<p>FWIW, a lot of my D’s friends attend St. Olaf and all I have heard is that they all are very happy there. AFAIK, none have transferred. Many are involved in the music program there, although they are not majoring in music. Some of them were accepted to “higher ranking” schools, but chose to go to St. Olaf instead. I also know many colleagues (attorneys) that are graduates and they are both great attorneys and great people.</p>
<p>sbjdorlo, my son was admitted to St. Olaf with generous merit & need-based aid, without having “shown interest.” (One of his scholarships required a service commitment, which I thought was pretty cool.) We did visit after his acceptance & it was very impressive. </p>
<p>Since you are from So. Cal, I imagine it moves more toward being a safety - the student population is roughly 50% midwestern, so they are pleased to take students from farther afield. </p>
<p>In my son’s case, he had a couple of academic interests that may have made him a more attractive applicant, basically interests in quite small departments. So things like that could help - not necessarily academic interests, say a burgeoning sports club that they want to support [hypothetical!]. One never knows, and it could change from year to year. Generally speaking though, if a department is more impacted, prospective students interested in that major may find admittance more competitive.</p>
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<p>St. Olaf’s math courses are listed here:</p>
<p>[St</a>. Olaf College | Academic Catalog 2010-11](<a href=“St. Olaf College < St. Olaf College”>St. Olaf College < St. Olaf College)</p>
<p>“Lots of college classes in math” probably means that he has taken the equivalent of one or more of 220, 226, 230, and/or 232 – typical sophomore level math courses, so his selection of math courses would be the courses more advanced than those courses.</p>
<p>For comparison, here is the math course listing at Berkeley:</p>
<p>[General</a> Catalog - Mathematics Courses](<a href=“http://sis.berkeley.edu/catalog/gcc_list_crse_req?p_dept_name=Mathematics&p_dept_cd=MATH]General”>http://sis.berkeley.edu/catalog/gcc_list_crse_req?p_dept_name=Mathematics&p_dept_cd=MATH)</p>
<p>A neighbor is currently a junior math major at Carleton. She was a math prodigy throughout middle school and HS and started taking her math classes at the U of M during middle school. She is very challenged at Carleton and really likes it. It appears that the profs are able to tweak classes to challenge advanced students. That would probably be a good thing to ask admissions people at any of the schools your S is interested in. Having lived in Northfield I still stick by my assessment that it would truly be a rural experience even though Northfield is known as “A Special Place”. 
Both of my D’s were baptized at St. Olaf and both accepted there but ultimately chose other schools. It is a longer drive in to MPLS than 30 minutes…45 minutes if you push it and most likely an hr with traffic.</p>
<p>In Minnesota, there is also University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Its list price for out of state students is cheaper than the list price for University of California for in state students. And its math offerings are extensive:</p>
<p><a href=“https://webapps-prd.oit.umn.edu/courses/courses.jsp?designator=MATH&submit=Show+the+courses&campus=UMNTC[/url]”>https://webapps-prd.oit.umn.edu/courses/courses.jsp?designator=MATH&submit=Show+the+courses&campus=UMNTC</a></p>
<p>Note that even at a Giant State University, a student well advanced in math will bypass most or all the big freshman and sophomore math courses and go directly to the smaller junior, senior, and graduate math courses.</p>
<p>Does he want to study music performance at St. Olaf? Just a word of caution…when it comes to auditions there is no safety.</p>
<p>musicamusica,</p>
<p>No, my son would not major in music. He’s not good enough for that nor does he want to major in music, though a minor in violin performance would definitely be a possibility. He’s been a violinist for 11 years and teaches and performs as a freelance violinist (as well as in a symphony and quartet) but he’s not into competitions and has probably done fewer than 10 concertos. His music experience is all over the board (rock bands, fiddle, classical, busking) rather than focused and he is self taught on about 4-5 other instruments. Music is a “refreshment to his soul” rather than a career choice. He will be submitting an arts supplement, however.</p>
<p>He took to physics very naturally but has always had a love of math and statistics so I suspect, though he’s had as much college physics as math, he’ll major in math.</p>
