<p>I have offers from the two and I want to study math. </p>
<p>Are there any math majors from Princeton that can elaborate a bit more on how math is at Princeton?</p>
<p>Also, how much financial aid does a typical Princeton student receive? I just got my dad’s tax return and have yet to fill out the financial aid forms, but I hope I receive enough.</p>
<p>For Cambridge, there is no financial aid, but studying math only for 4 years and getting a M.Math degree sounds very tempting.</p>
<p>The Princeton Mathematics Department is ranked by the U.S. News & World Report and other organizations as perhaps the best Mathematics Department in the U.S. The department has approximately 70 faculty and research staff, 70 graduate students, and 70 undergraduate majors. Math majors study subjects such as Number Theory, Topology, Discrete Mathematics, Algebraic Geometry, Differential Geometry, Differential Equations, Automorphic Forms, Representation Theory, Complex Analysis, Linear Algebra, Analysis, and Finite Mathematics.</p>
<p>The Putnam math competition is an annual North American math contest for college students, administered by the Mathematical Association of America. The examination is intended to test creativity as well as technical competence in undergraduate-level mathematics. 2008 was the fifth consecutive year that the Princeton team has won first or second place and the 27th year that it has been among the winning five teams. </p>
<p>The Fields Medal is a prize awarded to two, three, or four mathematicians not over 40 years of age at every four years by the International Mathematical Union. The Fields Medal is often viewed as the top honor a mathematician can receive. The Fields Medal is often described as the Nobel Prize of Mathematics for the prestige it carries. Since 1936 there have been 48 Field Medal awarded. Over three fourths of the world’s greatest mathematicians (37) selected by the International Mathematical Union have lived in Princeton, N.J. having been affiliated with Princeton University, The Institute for Advanced Study, or both institutions. The Institute for Advanced Study is about a mile from the Princeton campus. Four of the first five faculty members came from the Princeton University math department. Albert Einstein was the fifth. The Institute faculty originally had offices in the Princeton University math department building.</p>
<p>Professor emeritus Harold Kuhn *50 said, If you sat long enough in the Fine Hall (math building) common room you eventually would have tea with 98 percent of the world’s great mathematicians.</p>
<p>The following table lists teams that finished in the top five since 1990 (as of 2009[update] competition):</p>
<p>Top Five Team (s)
19 Harvard<br>
14 MIT<br>
13 Princeton<br>
12 Duke<br>
8 Waterloo<br>
7 Caltech<br>
6 Stanford<br>
4 Toronto<br>
3 Cornell, Washington U in StL<br>
2 Chicago, UC Berkeley, Harvey Mudd, University of Michigan, Yale<br>
1 Miami University</p>
<p>There’s a checklist of deadlines/things to do in the packet they sent with your acceptance letter. I don’t have my folder on hand right now, but I’m fairly certain you must have your tax return in by the 15th of April, so I’d hurry up and fax it.</p>
<p>From a downloaded document from the Princeton website about their financial aid. The PFAA refers to the Princeton Financial Aid Application.</p>
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<p>From your first post it sounds like you have not yet filled out any financial aid forms. I hope that isn’t the case.</p>
<p>If that is the case you have missed a deadline. Call the financial aid office immediately and tell them what you have done. Maybe there is still time.</p>
<p>Actually on the FAQ, if you fill out PFAA late, there are no penalties. I just submitted it.</p>
<p>I also have to submit the Noncustodial Parent form, but I have no contact with my mother, will that be a problem? I emailed the office explaining my circumstances.</p>
<p>Lastly, what else do I need to turn in. I guess the tax forms etc. Do I just fax it over? Should I write a note so they’ll know the tax forms belong to my dad?</p>
<p>Oh good. I thought you might be OK since Princeton is need-blind and doesn’t have a financial aid budget they have to stay within. About your other questions just contact the financial aid office and they’ll be able to tell you what they want you to do.</p>
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<p>There probably isn’t a typical and it is need-based. I noticed that the Princeton website contained an on-line calculator for determining how much aid you could expect to receive. Those things are usually pretty accurate.</p>
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<p>Really? I’m shouldn’t answer this because I’m not a math major at Princeton but the reputation of the math department at Princeton is that it is one of the best in the country.</p>
<p>Ya, Cambridge will cost a lot more compared to Princeton. So the question becomes which school is better for Math?</p>
<p>I know at Cambridge, all I will be studying is Math (no general education reqs) and after 4 years I’ll get a M.Maths degree instead of a Bachelor’s.</p>
<p>But then I wonder if paying almost 40,000 a year will be worth that. I’m guessing Princeton will be considerably lower than that, so this is my dilemma.</p>
<p>I talked it over with my college math instructor and he told me to “roll an n-sided die, where n is the number of schools you’ve been accepted to”.</p>
<p>Princeton has finished in the top 2 in Putnam in 6 of the last 8 years (note: Putnam is DEFINITELY not the best measure of a math department; the team score is the sum of three of the school’s individual scores, and the team must be declared before the contest). Harvard typically pulls in more (IMO-caliber) talent than Princeton, and MIT is starting to as well, but Princeton definitely has a top-tier student body in the math department.</p>
<p>…Especially since more Princeton PhD’s has won the Fields Medal, Wolf Prize, and are in the National Academy of Sciences for Math than any other university. These are THE top mathematics prizes in the field of math.</p>
<p>The Putnam Competition is simply an undergraduate math competition.</p>