Harvey Mudd College has been noted a couple times above. It does appeal to the quirky, nerdy type student with interests that go outside of STEM. The math department itself is excellent, with a significant fraction of its students going on to grad school. It also has excellent interdisciplinary joint majors with computer science, physics, or biology.
The department excels at undergraduate teaching, as recognized by the American Math Society’s first award for Exemplary Program or Achievement in a Math Department in 2006. Also, five HMC professors have been recognized for Distinguished Teaching by a Beginning College or university Faculty by the Math Association of America, and a professor was just given the 2020 award for Impact on the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics from the Am. Math Society. HMC is part of the Claremont Consortium, so classes at Pomona College and the Claremont Graduate University are available. Research is an integral part of the program. HMC math is pretty well recognized, and has potential for your student.
Thank you SO MUCH for taking the time to help us out. All of your comments have been very helpful and gave us a lot to think about. We appreciate it greatly!
@mathymom4 - I don’t think you have enough comments for me to direct message you on CC - otherwise, I would be happy to send you my daughter’s tour notes from Grinnell and Carleton. I think the Princeton Review book of colleges does a good job addressing culture too and my kids liked it better over Fiske. Carleton has a lot of online opportunities to engage including a zoom with professors. Haven’t looked at Grinnell lately - but guessing they are doing a lot now too. For money - none at Carleton and about $25k a year from Grinnell for top students…
@coffeeat3, you can send PMs to a user who has fewer than 15 posts, and she can then respond to you. She just can’t initiate the exchange.
Note that Harvey Mudd has a heavy core curriculum that includes a selection of STEM subjects and an 11-course HSA (humanities, social science, arts) requirement (including both a distribution and a concentration).
https://www.hmc.edu/academics/common-core-curriculum/
https://www.hmc.edu/hsa/curriculum/graduation-requirements/
As part of my research for programs that have good merit aid (National Merit, etc.), thanks to CC, I looked into UT Dallas, that the Fiske guide says “would best fit a nerd.” They don’t have a football team and their Greek scene is pretty small, so it attracts more nerdy types. I was instantly attracted to that for my nerdy S21. I checked and they do have a BA or BS in Math, including Applied Math. S21 is applying for their CS program but is also a math kid for sure.
Look at St Olaf College.
Math is the third most popular major. One of the top schools for sending grads on to earn PhDs in math.
Colorado School of Mines was the school I thought of when you were describing your son. It does have Greek life, but doesn’t dominate the campus. The students might be geeky but are also athletic (teams or individual sports like skiing, climbing, hiking). All the kids I’ve met who attend Mines (both back in the olden days when my sorority sisters were dating and marrying them and more recently when working with my sorority as an alum) put school first but like to be involved in social activities or community service.
Years ago CSM women in engineering hosted a Girl Scout day at Red Rocks. It was really great and we all learned a lot about dinosaurs and geology and all others sciencey things I knew nothing about. It really is a great school.
Would agree that Carleton and Grinnell would fit the bill. Both would be very good for math, especially Carleton. University of Chicago has a different vibe, but would also fit, though it is, of course, very hard to get in to.
My 2018 was offered to Swathmore, but found the vocal political minority unpleasant. Great school otherwise, though. Again, very selective.
St Olaf is still good, though less competitive. Has a higher ratio of local kids. shares the town with Carleton.
A family friend, a somewhat nerdy, prototypical Asian CS guy(actually had a scholarship to be a gamer at another school) is having a great time at Michigan. Expected him to get beaten up and bullied by beer drinking football louts, and is instead having the time of his life.