<p>Yes, UCB, I’ve thought about U of M but he really seems to want a smaller school (I’m assuming Minnesota is quite large), probably with a freshman population of under 3K. He is adamant about not applying to UC schools.</p>
<p>His math has been calc I-III, Linear Alg., lower division dif. equ, upper division dif equ, statistics, and he’s studying something called dynamical systems. He’s self studied probability and has done an AIME class through AoPS. So, there are lots of math classes left (real analysis-though I think he’ll be studying that this year-, abstract algebra, number theory, to name just a few of the dozen of classes left in math strong colleges). </p>
<p>I’ll look deeper into the schools mentioned in this thread for coursework and scholarship opportunities. We are middle income, as well, (70-80K range) so schools that meet need are also a plus.</p>
<p>MarinMom,</p>
<p>Do you think that cross enrollment option at Pitt would allow a student to do music at one of the other schools? Pitt’s focus is on jazz and that’s not where my son’s music focus is. I guess we can call/email them and ask.</p>
<p>Great to have a safety…But on the fit/reach group, I really hope he is applying to Carnegie Mellon…my son is hispanic and an art major at CMU and doing a robotics minor (there are a LOT of kids doing htese types of cross-area majors/minors). He is very good at math (so are almost all the undergrads). It is nice to be around people who really enjoy tech/math no matter what their majors.</p>
<p>They have a wonderful math department and your son’s stats sound like he has a good chance to get into Mellon College of Science. My son has found it a very welcoming environment for kids with diverse interests and for hispanic students. It has a great music program…which is nice for kids who enjoy playing for fun and listening to their peers as well. Also, quite a few kids combine their interests to do projects and research in either science/math/comp science with music and art. For example, my son’s intro comp science class allowed him to do some of his own animation as a final project which then was entered into a competition. Another kid did something with music composition and he wasn’t a music major…just interested. </p>
<p>Liberal arts colleges are really good at prepping students who are considering graduate studies. Apart from St. Olaf’s, for safeties look at the other “colleges that change lives” such as Rhodes (in Memphis! warm, good music, excellent merit aid etc…). Such a school would be a good match if he wants to explore majors outside of math as well. Definitely a safety with a good chance for merit aid.</p>
<p>CMU would be a terrific fit but in no way can we afford what they say we should pay so it’s not on the list…</p>
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<p>In other words, he is finished with all of freshman/sophomore math, and has taken two or three junior level math courses. Looks like he will want to find a school with graduate courses in math to keep him interested (unless he wants to graduate two years early and go to graduate school then). Actually, there may even be some graduate level courses that he can take after completing real analysis.</p>
<p>But that can make school selection harder, since many of the well regarded schools in math with graduate programs in math are Giant State Universities (though upper level and graduate math classes tend to be small, in the 10-30 student range). While some may be safety level for undergraduate admissions, many do not give financial aid to out of state students, which further limits the choices based on budget.</p>
<p>Why not, The Great Gatsby went there.</p>
<p>St. Olaf’s relatively high acceptance rate may be deceiving in comparison to Pitt, which has rolling admissions. St. Olaf has two rounds of binding early decision (ED I and ED II). It would be worth looking into what percentage of the class is filled in the two ED rounds. St. Olaf is a niche school that appeals to a particular population that knows what it’s looking for. Its yield is higher than Pitt’s.</p>
<p>Math majors can take several grad level math courses at UW-Madison (ranked around 15th for grad math) and likely many other schools that offer the PhD do so. Someone who may major in math and is already advanced should consider a school with more than just professor’s tweaking their course work- get the grad credits.</p>
<p>At this point, my son feels Pitt would be a better fit overall. I think the lure of Pittsburgh is big reason. Still looking at a few other schools.</p>