<p>I'm helping my junior prodige search for schools, and she wants to major in applied maths, but is worried that she isn't anywhere near the level of other potential math majors. The math department at our school is not so hot. The highest level math is IB Math HL, which she will be taking the second year of next year and it is a good course if done right, but our school has a very low passing rate for the IB exam, close to 0%. She has not done any of the fancy math competitions that I hear about on CC.</p>
<p>Does anyone know of any colleges with strong math departments, but with students who are not too strong? She does not want to apply to MIT or Caltech or anything like that because she feels that she will be infinitely behind in her classes. She loves math and is positive that applied mathematics is what she wants to major in, but does not know how to approach looking for schools that won't be too advanced with her. Should I just tell her that public universities are the best bet. We live in VA, so I think UVA and Virginia Tech would be great choices for her. Let's assume for this search that price and academic reach are no issues. </p>
<p>Is she willing to consider any Women’s colleges? Barnard and Wellesley both have math majors that make allowances for “non math genius” types including starting at Calculus (or before? not sure), and both, being women’s colleges, are more known for not having the kind of cut-throat competitive sexism and attitudes that can characterize mathematics departments at other places.</p>
<p>UVa and Virginia Tech are both great public universities with great reputations, and are likely to be lower cost for her. So yeah, they probably are her best bet. Virginia Commonwealth also has an applied math major, and they have a strong focus on the application of math to biomedical sciences, engineering, and finance/business.</p>
<p>I don’t know of any place where there’s a strong math department without strong students, since students are partially what makes a math department strong. But you don’t need to send a student to the strongest potential undergrad place. As long as the place has the major she needs and has reasonably good-quality instruction, she should be fine. I would wager that actually, the vast majority of colleges don’t cater to mathematical geniuses and are used to taking in math majors who are starting with calculus I, maybe calculus II.</p>
<p>It also depends what you mean by “non-math genius.” My peers sometimes call me a math genius due to my receiving an 800 on SAT Math on both the reasoning test and the subject test (level 2) as well as a 5 on Calc BC. However, I barely qualified for the AIME, whereas people who are truly “math geniuses” are the ones competing at the USAMO finals.</p>
<p>Honestly, if your daughter scores 750+ on the SAT Math exam (or the subject test, level 2), she’ll likely be good for applied math at the vast majority of places.</p>
<p>One point of emphasis: the “math geniuses” (which I define as qualifying for the USAMO) generally DO NOT MAJOR IN APPLIED MATH. They almost invariably major in pure math as they are incredibly into proofs. As such, Applied Math is likely less competitive and full of good, hardworking students, but no one truly “brilliant.” </p>
<p>I second what NWIStudent has said, above. The strongest math students often choose pure rather than applied math. That’s not to say that there aren’t excellent students in applied math too, but if you are worried about “genius types,” then that would be more of a concern in pure math. And even then, there are lots of non-genius types who also major in math.</p>
<p>Thanks for the insight everyone! She does like Tech and UVA and is now considering VCU. She hasn’t taken either the subject tests or SAT, but to put her in perspective, nobody from our school has gotten above low 700s in the math 2 subject test. With the IB curriculum, most of us don’t take precalc. We skip straight from Algebra 2 to IB Math 1. We do cover most of the stuff from precalc, however, it’s not as in depth because we still have more stuff to go into such as vectors and limits. </p>
<p>Also, I didn’t know that pure math was more popular for math geniuses. This is news for me, so thanks CC for sharing your vast knowledge :)</p>
<p>I can’t imagine anyone making it thru Applied Math without being strong in math, unless the student doesn’t mind a graduating with a modest GPA…and then what would the student do with that?</p>
<p>Applied math major curricula usually have only a few heavy proof courses, so a student who is good but not great at math should be able to handle such a major, realizing that the few heavy proof courses are likely to be the “hard” courses.</p>
<p>If the high school’s math department is questionable (and a pass rate of 0% on the IB test for students taking the IB Math HL course is a warning sign), she may want to check her knowledge of algebra, geometry, and trigonometry using the placement tests at some colleges:</p>
<p>At a school like VCU, your daughter doesn’t have to be a math genius of any sort to major in math, pure or applied. Not all math majors participated in AIME, attended MOSP or medaled in IMO. The vast majority are mere mortals. It’s okay.</p>
<p>That said, the student has to have excelled in whatever math courses they have taken. Also math students have to like using their mind, stretching it and willing to be stumped by a math problem, turning the problem around and over to find the solution.</p>
<p>If her math is weak, then she may want to take online classes to bolster her base and to just see where she places outside her immediate school environment. I suggest AOPS - they probably have a solid precalc class.</p>
<p>I am the friend! I meant junior prodige as in I am a senior and I am helping a friend who is a junior with the whole college process. Seems that many people misunderstood what I had said, guess I should have been clearer. </p>
<p>South Dakota School of Mines & Technology has an Applied Mathematics major. They also want to increase the number of female undergraduate students. Overall reputation of the university is very good. National employers know about the strengths of the programs at SDSM&T.</p>
I would have her visit the schools in question and talk with some current students in the department. The trick to learning math is to have a great instructor. I would choose the program that has the best faculty as rated by the students.