kind of background do you have? Classes like Harvard 55 don’t do you any good if you fail it, or fail all your other classes trying to pass it. The intro math sequences are going to be filled with previous IMO/USAMO winners, people that have already taken multiple college math classes, etc. You really should make sure you have the mathematical maturity, intellect, and dedication to succeed in those types of classes. I’ve heard that Princeton’s intro honors math sequence assumes you’ve already seen a fair amount of theoretical math.</p>
<p>Studying math at MIT is superior simply because the math community here is the largest. Collaboration is very important in mathematics, and here, you will always be able to find someone at your level to work with. Think about it; you can be quite alone in other schools.</p>
<p>I wanted to take Math 55 at Harvard as a freshman. In retrospect, I strongly recommend against that. There is one fundamental problem with Math 55: too much material. It is very important as a math major to build a strong background in algebra and analysis. Doing it in one year means skipping a lot of detail and depth. Furthermore, if you are not a blue/black MOPper, you will probably not be able to keep up with the coursework anyway.</p>
<p>dilsky: I don’t have a super amazing background, but I think the structure of my classes, especially this semester have led me to be a much more mature mathematical (yay alliteration) thinker. I’m in intermediate analysis and complex analysis right now. I’ve taken multi-v, diffy q, and number theory. I’m planning on independent studying linear + abstract algebra this summer or taking a course in one of them.</p>
<p>I think the points about 55 being way too much are valid and I wasn’t intending on taking for sure, b/c I know there is a high likelihood that I would drop the course.</p>