<p>Where can I find the top 20 or so undergrad math departments? USNEWS only has the top 3... I think.</p>
<p>Chicago
Harvard
MIT
Princeton
Berkeley</p>
<p>top 5 according to some rankings (no specific order)...can't remember which...</p>
<p>1st tier
Harvard Princeton MIT Caltech (these four are where IMO winners usually go)</p>
<p>2nd tier
Stanford Chicago Berkeley Yale NYU Columbia SWWAP Harvey Mudd</p>
<p>3rd tier
Wisconsin Brown Michigan Cornell UCLA Illinois Penn Some Top LA</p>
<p>Bit of my opinion.</p>
<p>You mean UPenn or Penn State for 3rd tier? BTW, what is SWWAP?</p>
<p>I'm guessing SWWAP is:</p>
<p>S- Swarthmore
W- Williams
W- Wellesley
A- Amherst
P- Pomona?</p>
<p>and im sure its UPENN</p>
<p>Generally speaking, of the half dozen reliable rankings I have seen, from the USNWR to the NRC, Math departments can be grouped in teh following order:</p>
<p>GROUP I:
Harvard University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Princeton University
Stanford University
University of California-Berkeley</p>
<p>GROUP II:
California Institute of Technology
New York University
University of Chicago
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Yale University</p>
<p>GROUP III:
Brown University
Columbia University
Cornell University
University of California-Los Angeles
University of Wisconsin-Madison</p>
<p>GROUP IV:
Duke University
Northwestern University
University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign
University of Pennsylvania
University of Texas-Austin</p>
<p>A multitude of LACs also have excellent math departments, including Amherst, Carleton, Harvey Mudd, Pomona, Swarthmore and Williams.</p>
<p>All of the colleges and universities above are awesome and will provide undergrads with infinite opportunities.</p>
<p>look at the winners of the MCM competition these last 9 years. just for kicks, look at 2001.</p>
<p>I can't really make it to any of the groups listed in post 7. How is PSU for undergrad? And UW-Seattle?</p>
<p>...it's math.</p>
<p>You'll learn it the same whether you go to Harvard or North Southwestern State Community College.</p>
<p>I have a hard time believing that a math major from NYU or UMich garners as much or more respect than one from Cal Tech, Yale, UChicago, Columbia, Duke, Dartmouth.</p>
<p>Look, what do you want? Are you on track to win the next Fields Medal? Are you that good? Will you be creating entirely new fields of math and you need mentors to bounce off new and creative ideas? Or are you just pretty good at math and want to major in it?</p>
<p>If you're just pretty good, any place undergrad will do. If you intend to become a professor of mathematics, then it will help to attend a more prestigious school with well-known (and published) math professors who can recommend you to grad school.</p>
<p>John Nash went to Princeton and spent time with guys with names like "Albert Einstein." He benefitted from that. Are you that good?</p>
<p>Very true. If you are a GENIUS (like Einstein), want a PhD, and can shift through a big school like Cal then go there. But if you are crazy smart, looking to go to a top graduate school, or want a job at an investment bank/ consulting firm and just want to major in match go to the best school, not the one with the best dept. No one is going to hire an NYU math major over a Williams one just because NYU's math dept is ranked higher. The SCHOOL is what matters.</p>
<p>"and im sure its UPENN"</p>
<p>No, the University of Pennsylvania is known as "Penn" by anyone who knows anything about it.</p>
<p>LACs for math from Rugg's:
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>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>