<p>Hey everyone, I apologize if these are repeat questions, but while researching, I was unable to find sufficiently recent answers. </p>
<p>I plan on working towards a double major in pure math and computer science in college. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Uchicago has the better math department and MIT has the better/bigger comp sci department. Regardless of how true that statement is, which of these two colleges is preferable (solely from an education standpoint) for the given double major combo?</p>
<p>Secondly, how drastically different are the job prospects for both colleges (in regards to finance/consulting)? Both are undoubtedly elite institutions, but are the prospects just so much greater at MIT (according to what ive read online from multiple sources) than at Uchicago that MIT should be the obvious choice for someone aspiring to work in finance?</p>
<p>Miraculously, I was accepted early to Uchicago this year, and I was excited because it was my first choice. I have not applied to MIT yet, and I neither know nor want to discuss my chances of getting in, but my family wants me to apply. I have a majority of my MIT app complete (I originally intended to apply early), but now hesitate to complete it because I don't want to waste my time and money if UChicago is 1) the better school for pure math/comp sci combo and 2) has equal or better job prospects for top finance/consulting companies (ex. BCG, McKinsey, Goldman). Everyone's time and help is much appreciated.</p>
<p>And just for kicks and grins, has Uchicago become any more prestigious than MIT because its ranked higher (usnews)?</p>
<p>It is a toss up. If you are one of those lucky ones to get admission to both schools, I would go with where your heart tells you to go, not what your parents prefer you to go. MIT is a great school and so is Chicago. However, I do believe that Chicago will give you a better undergraduate education and they have a very reputable Math department. </p>
<p>The good news is that you cannot go wrong with either one. Good luck to you and congratulations on your early acceptance to Chicago because now you can enjoy the holidays with the state of mind that few others could have.</p>
<p>It’s iffy. First, Chicago’s math department is less better than MIT’s than its Comp Sci department is worse, so straight up I would go MIT. Especially since Comp Sci is more important than Math for post-undergrad job prospects. When a comp sci undergrad gets hired, he gets hired for the computer stuff not the mathy stuff. However, it’s not that clear cut.</p>
<p>That being said, what you really should consider is that Chicago is better in all other aspects (social, etc). I mean every non-academic aspect of MIT is muted, it’s not much fun to go there. However, Chicago has that whole core curriculum thing which means that one third of your classes are already mandated, so double majoring is a bit difficult. Which disadvantages you dislike more, that I can’t tell you.</p>
<p>Bottom line: apply both places just in case. This is coming from a guy who got accepted to Chicago and applied to MIT shortly after.</p>
<p>Agree, apply to both. If you get into MIT, go to accepted students days at both colleges and spend some time in the departments you are interested in. Go to classes, talk to students, meet with profs if you can. Then decide. You have until May 1, and it sounds like your app is nearly done.</p>
<p>Thanks you for your prompt responses! And congrats learninglover!</p>
<p>The only reason why i am planning on a double major is because I have an older brother in uchicago who is doubling in math & econ and possibly tripling in comp sci. </p>
<p>But applying to both seems like the way to go. I guess i’ve got nothing to lose. I’ve seen Uchicago multiple times but have not yet seen MIT so it would probably make sense to visit there if i get in before making my decision. thanks again!</p>
<p>I honestly don’t know. I’m one of those pre-professional finance guys, and I got rejected from Wharton so I’d pick Chicago for Econ. For me the main thing is that MIT has no life - they’re all about life after college, but I have more fun around people that are more focused on the present and like, enjoy art. My current plan is to go to Chicago unless I get into Stanford. I’m also applying to MIT/Princeton for the heck of it.</p>
<p>Huh. Also admitted to UChicago Comp Sci / Math and finishing up MIT app. Weird.
My advice to ANYBODY in this situation is to just apply to both and see what happens day of once you have all your decisions.
