beachmom25

S interested in majoring in math with likely goal of grad school. On our visit we were impressed with Math Skills Center atmosphere and math comps program. Are math majors happy with their experience and career/grad school options?

1190

yes and yes. There's an unusually large amount of math interest at Carleton. This past year, about 5% of the then sophomore class declared majors in math, another 4% in computer science. The math in Budapest study abroad program is very popular.

lunitari

You might want to ask this guy, who even *dressed* as a mathematical concept for Halloween:
Carleton College: Collin Hazlett's Blog: Cantor, Whales, and Pumpkin Pie

mflevity

^This has nothing to do with math, but it's funny when you actually run into the bloggers (this year's and last year's) around campus. I took Collin's ticket reservation for the play and I was like, "Hey, you're THAT guy!"

When I was an applicant last year, those blogs definitely helped me get through the awful months of waiting. I'm glad the admissions website has them.

mcpheevn

I have heard that Carleton has a killer maths reputation in some I-Banking circles.

dietcokewithlime

The math department is quite good. It's unusually large for a college of Carleton's size, with about a dozen professors and about 15-30 majors in each year. Math majors work closely with one of the profs and a small group to do research (though there are some other options) for their senior comps projects. You can see this year's projects at Carleton College: Mathematics: Math Comps 2009-10. The Budapest Semesters in Mathematics program is a popular study abroad for majors.

Math majors have some very good post-Carleton options. Math grad programs students have enrolled in the past few years include U of MN, Wisconsin, UVa, Northwestern, UCSD, UPenn, Brandeis, and Indiana. For statistics or biostatistics, I know of recent math alums at Harvard, Stanford, and U of MN. A few very tip-top pure math programs (more or less Princeton, Harvard, MIT) might be out of reach for Carleton students because those expect significant graduate-level coursework when applying, but beyond that, Carleton students place very well. Actuarial work, consulting, and teaching (Teach for America in particular) are the most popular non-grad school paths. Most math majors take some economics or computer science courses at some point (or even double major with those fields), which helps with employability.

mcpheevn

Do you think the same situation (lack of graduate programs) have the same effects on other sciences, like say chemistry? From Carleton College: Chemistry: Departmental Highlights, I figured Carl graduates went on to some of the top chem grad schools (Harvard, Cal, Scripps, of course this also depends on the chemistry sub-field). What is the reputation of Carl in grad schools, compared to students from other schools who have taken some graduate courses in their undergrad? Also, could you do an exchange to nearby unis e.g. UofMN to take graduate courses there? I've heard several people said that upper-level Carl classes are grad-caliber, is this true?

dietcokewithlime

^ Not that I'm aware of. I think the emphasis in grad school admissions in other science fields is more on research, less on taking graduate-level coursework, and so liberal arts college students aren't handicapped there. Carleton students from chem, bio, geo, and physics can/do go on to the very best graduate programs. (And again, I need to emphasize that this is relevant to only admissions at 3 or 4 pure math PhD departments - there are many more excellent math programs that Carleton students can get into and stay at without the lack of grad-level work being an issue.)

I did not know of anyone taking grad courses at the U of MN while still a Carleton student and am not sure it's even possible. I've also never heard of any Carl in a PhD program (including math) complaining that Carleton didn't prepare them well enough.

Alone

From what I have seen/heard and experienced myself so far the department is pretty good. There are a number of great profs with Eric Egge and Mark Krusemeyer (got his Ph.D at a very young age, participated in coaching U.S.A. IMO team, composed problems for Putnam, etc.) being the relative standouts. For a school of Carleton's size the college does really well at Putnam (I know several 20-30+ point scorers; last year two seniors made the top 500, they are now both at UPenn grad school for math).

crazyguyhead

From what I have heard as a chem major Carleton has a very good reputation among physical science graduate schools. If you add some research experience during your summers you are excellently positioned to get into a quality graduate school. I think that graduate schools recognize the value of the personal attention you get from professors here for an undergraduate education.