Safety Schools that are strong in math?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I've just finished my junior year, and over the summer I am planning to research in detail my safety schools, but I don't really know where to start. I am primarily interested in studying math, with a possible minor in Philosophy. Here is where I plan to apply in terms of reach/target:</p>

<p>Princeton (REA)
MIT
Stanford
Harvey Mudd
Williams
Chicago (?)
Yale (?)
Carnegie Mellon (?)</p>

<p>As you can see, these places are all very selective, so I need some more likely admittance places. I live in Texas but am British in origin, and also plan to apply to the UK to study Math and Philosophy; right now I am looking at</p>

<p>Oxford (First choice; If I don't get in here I'll probably go to the US)
Edinburgh
Durham
York (?)</p>

<p>In terms of a safety, I am looking for somewhere fairly small, preferably no more than 10000 students. Academics is the most important factor. </p>

<p>Here are my stats:</p>

<p>SAT I: 800 (Math) 730 (Reading) 800 (Writing)
SAT II: 800 (Math 2) 780 (Literature). I am planning to take either physics or chem in the fall, expect 750+.</p>

<p>ACT: 35 (composite); 35 (English) 35 (Math) 36 (Reading) 34 (Science) 33 (Combined english and writing)</p>

<p>My school doesn't calculate weighted or unweighted GPA on the 4.0 scale, but I have an overall GPA from high school of about 96, with my 11th grade year being a 97 and taking 6 IB classes (my school does the full IB program only).</p>

<p>My school teaches all IB classes at the Higher Level in the junior year, but right now I plan to take HL math, HL Physics (might change to HL chem instead), HL English, B SL French, SL History, and SL Chem. </p>

<p>My school doesn't provide academic stats or class ranking, but I have about 80 people in my grade and I am ranked in the top 7% or so in terms of GPA. </p>

<p>Here are my extra curriculars:
Linear Algebra course - in my free periods over my junior year I and 2 other students took a Linear Algebra course taught by an MIT grad with a pHd, based on the 18.06 course at MIT. We took the final exam from MIT and I got an 87, which would probably be just about enough for an A. Next year we plan to take another course, most probably differential equations. Since my school doesn't teach Calc until senior year, I have learned single-variable calc on my own and plan to tackle multi-variable calc this summer.</p>

<p>Math club - I founded the Math Club at my school. We participated in a contest and won the award for the best team project, out of about 50 teams.</p>

<p>Fitness club - I am one of the main members of the fitness club at my school, sometimes taking over the workouts when the teacher can't make it.</p>

<p>Red Cross - active member of the Red Cross club, participated in various service activities over the year. </p>

<p>Chess Club: Fairly active member of chess club; got second place in our intramural tournament.</p>

<p>Academic challenge/Quiz Bowl: Very active member and team captain. We qualified for the national championships but unfortunately couldn't attend due to a conflict with final exams.</p>

<p>VEX Robotics - I am the member of a VEX Robotics team with three of my friends, independent of school. Using our own money we qualified for the World Championships in Anaheim, CA by winning the Houston League. However, we did not progress past the first round at Worlds. </p>

<p>I was also inducted into the NHS last year.</p>

<p>In terms of finances, I have a brother already at college not at any kind of financial aid. Not sure of exact income but probably 250,000-300,000. Financial calculators at places like Yale have said I would get around 20000 per year in aid.</p>

<p>I think that's about it. I am looking for some possible safety schools that have strong math programs, probably more of an admission safety than financial safety. If there are any you know of that aren't safeties, I'm interested in that too. Thanks for the help!</p>

2

<p>Given that you’ve already taken linear algebra, I wouldn’t recommend a LAC. Most schools in the size range you desire, that are likely to offer adequate math courses are the so called reaches for everyone. These include Rice, Cal Tech, Harvard, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, etc. </p>

<p>Fortunately for you, you’ve already got a safety with a great math department. I’m assuming you’re in the top 7% of your class which makes UT a guaranteed admit. Math departments at most schools are extremely small, so even at a huge school such as UT Austin, you’ll likely know most people in your major and probably forge great connections with professors.</p>

3

<p>[St</a>. Olaf College - Math Information - MSCS-Web](<a href=“http://www.stolaf.edu/depts/mscs/Math_Information]St”>http://www.stolaf.edu/depts/mscs/Math_Information)</p>

