<p>Hi - I did not see this specific question anywhere, but if I missed it - please feel free to provide me the link or thread - thanks. </p>
<p>Basically, if you have a child whose first pick has always been Princeton, Harvard, or M.I.T. (super strong in math - qualified for USAMO 5 times, but never made the final team) but his passion is math, and possibly engineering or science field - what are the top 3 or 4 "next tier" choices that this student should apply to assuming he will NOT get accepted to P, H, or M? </p>
<p>Prefer to stay on the East Coast so please don't suggest Cal Tech or Stanford, etc. Thanks!</p>
<p>If your son’s passion is math, I would have him look into majoring in actuarial math and become an actuary, This is one of the few fields that are still in demand. S is triple majoring in actuarial math, econ and stats at U of Michigan. He is very happy with his choice, he has always been an exceptionally strong math students and qualified for the same exams your son did.</p>
<p>Penn, Cornell, JHU, Rutgers, CMU, Lehigh, BU, Rochester, Case, RPI.</p>
<p>For Math- Brown, (also strong in some of the engineering disciplines but VERY strong in applied math), NYU, Swarthmore, Williams, Maryland. Wellesley if you also have a daughter down the road.</p>
<p>We ruled out the LAC’s since our kid wanted a geekier environment (and liked big) but YMMV.</p>
<p>Places we didn’t explore and where I don’t actually know kids who are majoring in the above but which were on our list (we ran out of time): Columbia for Engineering; U Conn for Engineering; SUNY Binghamton for math; Penn State for Engineering.</p>
<p>You mentioned a passion for math, and USAMO, but no info. about GPA, test scores or type of HS/most rigorous courses.</p>
<p>Even though at the next tier of school, most will admit based on more than grades and scores, it will still be important to have good scores and GPA.</p>
<p>A number of high stats kids on this site who did not get into Ivy’s were admitted to Univ of Chicago EA.</p>
<p>Repeat of some others including CMU, Lehigh, RPI, RIT, Bucknell. Also…the state “techs” for engineering (GA Tech, VA Tech) as well as the state flagships for science and math.</p>
<p>blossom, thanks for the suggestions - but Brown? for math? Really?? I’m shocked. Can anyone else weigh in on this? I always thought it was this sort of “out of the box” liberal arts school … and at the risk of sounding stupid, can you please tell me what the initials in your sentence below all mean? Thanks! “We ruled out the LAC’s since our kid wanted a geekier environment (and liked big) but YMMV”. LAC?? YMMV??</p>
<p>2boysima, yes, sorry - I meant to “imply” that my son has all the “usual” required stats - he’s already obtained 800 SAT math scores and decent (though not quite good enough just yet) verbal SAT scores (but these were taken BEFORE 9th grade!) and he already has earned an 800 on an SAT subject test, a 5 on an AP test, etc, (plus A student) BUT I know all too well from reading the posts on sites like this - and heresay, and news, that there are a zillion kids with all the above AND USAMO qualifiers, (and top students at other contests) but whom are not in the lucky 5 or so percent of “regular kids” without any special “ins” to actually get accepted. So I wonder where the other 95% of “amazing kids” who could easily succeed at any Ivy League but for whom were rejected due to lack of space, if for no other good reason - where do THEY all end up, and are they happy in the end??</p>
<p>“an interesting username!”
Yours too! I, got one ( a kindle, not a uesrname ) for my H (husband) for Christmas,</p>
<p>Psychiatrist. I picked this name pre-windows and pre-Prozac; when software come “shrink wrapped” and Psychiatrists did therapy.There is a thread about usernames somewhere.</p>
<p>Brown indeed for math. I went to Brown back in the dark ages- many of my friends were engineers, computer scientists and math geeks. At the time, Brown had one of the few direct admit med schools for undergrads (I think it was a 6 year program but it has since changed) which had a lot of appeal for science oriented kids who also wanted to study philosophy and classics.</p>
<p>Sorry for the assumptions in all the CC jargon. My kids were not interested in Liberal Arts Colleges (LACs) primarily because of size (they wanted something that felt big) and they liked the hustle and bustle that the grad and professional schools provided at a big university.</p>
<p>Your son’s happiness will only be tangentially related to the “status” of the school he ends up in… to answer the unstated question in your last post. So once you start to visit schools he will be able to articulate what he wants.</p>
<p>Some kids care a lot about environment, rural vs. urban, type of dorms,etc. Others are pretty neutral on that stuff and are mainly interested in the academic offerings. </p>
<p>You will find “math kids” everywhere. There will be a higher concentration of them at the tech schools (e.g. RPI) but that may not be the kind of place your son will find “his people” even if they share the math piece. If your son develops a passion for Victorian literature or political philosophy, a place like Chicago may resonate with him more. So cast a wide net for now.</p>
<p>Brown is well-known for its strong Applied Math Department - one of the best in the world. It is a separate department, not within the general math program, that grants up to a PhD level degree. If you do a minimal amount of research on this area of study, Brown is always mentioned as one of the top few schools.</p>
<p>For a math lover:
I would strongly suggest Chicago if geography does not rule it out. It has one of the best math departments in the country. </p>
<p>In no particular order: Duke; Brown (stronger in Applied Math than in Pure Math); Cornell; Duke; Columbia also has a great math department. NYU has the Courant Institute. UPenn. He should consider Williams (a great math department–we considered it for S but he wanted access to graduate classes).</p>