<p>Math at Haverford is phenomenal! I am a Bryn Mawr student who has interacted with the math departments at Haverford and Penn, and I am continually impressed by (1) the rigor of the math curriculum at Haverford, (2) the breadth of the courses offered, and (3) the friendly atmosphere in the department. Let me elaborate.</p>
<p>(1) There’s a national trends among liberal arts colleges to make math more “accessible.” In practice that means taking hard material out of the curriculum or stretching it out over more courses. Haverford doesn’t do that. You’d get exactly what you would get at Penn or Swarthmore or Williams, not at Bryn Mawr or Lafayette. </p>
<p>(2) Haverford’s math curriculum is pretty unique among liberal arts colleges in that it offers courses in both pure and applied math. Faculty interests span all areas of pure math as well as statistics, numerical analysis + scientific computing, and cryptoplogy + optimization. Math is one of the few subjects in which students rarely take classes off campus, because it’s all right there at Haverford and the professors are amazing!</p>
<p>(3) Students and faculty are on a first-name basis, and they interact more than at any other school I have seen. Professors make themselves incredibly accessible (some set up to 10 hours each week aside for office hours), they socialize with students in the math lounge, engage students in their research projects, and even invite them home for a BBQ! </p>
<p>I know several computer science majors at Bryn Mawr who have taken a lot of their classes at Haverford and are raving about the professors. The one caveat worth mentioning is that the department is very small: there’s a total of 3 faculty, all of whom specialize in the “core areas” of the field. They teach all of the standard “serious” courses but none of the fun electives (like web design, computer graphics, network security, robotics, …) that you might find in a bigger department. That doesn’t matter if you are only taking a few lower-level courses to acquire programming skills, but students with a deeper interest often feel a bit limited. </p>
<p>I haven’t taken any economics at Haverford, but again, I have only heard rave reviews. What I appreciate about econ at Haverford, in contrast to Bryn Mawr, is that the department offers a few businessy courses in addition to the pure econ classes. Econ majors are also allowed to take classes at the prestigious Wharton School of Business at Penn. That’s a door to a whole other world, if you are interested in a career in business at all.</p>