<p>Which top notch universities/colleges have a strong mathematics department (specifically concerning a math major- not engineering, comp sci, etc)</p>
<p>I heard Princeton has a pretty strong one..</p>
<p>Anyone have any experience with any and will like to share?</p>
<p>Also, any universities that do not have a strong one.</p>
<p>I plan on majoring in math and I am looking for a strong school with a strong math department</p>
<p>lol okay thanks</p>
<p>MIT (I'm typing this part now because I need at least 10 characters)</p>
<p>Hard to beat Princeton for math, top profs and amazing peer group. They have graduated many of the best quant minds on Wall Street and in academia. Also have an amazing financial enginering program.</p>
<p>Top tier for grad math based on a couple of years ago: (in no particular order) Princeton, Harvard, MIT, Chicago, Stanford, Berkeley; next tier was Michigan, Caltech, NYU, UCLA. Harvey Mudd has very strong math. Among LACs: Reed, Swat, Carleton, St. Olaf, Williams.</p>
<p>Depending on the kind of math you want, places with strong CS or engineering may offer excellent concentrations of what you seek (i.e., Georgia Tech for combinatorics, CMU).</p>
<p>NYU is #1 for applied math like partial differential equations. MIT, Harvard and Princeton are the best in other fields</p>
<p>countingdown... undergrad</p>
<p>You want to learn a lot more than what a textbook shows. You'd better considering the list by CountingDown.</p>
<p>The schools in the list are best undergrad schools. And majoring Math, you will appreciate early exposure to top graduate students. You also want to take classes offered to both undergrad and grad students in early stage, if possible.</p>
<p>My calculus teacher (whom I respect highly) juxtaposed MIT and Chicago, saying that the former is great for applied math and the latter is great for theory. That's an example of apples and oranges: depends on what you want.</p>
<p>OP, as you do more research, you'll find that undergraduate departments are generally not ranked. Quality of UG must be extrapolated to a certain extent from grad programs -- or you can read some of the many threads on CC that have discussed this topic previously to see what other top math majors and their parents have to say on the subject. Marite and Tokenadult have much wisdom to offer in this regard.</p>
<p>Since I don't know what level of math you have completed, or if you have gotten to analysis and proofs yet, it's hard to say what schools might be a good fit for you. Top-ranked schools are not necessarily the best place for a specific area of study. College is more than just your major; there are MANY other factors to consider besides prestige or the ranking of the department.</p>
<p>I have a S who is a freshman math major and had five years of college-level math heading into college. He did considerable research into which schools would best meet his needs, sat in on upper division classes, talked to professors, talked to advisors to determine flexibility in placement and early grad work, looked at where the profs whose research he's interested in attended UG and grad, and spoke with friends who are UG and grad math students at a number of schools. He took an unusual approach, more that of a grad student, but his HS offered incredible opportunities and he made the most of what was available.</p>
<p>wisteriawings, your calc teacher is exactly right about MIT vs. Chicago.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Which top notch universities/colleges have a strong mathematics department (specifically concerning a math major- not engineering, comp sci, etc)
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Undergrad Math in the U.S is generally weak judging by international standards. I suggest you apply instead to the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.</p>
<p>If however you must stay in the States, I would say Princeton is probably the best choice.</p>
<p>thanks countingdown and everyone</p>
<p>I have a hard time believing that the quality of Princeton, Harvard, MIT, Chicago, or Berkeley is any lower then that of Cambridge's. However, at Cambridge you would be basically studying ONLY math from the beginning.</p>
<p>Gourman Report ranking for undergrad math:
Princeton
UC Berkeley
Harvard
MIT
U Chicago
Stanford
NYU
Yale
Wisconsin Madison
Columbia
Michigan Ann Arbor
Brown
Cornell
UCLA
Illinois Urbana Champaign
Caltech
Minnesota
U Penn
Notre Dame
Georgia Tech
U washington
Purdue WL
Rutgers NB
Indiana U Bloomington
U Maryland College Park
Rice
UC San Diego
Northwestern
Texas Austin
carnegie Mellon
Johns Hopkins
Washington U St Louis
Ohio State
SUNY Stony Brook
Penn State
UVA
RPI
Illinois Chicago
U Colorado Boulder
U Kentucky
UNC Chapel Hill
Dartmouth
U Rochester
U Utah
SUNY Buffalo
Tulane
USC
UC Santa Barbara
U Massachusetts AMherst
U Oregon
Duke
Louisiana State Baton Rouge
U Arizona
case Western
Michigan State
U Pittsburgh
Brandeis
US Air Force Academy</p>
<p>where did you find this gourman ranking</p>
<p>I couldn't ever find the Gourman Rankings online, so I bought the book on Amazon. </p>
<p>Also recommended LACs for Math from Ruggs:</p>
<p>Bates
Bowdoin
Bucknell
Carleton
Colgate
Dartmouth
Davidson
Dickinson
Harvey Mudd
Holy Cross
Kenyon
Mount Holyoke
Occidental
Pomona
Rice
St Mary's (MD)
St Olaf
Trinity (CT)
Union
Wabash
Wellesley
Wheaton
Whitman
Willamette</p>
<p>
[quote]
I have a hard time believing that the quality of Princeton, Harvard, MIT, Chicago, or Berkeley is any lower then that of Cambridge's.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The above-referenced universities are comparable to Cambridge in quality. However, the material covered at Cambridge is somewhat deeper than what is normally offered at the undergraduate level in the US. The reasons for that are twofold: </p>
<p>[ol]</p>
<p>[li] Secondary school math in the UK (A-level Maths/Further Maths) is far more advanced than American High School math (even considering AP classes), thus resulting in a higher entry-level for university freshman students. </p>[/li]
<p>[li] UK bachelor's degrees are far more specialized than in the US as British students typically concentrate on a single subject from day one instead of being forced to take "general education" or "core curriculum" classes in other areas. That is true not only for math, but also for most other majors as well.</p>[/li]
<p>[/ol]</p>
<p>The Cambridge system also has practically no homework or examinations (I think just one cumulative test after your third year). I've gotten next to nothing out of the classes I took that were taught in this style. Unless you're an extremely motivated/responsible student, I wouldn't bother considering the UK.</p>
<p>Yes, I actually know alot about the undergraduate experience at Cambridge and Oxford. I know someone who teaches at Oxford and several people who did their undergraduate there. All seem to believe that the quality of programs in the US are better, even at the undergraduate level. While it is possibly true that the average US Math student covers less math then the average British math student in college. I can promise you that the top US Math Students are covering just as much if not more math. I think a look through the lists of college math professors would show that. In fact, by your logic, every program at Oxbridge should be better then the programs in the US, because all programs there are highly focused on whichever subject you study.</p>
<p>Not that they aren't great schools though.</p>
<p>"Also recommended LACs for Math from Ruggs:'</p>
<p>Based upon what data did Mr. Ruggs make these recommendations?</p>