Stats- 4.0 weighted, 35 act, IB diploma, National Merit Scholar
Looked at other threads regarding pure math and a lot of the colleges recommended are for applied math. Hoping to get a lead on some colleges with developed pure math programs that offer merit money.
Appreciate the help!
To assist responders, the OP is a parent
Sorry- that’s a 4.0 unweighted
Have you looked into the University of Rochester?
Sure haven’t- thank you for recommendation!
This is a tough one, as most of the US colleges I know about that are highly-regarded for pure math do not offer merit.
As an aside, have you looked at going outside the US? Costs can be competitive with US privates even with merit, and IB credentials should make it pretty easy to see where would be realistic.
But one idea for you is the University of Utah. I understand they have a really good pure math program and they also have a merit program where I believe IB applicants have done well in the past.
@hebegebe, would you be able to provide any recommendations for OP?
Thanks in advance.
Thank you for the recommendation!
I did look at Waterloo in Canada, they have quite the pure math program. Moving to another a country, even Canada, seems like a lot of extra hoops on top of everything else.
I’m a National merit finalist going to Alabama next year on a nearly full ride. It’ll cost $1500-2500/year. I’ll be majoring in math, minoring in math, or just taking pure math classes for fun. The major has an option to get a concentration in pure mathematics.
They have a 4+1 program for a masters in mathematics, and the scholarship covers 5 years of tuition. So, your kid could get a free masters.
If you PM me in a few months I can let you know what I think about the math department and my classes so far 
PS: I wanted to go to a more prestigious school. I got into some highly ranked schools, but I couldn’t afford any of them and took Alabama’s full ride. So if you’re chasing merit, shoot for the stars just in case something works out, but also find a safety you like because merit at a highly ranked school will be very hard to come by.
Ha- math for fun sounds very familiar!
Thank you for the recommendation, I’ll add it to the list.
Your student is likely a NMSF. The path is NMSF apply to become NMF and some are awarded scholarships (spring of senior year) to make them NM Scholars.
When looking at National Merit scholarships, make sure you check whether they are offered to semi-finalists or finalists.
You don’t say how much merit you need or what the budget is, that would be helpful for posters to make the best recs we can.
Seconding Rochester. I will add U Chicago to the list as well as some publics strong in pure math that still give merit (again depends on your budget though, some of these schools won’t offer all that much merit, and it can be difficult to get). Publics: U Wisconsin, U Michigan, U Minn, TAMU, even Ohio State has a strong faculty/dept.
This is a key point. A highly ranked/prestigious school will give little (often zero) merit money.
Looking to keep CoA below 15k/year
So minimum of full tuition merit.
I would strongly encourage you in that case to consider the schools that offer big merit for NMFs. So, UTDallas, Alabama, UTulsa…you will have to research the math depts at all.
You can also apply to elite schools that offer highly competitive full ride merit scholarships like Vandy, Duke, UNC.
What state do you live in?
I will think about this more, but the first place I thought of was SUNY-Stony Brook. The math department there was built up by Jim Simons, who later went on to build the quant hedge fund Renaissance Technologies. He still supports it financially.
Their math department is excellent but relatively unknown by the masses. As a public university, it is lower cost than privates before scholarships. And they do offer some merit scholarships as well:
This is what I am discovering, which lead me to post. Prestige is not important, a developed pure math program with undergraduates able to take graduate classes is best.
Thank you for some options.
Live on the west coast.
Will check it out, thank you!
Can you provide some idea as to budget? There are a number of public universities with excellent math programs, and while most will be more expensive than Stony Brook, they might still be cheaper than privates with scholarships.