Suggestions for my final list of colleges

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hello. I'm an international student, I want to major in math, then pursue a career in research. I'd be grateful to receive more information in order to make a final list of 12-15 colleges which I would really enjoy attending(which match my criteria below). This is not a chance-me thread, so I won't post much about my academic profile. I'll first decide whether I'd like a college or not, then worry about whether it'd like me or not.</p>

<p>So, these factors matter for me:</p>

<p>A)Decisive factors
If a college or university doesn't meet any of these conditions, I won't apply to it.</p>

<p>1)Strength of the undergraduate math department
This is self-explanatory. I'm looking for a top university, which could rigorously prepare me for a further career in research. The more depth and variety the courses have, the better. The more outstanding professors, the better. Great focus on the undergraduate maths is also quite important.</p>

<p>2)Financial aid to international students
My country is not rich, neither I am. I need a substantial amount of financial aid. Of course, I'm perfectly aware that applying for aid at most colleges does (severely) harm my chances, but I have no other choice. I know which are the need-blind & full-need schools, I will apply to some of them, but I'm now looking for need-aware & full-need colleges.</p>

<p>3)Match of the undergraduate maths department
Here I expect suggestions from math majors especially. I'm particularly interested in number theory, discrete maths and abstract algebra, and I wouldn't go to a university which doesn't offer really advanced courses in these very specific fields unless it can compensate with some truly rare and fascinating courses. I plan to major in pure maths, but I'm interested also in applications in neuroscience, genetics, and, to a slightly lesser degree, computer science. If one otherwise great school prepares its math majors to work in finance, business or engineering rather than what I desire, then it's not for me.</p>

<p>B)Important factors
I could live without any of them, just that I may not be as happy and productive. If accepted to one university which misses only one of them, I would probably go. If my best option were a university which misses most points, I'd have a tough time making a decision.</p>

<p>1)Prestige of the undergraduate maths department
One user asserted in another thread I posted that "math is very much a who you know field". While I hope this isn't totally true, I'm aware of the importance of studying at a respected university, with famous professors than can give you great recommendations for graduate school.</p>

<p>2)Social life (&culture)
I'm looking for a place where I can be myself. What I seek is a college where each individual can develop socially according to its true self, and herd mentality is rare(or ideally, nonexistent). I prefer fruitful intellectual discussions or maybe some refreshing sports to parties, drinking, pranks etc. That being said, I'm not at all against drinking/partying etc., I am only against drinking for the sake of going with the flow(like too many students do). I'd like to meet honest, helpful, and independent people, and freely avoid everything that it's fake, shallow, or pointless without being seen as antisocial/shy/arrogant etc. Likewise, since I don't like to follow trends, no cliques and no Greek life would be excellent(though I would not especially dislike them, as long as I'm not excluded from the social scene for not being a part of them). </p>

<p>3)Flexibility(in course selection)
I wouldn't like to be given too little choice, so I wouldn't like the "core" courses to be too great a part of my schedule. I plan to focus on math, but I don't see "general education" as undesirable, just that I would like to choose which subjects(besides math) I study. Also I would prefer a university which has less rather than more specific courses (not course options) required for math majors. </p>

<p>C)Tie-breakers
Self-explanatory. Obviously, not of crucial importance.</p>

<p>1)Climate
I don't like winter, snow, frost, anything like that. If I'd take only climate into consideration, I would prefer Texas to Chicago, California to New York and so on. Hot days in summer do not bother me.
2)Setting
I neither especially like the noisy ultra-large cities where you have to take the bus, the subway, and then the bus again for the simplest of things, nor the isolated villages where you may feel like you're cut out from the world. I like small towns.</p>

<p>So, feel free to suggest any university you think matches my preferences. Thank you in advance.</p>

2

<p>You’re unlikely to get the list just handed to you as it will require a lot of research which you need to be prepared to do yourself. However, here are some pointers;</p>

<p>1) Look at the US News rankings for an indication. Also look at the authors of the books and research you admire the most. See where they teach now. It doesn’t matter where they studied themselves as departments change over time. </p>

<p>2) Didn’t quite understand your statement. The International Student thread has informal details of the most generous colleges for international students needing aid. </p>

<p>3) You need to read the website and course offerings of your list of colleges to decide this for yourself.</p>

<p>Re: Social life- you might want to exclude some of the bigger colleges which have a reputation for being a ‘party’ school. Likewise colleges with high Greek participation. Again, the information is online. Be careful of pre-judging people as ‘intellectual’ or ‘other’ unless you are happy to be pre-judged yourself…</p>

