<p>Son #2 is just beginning his college search and needs help in narrowing down the list of potential schools, since just about every school in the country offers a math major.</p>
<p>He's a junior at a Jesuit high school (all male). Cumulative GPA of 3.85 (W) and 3.6 (U) with grades showing steady improvement since beginning of freshman year. Took 9 honors classes in first two years and is currently taking 4 AP classes (including Spanish IV and Calc BC). He will take 3 more AP classes in senior year. He hasn't taken the SAT or ACT yet, but PSAT taken in sophomore year was 197: CR (60), M (76), W (61).</p>
<p>He's looking for a smaller school but not too small (2,500 - 6,000 students). No geographic preference, but he wants a residential college. He's a quiet kid with no special hooks and just a few EC's (primarily community service work, through school's Key Club and church activities).</p>
<p>He wants to major in math and/or statistics in college but doesn't really have a specific career in mind. (He has expressed some mild interest in becoming an accountant or an actuary. He is very detail-oriented and I think either job would suit his personality, but who knows?)</p>
<p>Can anyone give me some suggestions about possible match and/or reach schools that have particularly strong undergraduate math/statistics programs? (He already has 2 State schools picked as his safety schools.) At this point, money is not an issue. Merit money would be nice, but this is a kid who would rather have challenging classes than be at the very top of the applicant pool.</p>
<p>try Lafayette College. I currently go to school here. the teachers are ALWAYS available and everyones nice. I just dont like it here cause its too quiet and i feel like an elephant in a china store but definately worth a look. Great Engineering program.</p>
<p>St. Olaf would be a great choice, I think. It's a fairly religious school but not overly so. The math department is very strong. </p>
<p>Swarthmore, Williams, Grinnell, Haverford, Pomona, Oberlin, Carleton, Amherst, Kalamazoo, Knox, Bowdoin, Vassar, Whitman, Union, C. of Wooster, Lawrence U, and Bucknell...mostly reaches, but a few matches thrown in.</p>
<p>Yeah, UChicago might be a nice reach -- they seem to weigh very heavily on essay creativity and strength of curriculum, rather than test scores, though, so it depends a little on whether he'll write a truly fabulous essay. Their math department's also fantastic (and is the main reason I'm attracted to the school, hah).</p>
<p>As a statistician, it's delightful to know about your student's interest in statistics. It's a great profession, offering many opportunities in many cross-disciplines (biostat, survey stats, ed stats, quality control, the list goes on; it's also a more practical field than pure math with a BS or MS). The American Statistical Association has a list of schools offering degrees in statistics...you might want to look for ones with stat departments. </p>