Transferring to a school with a great undergraduate math department

Transfer Students
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<p>Hello all. I used to visit CollegeConfidential frequently but stopped as soon as college started up. It's nice to be back. :D</p>

<p>I'm presently a second semester math/computer science dual major at the University of Missouri. Despite my dual major in computer science, mathematics is my focus. I'm going to go to graduate school in math and become a mathematician.</p>

<p>After having spent one-and-a-half semesters here at MU, I've finally decided that I really don't feel like I fit in here. I don't have many complaints against the school itself. The computer science department is no good, but the math department is surprisingly decent. My main disappointment is that I can find nobody here like me. It seems I'm the only person on campus who really loves math genuinely.</p>

<p>Until this semester, there wasn't even a math club here at MU. When I heard there was a math club being put together this semester, I joined as quickly as I could. I was rather dismayed to find out, however, that nobody in math club even seems that interested in math. MU also participates in no math competitions of any kind. The math club doesn't do anything related to math, either. Most people in it are not even math majors, and besides that the primary purpose of the clubs seems actually to be to put together intramural sports teams rather than do anything math-related at all.</p>

<p>Of course, there's nothing wrong with this. It's just not my style; this isn't what I want out of college personally.</p>

<p>I first really realized that I might want to consider transferring when I saw how much Harvard offered to its undergraduate math majors (or concentrators--whatever it is that Harvard calls them :D). They have the Harvard Mathematical Review, which I would absolutely love to contribute to in any way; they have a much more math-centered math club with talks given every once in a while by math faculty. They obviously have great participation in math contests, such as Putnam. And given how well their students perform in such competitions, there's no way I would be alone at Harvard for my love of math.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, Harvard has shut down transfer admissions recently due to lack of space. I'm therefore looking for other schools that offer similar advantages to undergraduate math majors. I was wondering if anyone here happened to know of any!</p>

<p>As you can see, I've been a little late in realizing I want to transfer. I've missed the deadlines for fall transfer admission for almost all schools. I'm completely content with transferring next Spring semester.</p>

<p>This means, of course, that upon transferring I'll have been here at MU for three semesters. I should therefore be fairly well-prepared for transfer into a higher math program. By the end of next fall semester, I'll have completed the honors calculus sequence (up through multivariable/vector calculus), differential equations, an introduction to advanced mathematics (primarily writing proofs), the full calculus-based introductory physics sequence, and several computer science classes (including an introduction to Java programing, an introduction to algorithm analysis and design, and a higher-level class on C programming). My GPA last semester was 3.98 and should be the same or better this semester. Of course I can't say what it will be next semester, but I don't currently have any reasons to suspect it would be any lower.</p>

<p>I got offered a job at a local software development company half-way through my first semester and will be a programming intern there this summer. As I said I'm a member of the math club here and the game development club; in the latter I've contributed a fair bit to the development of a physics-based game.</p>

<p>Mainly I'm looking for suggestions on places I should transfer to based on the quality of the math program.</p>

<p>Thank you very much to anyone who helps! This means a lot to me.</p>

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<p>abbreviated version maybe? sorry</p>

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<p>I’m looking for schools with good undergraduate math departments to transfer to next Spring semester.</p>

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<p>NYU, UChicago, UMichigan, Cornell, Rice all would be good choices that seem to be in your range.</p>

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<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/381584-top-undergraduate-programs-mathematics.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/381584-top-undergraduate-programs-mathematics.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Minus the drigression of Uchicago vs Harvard at the end, this thread should be useful</p>

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<p>Firstly, I want to commend you for your achievements. A 3.98 GPA with all those difficult math classes under your belt is extraordinary - congrats!</p>

<p>As far as transferring is concerned, the good news is that you actually decided to transfer at the right time. Applying to be an entering junior is typically the best scenario for gaining admission to top schools.</p>

<p>If you want to be in an academic environment comparable to Harvard’s, the school that comes to mind is Stanford. They still take transfers, although the competition is pretty fierce. With your GPA and obvious passion, though, I think it’s worth applying.</p>

<p>A few more schools with top Math programs which take transfers:
UC Berkeley
Caltech
Yale U
Columbia U
NYU
U Michigan
Cornell U
Brown U
Northwestern U
U Texas - Austin
U Wisconsin - Madison
U Minnesota - Twin Cities
U Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
U Maryland - College Park</p>

<p>For the top eight above, I’m confident that you can find the intellectual atmosphere that you’re looking for. I don’t know enough about the others to pass judgment about atmosphere.</p>

<p>Hope that helps. Good luck.</p>

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<p>ronpaul2012:</p>

<p>Thanks for the link and the school recommendations! I’ve already been looking at Cornell a bit, but the others look great as well.</p>

<p>grey_syntactics:</p>

<p>Thanks for the kind words. :smiley: </p>

<p>It’s encouraging to know that I won’t be at a disadvantage for applying for transfer perhaps a semester or two later than ordinary for these schools.</p>

<p>I’ve went down your list and discovered that most of those schools do not offer transfer admission for the spring semester (starting in January). Stanford in particular doesn’t, but thankfully Cornell, NYU, and Rice all do.</p>

<p>The Berkeley deadline for transfer into the fall semester of 2010 looks like it would be November of this year, but decisions would not be mailed out until April of next year. Thus, this would cause a conflict if I also applied for transfer into the spring semester of 2010 to another school and was accepted because I would have to make a decision to accept or reject the offer of admission before the Berkeley decision was made.</p>

<p>I’ve also been interested in Carnegie Mellon for some time, and they appear to also offer spring matriculation for transfer students.</p>

<p>So it looks like I have some great schools to apply to in the coming months!</p>

<p>A particular question occurs to me now. A standard part of a transfer application is a few letters of recommendation from professors. Each university appears to have their own forms for professors to fill out. If I were to apply to more than one school for transfer (these are all “reach” schools, after all), it seems I’d have to have my professors each write multiple letters of recommendation for me, one for each school. Is there a way around this, or is this standard protocol?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

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<p>Does anybody know how Washington University in St. Louis stacks up in undergraduate math? I know it’s a great school overall. It’s nearby. They also offer spring transfer. So if the math program there would be a significant improvement from the one here at MU, that’s another option.</p>