<p>Re: Gen Ed- there is plenty on different school philosophies online. </p>

<p>Selecting the right college(s) takes a long time and is extremely personal. There are no easy rides in life so get to work now!</p>

3

<p>highland_poppy made some good points, but I’ll take a shot at that list!</p>

<p>I’m sure you’re aware of the elite private schools that are popular/prestigious and excellent for math (HYP, Columbia, Stanford, Chicago, MIT, CIT). In this group you’d find the most generous but the highest competition for merit-aid. </p>

<p>Other universities where you might have a better shot at a larger aid package: Brown, Cornell, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Penn, Rice. For math quality, you should have no worries about any of these schools, especially for undergrad. (Alphabetized to avoid rankings!)</p>

<p>Obviously, your chances of good aid would be better at the schools where your stats put you higher and your abilities are in higher demand. In this case, I’d suggest NYU. I know you’re aware of it from another thread. NYU is excellent for math but not as selective compared to the others. So for an aspiring math PhD with high scores who needs fin aid, this is a very good target. But again, the awards given might be less than the wealthier schools, as one of NYU’s drawbacks is that it has more undergrads.</p>

<p>Two other schools that you should not overlook are U of Rochester and Boston U. Both of these are solid in math, and your stats (from another thread) would make them either a Likely or a Safety. Point being, these schools might be more generous for you, but once again, they’re not as wealthy and they attract a lot of high achieving students looking for aid, just like you.</p>

<p>For LACs, Williams and Harvey Mudd, as you know. Very good choices.</p>

<p>As for social life and weather, I wouldn’t worry about them for now. Your shortlist should probably be made without regard for these things, as other factors such as merit-aid likelihood, admission profile, and course offerings will trump them, as you indicate in your post. Anyway, you will find nice people everywhere if you keep your eyes open, quite often when the weather is the worst. </p>

<p>If you’re fortunate, you’ll have a choice between a few generous offers, at which point you can get into the finer details. As for which schools to apply to, wow, you have some work to do there. The difficulty of that decision comes down to how many you’re able to apply to.</p>

4

<p>Thanks a lot Dunboyne. I’m glad to hear some very good words about NYU. Many competitive applicants from my country overlook NYU, I’m not sure why. </p>

<p>You know some of the schools I’m interested in, but still, you seem to read thoughts, as you managed to mention all the schools I was thinking about :slight_smile: (with a few extra schools). Boston and Rochester don’t seem to offer satisfactory aid for int’ls, so I can’t apply to them. </p>

<p>Other than being a financial burden and taking lots of time, is applying to a wide array of top colleges(from the urban Columbia to the rural Williams, form the huge New York to the tiny Harvey Mudd) harmful in any way? Can it make you look unfocused or uninformed? Also, can applying to most of the Ivies(I might apply to five or six Ivy League universities) make you look obsessed with prestige?</p>

5

<p>Boston U has a full tuition scholarship for internationals, and Rochester a $20K, but I understand that these may not be suitable for you. The Financial Aid section of a school’s Common Data Set has a lot of useful info, as you probably know.</p>

<p>I can’t see how applying to a diverse group of schools is going to be a negative for you. All of them are likely to have the common features of having excellent math and offering good aid for internationals, so an admissions officer can see why you’re applying to them. </p>

<p>Applying to numerous Ivies is very common. Many of them have the best combination of academics and aid, so any reasonable admissions officer won’t hold that against you. Now, if someone applied to all 8 Ivies and only the Ivies, then I could make a stronger case that the applicant is a prestige hound. But even that wouldn’t affect your chances, as there are plenty of students at an Ivy who are there partly because of its prestige. Not a big deal. It’s expected.</p>

<p>Learn as much about each school as you can. Show admissions that you’re aware of what makes their school special and that you’re applying to the school (partly) because of those unique qualities. Want what they have to offer, and you’ll have a better shot at them wanting you in return.</p>

6

<p>Dunboyne, what is theRochester $20k scholarship called? How do you apply?</p>

7

<p>iamthatstudent…I’m not sure where I saw the 20K. It looks like the Renaissance Scholarship is 4-year full tuition. Check here: [University</a> of Rochester : Financial Aid](<a href=“http://enrollment.rochester.edu/financial/undergrads/scholarships.shtm]University”>http://enrollment.rochester.edu/financial/undergrads/scholarships.shtm)</p>