Make sure to go to the Accepted Students day at MIT and not to just visit and tour, since their main pull is their academics, all else is secondary for them.</p>
<p>Last year, I faced a similar choice of Chicago v. MIT for math. I choose MIT. First of all I’m not sure where you’re getting that Chicago is better than MIT for math. At the graduate level they are probably equal. At the undergraduate level MIT has a LOT more top math students* than Chicago although whether that leads to a significantly better education is less clear. I’m pretty sure whatever difference there is between the schools in math is dwarfed by MIT’s advantage in CS. MIT probably a has a slight advantage in terms of recruitment in financial jobs but I’m not sure about this. MIT certainly has an advantage in recruitment for CS jobs which include a fair amount of trading jobs these days. MIT students who do math and CS are much more likely to do more quantitative finance stuff than consulting as well.</p>
<p>In terms of double majors, despite whatever general difficulty there is double majoring at elite schools the MIT general math major is flexible enough to easily allow a math/CS double major. MIT also has about 25 math with computer science majors [18C] per year.</p>
<p>Both schools have different cultures but I wouldn’t say MIT’s is necessarily less fun. About half of guys are in frats and virtually no one there “has no life” or is “all about life after college”. I also doubt that due to Chicago’s recent surge in the US News Rankings it has surpassed MIT in terms of general prestige.</p>
<p>*as defined by performance in high school math competitions (USAMO, ARML), college math competitions (Putnam), and representation at the Duluth REU (probably the most prestigious summer math research program for undergrads). In all of these metrics, MIT has a huge advantage of Chicago (and every other college).</p>
<p>I would agree with others here that Chicago has a better math program than MIT (at both the undergraduate and graduate levels), at least as measured in terms of class rigor.</p>
<p>MIT, as a tech school, has to make its math curriculum appropriate for people using math in a large variety of ways, and this has the unfortunate tendency of watering down the curriculum. Chicago doesn’t have this problem as much; almost all of the people taking high-level math courses at Chicago are math majors, so they are held to a very high standard.</p>
<p>As for UMTYMP student’s point of MIT having more students with so-called prestigious credentials… well, let’s just say that prestigious credentials don’t actually translate to higher ability. In the first place, Chicago students are for the most part completely disinterested in Putnam, et al; you’ll see maybe 5-10 students compete each year from Chicago. Chicago’s more rigorous and interesting curriculum is perhaps the cause for this, but MIT’s academic calendar which allows for students to take a short Putnam course also factors in. Secondly, probably 9/10 of the top 100 students ranked in the Putnam are Asian, yet you don’t see graduate math departments flanked by Asians, do you? Also, your point about representation at Duluth, etc. is moot. Chicago has its own extremely rigorous REU program which most Chicago students participate in during the summer.</p>
<p>When I took the Honors Analysis course at Chicago (intended for first- and second-years), I remembered looking at the corresponding MIT Analysis course and thinking it looked very (if not extremely) simple. The only analysis course at MIT that touches Chicago’s Honors Analysis in course rigor is 18.125, their Graduate Measure Theory course. At the graduate level, Chicago’s Graduate Analysis course covers the first 9 chapters Rudin (the standard graduate textbook) in a quarter, whereas MIT’s 18.125 covers the first 3 chapters in a semester according to OCW. I don’t see how any objective person could consider MIT and Chicago’s course rigor to be equal. Chicago is clearly superior.</p>
<p>To the OP: If you’re aspiring to work in finance, then Chicago is almost certainly the best place to go. Chicago has Careers in Business (for which it has a quantitatively-oriented Finance program), which has ridiculously excellent placement at the top firms. As far as I know, MIT has nothing that can compare recruitment-wise to this. Plus, MIT isn’t that respected at the top finance firms. MIT has an incredible (and quite frankly, undeserved) reputation among highly-educated plebeians, but among the very top intellectuals and professionals responsible for your graduate school entrance and employment, Chicago and MIT are considered equals.</p>
<p>Just how many non math majors do you think are taking classes like topology, abstract algebra, and functional analysis at MIT? I think your comparison in terms of class rigor misses the fact that the curriculums are set up differently. At MIT the good math students start off in junior/senior level classes and then quickly move into “graduate” level classes [some even start off in graduate level classes their first semester] a number of which are mostly undergrads. My impression is that at Chicago the best students take honors analysis as freshmen/sophomores and only get to graduate classes as juniors/seniors. Thus a comparison of rigor needs to take into account the actual composition of classes not what level they are nominally at.</p>
