How Good is Applied Math at Rice?

cb21990
Fri, 02 Apr 2010 14:36:15 +0000

Rice has a completely separate department for their applied mathematics program. I could be mistaken, but I think Chicago applied mathematics is more of a specialization that mathematics majors takes. Also…

From the University of Chicago website:
“B.S. candidates are further required to select a minor field, which consists of an additional three-course sequence, which is outside the Department of Mathematics but within the Physical Sciences Collegiate Division, chosen in consultation with the departmental counselor.”

So it seems that at Chicago you would major in mathematics, where your elective major courses are applied, and you have to focus on another subject such as physics or stats etc.

At Rice you pretty much take courses specifically designed to be applied mathematics courses. Almost everything you need for you major is a course listed as: CAAM ###, if I’m not mistaken.

I don’t want to start a who is better flame war, but Chicago has a outstanding mathematics program, equal or superior to Rice. I get the impression though, that Rice would be easier to do multi-department work, and Rice gives more emphasis and attention to the ‘applied’ aspect. Also Rice allows you to minor in CAAM, but I haven’t seen anything on the Chicago website that talks about a minor in applied math. Either school is outstanding and I don’t think you could go wrong either way. I would take a very good look at location, financial packages, quality of life, and other factors. When it comes to education, you’ll get top notch in either place.

Chicago: [Department of Mathematics: Concentration in Mathematics](http://www.math.uchicago.edu/undergraduate/concentration.shtml)
Rice: [Department of Computational and Applied Mathematics](http://www.caam.rice.edu/)