<p>I'm applying for a math major for undergrad and plan to pursue cryptography as a career. </p>
<p>Please advise me as to which school I should choose. </p>
<p>I'll probably apply for a transfer to an ivy league in after the first year. Does the school I attend now really matter? </p>
<p>How do these schools differ socially? Tell me something that isn't on their website. Parties, Greek life, how friendly the professors are etc? </p>
<p>As for financials, I'm getting full aid at BU, $66,000 at NYU and a bit at UCLA (ECOA: $33,000)</p>
<p>Thanks in advance! </p>
<p>It’s virtually impossible to transfer into the Ivy League, except Cornell, where 2/3 are admitted to the Ag college and only a handful to A&S, with priority to NYS community colleges.
Therefore, you have to choose between these three schools based on attending all 4 years.</p>
<ul>
<li>Rather than giving the amounts of financial aid, give us the net cost of each, that is, COA - any scholarships/grants (but not counting any loan, work study, etc).</li>
</ul>
<p>The big downside to BU and NYU is that there’s no campus; the big downside to UCLA is how overcrowded the first year classes are.</p>
<p>Oh. So, I shouldn’t have much hope? What’s the rate anyway?</p>
<p>Okay. COAs </p>
<p>BU: ~$7000
NYU~ $14000
UCLA~$31000</p>
<p>The rate is roughly 1-2% except in Cornell’s College of Agriculture. If your goal is Cornell’s College of Agriculture (check it out online) your odds are not bad.
Considering that the RD rates this year were in the 3-5% range and that transfer rates are much lower than RD rates you can see that it’s basically impossible. </p>
<p>Are those costs without loans (direct/Stafford/federal, or PLUS)?
What’s your budget (how much can your parents pay)?</p>
<p>Oh, I see. </p>
<p>Those are my costs without loans. </p>
<p>My parents are in a financial crisis and can’t afford to pay much. Around 6-10k. If I consider going to NYU or UCLA I’m going to have to take a loan or something. </p>
<p>One more thing, when you say the classes at UCLA are overcrowded, how many students per class are we talking about?
What are the downsides of there being no campus? </p>
<p>I’m sorry if those questions may sound dumb, I’m the fist one in my family to go to college. </p>
<p>overcrowded = several hundreds, if not almost one thousand in some popular majors’ pre-reqs such as Biology.</p>
<p>Anyway, right now, BU and NYU are the only ones that are affordable.
BU = you’d get 5,500 in federal loans, add work study $2,500 for personal expenses, it’d make it a full ride and very doable at that, with enough leftover for books and returning home for Thanksgiving (provided you book your tickets ahead of time.)
Ask for a work study job if you don’t have one in your package: they’re better than off campus jobs in that the hours have to be built around your academics, not the other way around + you can get recommendations and promotions (vs. waitressing…) if you work for a dept + you could get a “get paid to study” job, ideally the welcome desk in your dorm where you sit for 4 hours and, basically, tell people where the elevators are or let residents in because they forgot their key card, the rest of the time you do your hw.</p>
<p>NYU would be harder because you’d use your federal loans, ask for work study, need to work over the summer, and still your parents would have to pay $5,000 (roughly $510/month if you can get on an installment plan).</p>
<p>The downsides of there being no campus is that there’s no quad and residential life is scattered.
To have an idea of what the “ideal college experience” would be in many Americans’ imaginations, watch “Liberal Arts” (by Josh Radnor) AND “Animal House”. Both would be the two extremes… and neither would represent what an urban campus is. </p>
<p>UCLA is not affordable and isn’t worth it.</p>
<p>How advanced in math are you?
Look at the math classes offered both at NYu and BU. Email the Dept head (“Dear Professor X, My name is… and I am an admitted student interested in a math major in order to go to grad school with a specialty in cryptology. I am currently taking… and wondered what math class I would start with at …University. In addition, my interests in math focus on … right now, are there faculty members I could work under? How often are classes in that area offered? Is it possible for undergraduates students to work on research and how often does that happen?”… etc. Don’t forget to sign respectfully and you’re done! Plus this will come in handy next year when you’re not one of the freshmen who doesn’t realize emailing a professor isn’t the same as emailing a buddy. Trust me, it doesn’t endear them to anyone if they forget greetings and aren’t formal-ish even if it’s an email. 
)</p>
<p>Wow, MYOS1634. Thank you so much for the help. Seriously, this information is very useful! </p>
<p>Yes! Emailing the professors is a good idea, I’ll get right to it. </p>
<p>I looked up college ranking in Math online. BU doesn’t have one and NYU is #10 in the country. But, how reliable are those rankings? Plus, those rankings are usually for graduate school, right? How far do they apply to undergraduate schools? </p>
<p>Those rankings aren’t very reliable although they do indicate strength of the faculty for research output. You’re better off looking at what’s offered annually and, most importantly, whether there are professors with whom you would work on your interests. You might want to ask whether you’ll be able to take graduate-level classes as an undergrad.
What are you taking right now? Are you past Calc BC? Have you taken college math classes?</p>
<p>I agree, you can strike UCLA from consideration. That’s not doable and you don’t need it.</p>
<p>I think NYU is supposed to be fantastic in applied math, but that may be the grad school. Grad school rankings may or may not mean a great undergrad program. A top grad school often indicates that the undergrad program is strong–It depends on how the department is run. Are the same profs teaching? Are they doing research with undergrads? Lack of a top grad dept may not mean anything. They might have a great undergrad focus. Also realize that you will take many classes outside your major as well.</p>
<p>You can try a transfer, but don’t count on it. Pick as if you are going to be there 4 years. Also you can see if you can do summer research at another university. When my daughter was at Brown another student joined their group research for the summer on an ongoing cryptography project. Brown has several prof interested in crypto. So does UMD Maryland and now that I think about it so does BU, but in the grad dept. I don’t know if they teach undergrad, they are in the CS dept. One is a Nobel Laureate and one is a collaborator with her Brown prof.</p>
<p>MYOS1634,
Undergrads can take graduate level classes? I didn’t know that. I just finished emailing a few professors at my choice schools. Yeah, I’m past Calculus BC. I’m studying A Level Further Math which is part of the British curriculum, it’s slightly more advance than AP. No I haven’t taken any of those. </p>
<p>BrownParent.
I did some research on the questions you asked but couldn’t find out if the same professors are teaching. Should I email them?
And thanks for the advice. :)</p>
<p>You may need to specify that it means: matrices, proofs, vectors, Taylor… in case they don’t understand “Further Maths”.
Are you in a British school? Or taking Further Maths because there isn’t a similar class offered at your HS?</p>
<p>Yes a few select undergrads can take graduate-level classes if they’re advanced enough (that would typically be Senior year, sometimes junior year in exceptional cases).</p>
<p>On a completely unrelated matter, have you seen “Bletchley Circle” or read Connie Willis’ <em>All Clear</em>?</p>
<p>I currently go to a British school. Transferred from England. </p>
<p>No, I don’t watch that show. But, a friend recommended it to me. Heard it’s based on cryptography. :D</p>
<p>Bletchley Circle is a British 3-episod series, although it’s more about what happened to the “girls” (women scientists) once the war was over.</p>