<p>(Not necessarily a better option than UT Austin, but check it out if you’re at all interested in finding a not-too-selective LAC with a strong math program.)</p>

4

<p>Thanks to both of you for your replies. tk21769, after doing some research into St. Olaf it doesn’t seem to be a very good fit for me; its location isn’t particularly appealing (I’m fairly warm-blooded) and it seems to be very religious, which isn’t something I’m looking for. Thank you for the suggestion though!</p>

<p>whenhen, I have looked into UT Austin, and know that I am almost guaranteed admission. But I’m looking at all my options, and even though I know there would be smaller communities I don’t know if I’d be comfortable in such a large place. The Honors College is a possibility though.</p>

5

<p>Brandeis University</p>

6

<p>Given that you will be rather advanced in math before finishing high school (completing all lower division math courses except multivariable calculus), you will not be able to make much use of LACs’ usual advantages (small faculty-led lower division classes), but are more likely to run into their disadvantages (limited upper division course selection and no graduate level courses) in your math major.</p>

<p>A research university with a strong math department, including a strong PhD program, would probably be the best fit for your math major. UT Austin is probably as good as it gets in terms of safeties for you, assuming that you are in the top 7% of your class (and seems to be well respected in philosophy as well). Rutgers, if you are willing to pay the out-of-state price, is also likely a good academic fit for your interests.</p>

7

<p>There are research universities with smaller undergrad student bodies a la MIT, Stanford, etc. You want a school that offers a math PhD program. Think about Case Western and U of Rochester as match/safeties to supplement UT.</p>

<p>Why isn’t Harvard on your list? It meets your criteria exactly and has huge applicant overlap with STEM majors at Princeton, Stanford, and MIT.</p>

8

<p>I’m new to CC, and must not have set up the notifications right - I didn’t realize there had been more replies. Thanks to all of you. </p>

<p>In response to Hanna, I have visited Harvard but it just didn’t feel as right of a fit as my other reach schools. I can only have so many, and I decided before that Harvard just wasn’t as high on my list as it would need to be worth applying to. </p>

<p>The general theme seems to be that it would be a better idea to apply to a research-oriented university than to a LAC, because of the math I’ve learned so far. That makes perfect sense to me, and will look in detail at all the suggestions made. Thank you so much!</p>

9

<p>Carnegie Mellon</p>

10

<p>^ Carnegie Mellon is likely but not a safety, especially if the OP does need financial aid.</p>

11

<p>Not sure in terms of “safety”, as I think UT-Austin would fit you better since you’re likely to be taking advanced math fairly quickly, but if you’re looking for a small school, just so you know, St Olaf is not “very religious”. It’s religion-affiliated but it’s very liberal (the faculty and students actually petitioned as part of the gay-mariage initiative for Minnesota, for example). Many math majors take linear algebra during their 1st year so it’s not like the many colleges where people start at precalc. It is, however, in a cooooold State. :)</p>

12

<p>I don’t have much to add in the way of school suggestions, but I felt the need to acknowledge your incredibly mature decision not to apply to Harvard. You appear to be as qualified an applicant as anyone and I often see students of your ilk just applying to Harvard, well because its Harvard. It’s an amazing school but their are multiple schools that offer just as much and may make more sense for that person. I digress, congratulation on your achievements so far, you will do very well no matter where you and up!</p>

13

<p>Thanks again guys. In terms of Carnegie Mellon, I recently attended an information session when they visited my city and found out that they don’t offer any financial aid to international students (I guess I should have explained this before - I am technically an international student because I don’t have permanent US residency status, even though I have lived in the US for the past 5 years and for 11 of the past 13). Although it is not a complete stumbling block in terms of applying there, I would like for my safeties to be able to offer some kind of financial aid, whether it be merit-based or just pure financial. My residency status will complicate this quite a bit. I think that because I’ve lived in Texas for long enough though I do qualify for automatic admission into UT-Austin if I’m in the top 7%.</p>

<p>For St. Olaf, I guess I didn’t research thoroughly enough but when I went to their website I found some page which I can’t seem to find now about religion at the school. Maybe I misjudged it slightly, and reading some other CC threads it seems to be very accepting. I will look into the math major there. Finally, thank you for your kind words, jman1295!</p>