I want to study math, not comp sci, eng, etc. I want to teach at college/univ level eventually. Am looking for strong math program but not one of the top tier schools.
Any suggestions for smaller schools with strong math depts?
I'm interested in the answer to this as well. A few months ago I came across an article about some of the considerations in choosing a school for a math major. It listed some of the courses that should be offered for someone interested in "pure" math (as opposed to applied math). As I recall, the author favored universities with math graduate programs so that the student might have a chance to take more advanced classes. Unfortuantely I wasn't on this computer when I found the article. I'll look again.
As far as best math programs for a future math professor, I'm sure choice of grad school will matter much more. One thing you might do is look at how many math majors go on to graduate school from college X. Most math department pages on college web sites have a couple sentences about what graduates do, though the information is often very general.
Ph.D. production for math & statistics derived from IPEDS and NSF databases (Ph.D. count from 1996-2005 over grad count from 1991-2000, with missing 1999 data interpolated). These are the top 30 schools with numbers representing Ph.D's earned (not necessarily at the baccalaureate school) per 1000 baccalaureate graduates. I have removed institutions reporting fewer than 500 graduates over ten years.
California Institute of Technology 23.5
Harvey Mudd College 16.6
Reed College 10.2
Massachusetts Institute of Technology 9.1
University of Chicago 8.0
Harvard University 7.7
Pomona College 6.7
Princeton University 5.9
Rice University 5.4
Grinnell College 5.3
St John's College (Santa Fe, NM) 5.1
Swarthmore College 4.6
Carleton College 4.4
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology 4.4
Bob Jones University 4.3
St Olaf College 4.3
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology 4.3
Brown University 3.6
Knox College 3.6
Yale University 3.5
Bryn Mawr College 3.4
Carnegie Mellon University 3.4
Concordia Teachers College 3.3
Haverford College 3.2
Oberlin College 3.2
Hendrix College 3.0
Stevens Institute of Technology 3.0
Amherst College 2.9
College of Wooster 2.8
Erskine College 2.7
I found the link. It wasn't what I remembered, but here it is http://www.schneier.com/crypto-gram-9910.html. It is about becoming a cryptographer. It says that cryptography draws from all areas of math and to take math the emphasizes proofs.
I would expect anything with "technology" in its name would be strong in applied math but wouldn't necessarily be as strong in pure math.
Here is a link to a thread for small colleges very strong in mathematics: small colleges for mathematics .
Another source, aside from the list provided, is Rugg's Recommendations, a book you can find at most bookstores and library. What I like about Rugg's is that it doesn't really rank-- the book is indexed by subject, and, within subject, level of selectivity. Since you asked for some non top-tier schools, Rugg's will give you a ton of them in no particular order and it is up to you to winnow it down.
The list in post #4 is interesting. Certainly students with an undergraduate degree in math from St. Olaf would end up at much better graduate programs and have a better chance of becoming math professors than students with a degree from Bob Jones University (which is still unaccredited, isn't it?). Any of the true national LACs on that list would seem to fit the requirements of the original post, "smaller" but still good math programs.
