<p>I just graduated with a math major from UChicago, going on to a PhD program (in math, of course - I’m thinking I’ll end up in Representation Theory or something else combining Algebra with Combinatorial methods). I <em>love</em> the math department here more than I can possibly express. They, along with my fantastic dorm, have been my family for the past few years, and it’s really been kind of heartbreaking to leave, excited though I may be about grad school and what lies beyond (I think secretly I plan to come back to teach and do research at UChicago, if I can ever manage the credentials to get hired by them!)</p>
<p>Probably the coolest thing is how vertically integrated the community is: through such programs as the REU (the largest math REU in the country and completely awesome - you get paid to hang out and play with math with big shot professors) and Directed Reading Program (UChicago math grad students actually petitioned, years ago, to have their stipends lowered to make money available for this program, where you work 1-on-1 with a graduate mentor in a math subject of your choosing and get up to $100 worth of books free to work through), not only do younger students get closer with upperclassmen or grads with profs, but really everyone with everyone else. In my second year I already had a lot of professors in the department who knew my name, and a few grad student friends who I could ask questions or just hang out with… plus a great, close-knit group of friends majoring in math. Summer of my second year in the REU, I was teaching in the Young Scholars Program, and even my 7th and 8th grade students then got in on the community, working with our professors and thinking and learning and sometimes just hanging out. I’ve never heard of another department where undergrads and grad students are so close.</p>
<p>The program is very theoretical, though, so I’d caution you to heavily consider how important the possibility of going into applied math is to you before deciding to attend the UofC. There is of course an applied math submajor, but really the meat of the undergrad curriculum here is a lot more like a lite (actually, not even really all that light) version of a pure math grad program, very different from the typical undergraduate syllabus. UChicago math students often don’t do very well on the Math GRE, as it’s 50% calculus stuff and we’re busy digging into Lebesgue Measure or Galois Theory… but even with that, UChicago math students typically place into very good graduate programs and do very well in them, which says a lot more than whether or not we teach for some stupid test. The theory is absolutely beautiful, but since we focus so heavily on it make sure you know that’s what you’re getting into.</p>
<p>Let me know if you have any more specific questions!</p>