<p>I’m a Reed math junior, and I’ve taken a few physics class here, too.</p>
<p>It really depends on what you want to get out of math. In particular, the Reed curriculum is highly abstract. The standard second semester freshmen Math 112: Intro to Analysis teaches you a lot of mathematical machinery by formally defining/constructing/proving pretty much everything you’ve learned since kindergarten. It likely won’t be “new” to you in the sense that you already know 2 + 2 = 4, but each symbol in that statement will have been defined in terms of sets by the time you prove it’s (usually) true. My friends who attended other schools didn’t encounter a lot of this stuff until they were juniors.</p>
<p>So if you do Reed math, you’ll write a lot of proofs and do almost no actual computation. This makes the math department really good for math majors (especially those headed to grad school), but not-so-good if you’re more interested in doing something more applied, like engineering. (Physics majors get around the problem by taking Physics 200, Mathematical Methods).</p>
<p>The professors are incredibly good. If you go the math route, you’ll have a friendly personal relationship with most of them by the time you graduate (but this is true for most majors at Reed).</p>
<p>The flip side of this is the relatively small course selection. I can only give you two responses: First, any one of the math professors is capable of teaching you more than you could possibly learn in four years. Second, all the main areas of mathematics are represented, and it would probably be worth trying them before deciding which ones you’d really like to pursue.</p>
<p>Hope this helps. I love the math department here, and would be more than happy to answer any more questions.</p>