Derivate

What are the top schools for math?

Here are a few I hear are great.

Princeton
Harvard
MIT
Cal Tech
Cambridge
Berkeley

any others?

mom22girls

U Chicago - Check out post from mathgrad in the Ask a Current Student U-Chicago thread. Lots of good info from that poster.

Lil_Wayne_Fan

Carnegie Mellon

srrinath

For courses like Math, English and Econ, there's usually a strong correlation between generally the top schools and the top schools for your major. There are exceptions of course (e.g. going to Caltech for English) but you get what I mean. You're generally safe with a math major from any top-tier school. What's more important for your prospects is doing well once you get there.

Derivate

^ That sounds like good advice.

Derivate

bumping this shamelessly

phuriku

Not really. To an outsider it may seem that math is a very straightforward major, but it isn't at all past MVC/LA/ODEs, and there are wide disparities between the top schools at the higher level. And since the best students will matriculate having already taken MVC/LA/ODEs, the fact that the top schools are all about equal quality at this level is irrelevant.

Princeton, Harvard, MIT, Berkeley,and Chicago make up the big 5, at least for graduate school. Undergrad is a bit harder to measure. For undergrad, I would add in Swarthmore as another school that produces many high-quality mathematicians, as well as Harvey Mudd.

Derivate

I was looking for a pure math direction. I know MIT has B.Sc for all its majors, but does that make a difference?

I heard Cambridge was one of the best for pure math majors, but is extremely hard for an American applicant to get accepted.

b@r!um

I would not go Swarthmore for math. All the strong math majors at Swarthmore complain about not being able to take graduate courses as an undergraduate. (Which is pretty common among math majors!) Try to pick a school with a graduate department in math.

Derivate

Does Berkeley allow undergrads to take graduate math courses?

elaslawek

Princeton and UChicago hands down.

starbright

This is pretty good for adding to one's list. It identifes where those who got their PhD in Math first did their undergraduate studies. It confirms other posts on this thread but also suggests others.

You may not want to pursue a PhD but it does suggest a good grounding (as an aside, I have no interest or bias toward Reed, just like the data they put together).

REED COLLEGE PHD PRODUCTIVITY

vossron

"It identifes where those who got their PhD in Math first did their undergraduate studies."

To clarify, it identifies undergrad schools with the highest percentages of graduates that later earn a PhD in math.

westhamunited32

Rice's math program is the same curriculum and everything as MITs, but with a way better atmosphere.