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<p>Like I said earlier, it’s unclear whether more students with prestigious credentials translates into a better education. Certainly math competitions are highly imperfect indicators of ability but I don’t know of better ways of determining top high school math students. I don’t think most MIT students take the Putnam very seriously either. MIT’s math department also has a number of summer research programs too.</p>
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<p>Just what is the corresponding course at MIT to Honors Analysis? I don’t think any course at MIT is even roughly comparable. 18.125 is probably MIT’s least advanced graduate analysis class and typically has about 15-20 undergrads per year. I suspect most grad students start off in one of the more advanced grad analysis courses. MIT offers considerably more advanced grad courses as well which would lend further credence to the hypothesis that 1) Chicago’s math classes at the same nominal level are harder and 2) students at MIT take classes at a higher nominal level. Given that at both school’s students will be able to take a suitably challenging course load of math classes I don’t see why course rigor would be the most important metric.</p>
<p>2010 NRC Ranking - Math
5-12 MIT
…
16-50 Chicago</p>
<p>AWRU Ranking - Math
10. MIT
…
18. Chicago</p>
<p>PhD production - Math
MIT > Chicago</p>
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Are you simply making stuff up at this point? One need only look at MIT’s career surveys to see that this is blatantly false.</p>
<p>MIT in general and Sloan in particular is very heavily recruited. The most popular employers at MIT are not engineering firms; they’re BCG, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Bain, etc. Consulting and finance are annually two of the three most popular paths for MIT graduates.</p>
<p>To dis MIT on any biz admin or finance discipline is worthy of Comedy Channel material. As one who assesses executives as my career, both Chicago and MIT are highly reputed in the real world of business and finance. In the end. it’s ultimately the quality of the student, and not so much the institution that wins the gold. </p>
<p>^^ Where are you getting your PhD statistics? The only page I could find was on Reed College’s site, and they group the Math PhD’s with other Science PhD’s, so that ranking is not appropriate for the purposes of this thread. The world rankings and the US News subject rankings are for the graduate programs, so besides the NRC that leaves the US News undergrad…which puts U Chicago ahead of MIT this year. The horror. How DARE they go against the status quo? Anyway, all joking aside, I actually suggest MIT if the OP is truly passionate about Computer Science. The math departments of BOTH schools are EXCELLENT, and you can’t go wrong with either one. I suggest you contact students from both schools that are taking/taken high level math to know more details. That said, I’ve heard that our Computer Science department has a heavy theoritical bent, so you need to make sure that it offers classes in all the different aspects of Comp Sci you’re interested in. The difference in quality between Math departments might be minimal, but I’m not so sure that is the case with Comp Sci. So, it’s really up to you to decide which factors are the most important and if you’re willing to sacrifice MIT’s strengths in Comp Sci for U Chicago. I’m not familiar with what firms recruit at U Chicago, but whatever differences exist between U Chicago and MIT are certainly less than what any pro-MIT/U Chicago or anti-UChicago/MIT fanatics will claim, seeing as both are top schools. As for the US News thing, I doubt anybody besides college obsessed high school students and some college administrators will care too much that U Chicago passed MIT.</p>
<p>In the end, it really comes down to which place you can see yourself at. Academically, it honestly doesn’t matter which one you go to since they both have superb departments. I feel that what’s important is which school you feel “fits” you more. MIT and UChicago have vastly different atmospheres. Choose whichever one you’d be more comfortable at, not whichever is ranked higher. Rankings will change every year. The school you’re going to won’t</p>
<p>^ not true. If OP got into UChicago EA (~13% acceptance rate), then based solely on acceptance rates, a 10% RD acceptance rate for MIT doesn’t seem too bad. Keep in mind that MIT only accepts about 10% EA and its overall acceptance rate is 10% as well, so there’s no sizable difference between the two rounds.</p>
<p>To me, the answer to OP’s question seems obvious. While UChicago does indeed have a great math department, MIT’s math department is known to be better (there are no numbers that suggest otherwise) and its CS department is comparatively on another level. </p>
<p>The only reason OP should pick UChicago over MIT is that he/she feels the academic environment suits him/her best. Even as someone looking to go into the finance world (where MIT and Sloan are known to be very strong), I’d still personally choose UChicago because I really appreciate the core. I also don’t think I’d be able to compete with the super-nerds that MIT admits. For this reason, I never applied to MIT, and don’t think I would’ve gotten in anyway. I’m much more comfortable with Chicago’s grade deflation than I would have been with MIT’s.</p>
<p>My advice: apply to MIT in the regular round. If the admissions committee admits you, then they believe you have what it takes to compete with the rest of the super-nerds. If admitted, I’d say go with MIT, unless UChicago’s academic environment is enough of a draw for you, as it was for me.</p>