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Suppose you knew a high school student who likes math, wants to study math in a good college math program, and is willing to study hard to make that happen. What would you recommend that he do to increase his chances of getting into Princeton?
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<p>Win serious math competitions or do serious research. Princeton has a history of eagerly recruiting people who can improve its performance on the Putnam competition and/or reduce the gap between the level of its math faculty and the undergrads they teach. They want to be competitive with Harvard and MIT, in other words. Their faculty is probably the strongest of the three, especially taking IAS into account.</p>
<p>Less so than with the Princeton faculty, but nothing would stop you from attending IAS seminars, and if your undergraduate thesis were in an area of specialization of somebody at IAS rather than the department, it's entirely possible that such a person could be involved as a formal or informal advisor.</p>
<p>Graduate students most certainly interact with the IAS faculty.</p>
<p>I'm another of those would-be-Princeton-math-majors-in-my-dreams. Does Princeton try to achieve a balanced math department in terms of gender/race? I'm a white female, hence my reasons for asking. </p>
<p>And do you really think it looks good to be well-rounded in ECs outside of math? Because my "passion" EC has been not math focused (debate), and I've been questioning whether or not to use that for my essays since I'm looking towards a math major.</p>
<p>Hi, affle, welcome to the thread. Are you in high school class of 2008? (The friend's child on whose behalf I opened this thread is.) Those are interesting questions, and I hope some people knowledgeable about Princeton and its math department will respond to them.</p>
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Does Princeton try to achieve a balanced math department in terms of gender/race? I'm a white female, hence my reasons for asking.
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<p>I can't say for sure, of course, but probably not in the specific way you're asking. The number of math majors is extremely small (16</a> last year), because most drop out during the course of their studies. So it's extremely hard for the admissions office to know that you'll be a math major per se. They do know that you'll probably concentrate in a natural science / math area, so if there's a severe imbalance there then they might factor in gender. But in general, I think people overestimate the admission value of being a hard-science focused female.</p>
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And do you really think it looks good to be well-rounded in ECs outside of math? Because my "passion" EC has been not math focused (debate), and I've been questioning whether or not to use that for my essays since I'm looking towards a math major.
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<p>It's okay to have more than one major passion, as long as both come through as being multifaceted and deep (i.e. you've participated and won well-recognized math and debate competitions). I'd write your essay on whatever better presents your personality and distinctive style.</p>
<p>Wow! This thread has been dormant for longer than I realized. How did it go? Did some of you who applied from high school class of 2008 apply to Princeton with the goal of being a math major there?</p>