<p>In 100 words or less: </p>
<p>"Although you may not yet know what you want to major in, which department or program at MIT appeals to you and why?"</p>
<p>I'm majoring in applied math/math</p>
<p>I must be having a slow day, but what's your point? Are you asking us what we want to major in, what we wrote in our reply to that question, or what we'd write if we intended to major in applied math/math? Or... all of that?</p>
<p>i think he is asking what he should write...well my answer is there must be an explanation for why you are choosing math. unless you just picked it out of the blue, write your reasoning for deciding on it. otherwise just choose something else that would be easier to write about because this answer does not automatically attach you to that major.</p>
<p>Well Davidn, i actually chose the exact same major. MIT does not have a distinct applied math major, but you can choose a more applied route if you major in math. I told them in 100 words why this interests me. i can post it if u'd like.</p>
<p>should he write about why he wants to major in math or why he likes the math department? (they are not the same)</p>
<p>it should be personal, they want to know about you. tell them why you want to major in math. that should be the focus in my opinion.</p>
<p>Course 18 @ MIT is very rigorous and stresses applied math over the highly theoretical [read: you'll be much more likely to take advanced calc and applications to physics then you would to take, say, something like topology]. You can discuss in this essay why you think Course 18 is unique and/or better matches you then other peer universities' respective math programs.</p>
<p>i'd be willing to hear any examples/suggestions. i'm just curious about what makes MIT's math department the best in the world, and better/different than the other top ones (caltech/princeton/stanford/berkeley/harvard/chicago...)</p>
<p>Well, their math department is not necessarily the best in the world, although it is way up there. The main rankings of undergrad departments (National Research Council) rank it 3rd behind Princeton and Cal-Berkeley. What I think MIT offers over these other schools is the student body's math abilities. The people who go to MIT are math and science olympiads and regional champs from all over the world, and although other schools have some of these students, i'd venture to say MIT has the most. I think this is probably what gives MIT the edge over the other schools. Not to mention, they do the best research in applied math fields because they're so highly ranked in physics, engineering, etc.</p>