<p>I’m a typical student who is enthusiastic about math and craves competitive environment to stimulate myself in learning mathematics. Could you rank the following universities of my choice, considering their rigorousness and competitiveness for math major. </p>
<p>U of Chicago
UCLA
UC Berkeley
U of Torronto
U of Waterloo</p>
<p>If you are familiar with the Canadian universities listed above, please tell me how they are different from those in the U.S.</p>
<p>Check their faculty rosters and course offerings to see how their math departments’ interests compare with yours.</p>
<p>Your other posts indicate that you are an international student (Canadian or non-Canadian?), your parents can pay list price (they know that can be over $60,000 per year at the most expensive US universities, right?), you have significant self-studied knowledge of advanced undergraduate mathematics, and you were previously considering majoring in biology. Is this correct?</p>
<p>Yes, exactly. You’re always the first one who answers my question. I’m so thankful to you. Now I’m so confused what I want to do. I haven’t decided yet whether I’m going to become mathematician or biologist. Since my way to study math and physics was very extensive, I’m holding quite extensive interest in these areas. So, I have to put myself in some mathematically competitive environment now, and then I want to find what I want to do. I haven’t abandoned my enthusiasm to become a biologist, and I will probably reconsider my career later. I’m not a Canadian student but an international student from Japan. I began to consider Canadian universities due to their inexpensive tuition. Though my family wouldn’t mind paying $60,000 (as you said, like Carnegie Mellon,) I don’t want to pay so much if Canadian universities would offer education similar to that in American universities.</p>
<ol>
<li>Chicago & Berkeley</li>
<li>UCLA</li>
<li>Toronto
…
[much larger number]. Waterloo</li>
</ol>
<p>In America, it is common for undergraduates to change their majors. So do not feel overly committed to one specific field or the other.</p>
<p>I just wanna put it out there but oftentimes to be a biologist, mathematician, physicist etc (like actually researching) you’ll need an advanced degree. But to the main point, exactly as the poster above said: the best way to gauge a department is to look at how many full-time faculty they have and look at the current course offerings to see what classes they have. Be careful, you need to make sure you’re looking at the current course offerings on the class bulletin or registrar’s site because departments like to list all the classes they’ve ever taught or could teach under “course offerings” (but rarely teach)on the department site.</p>
<p>At least in the US universities, it is probably not that difficult to study both, particularly if you are so advanced in math that you will skip many of the frosh/soph level courses.</p>
<p>Of course, if you want to become a mathematician or biologist, you need to choose when you apply for PhD programs.</p>
<p>However, note that, in the US, math majors do have somewhat better job and career prospects than biology majors, since many adapt well enough to finance and computers (of course, a few electives in those areas can help). See the <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1121619-university-graduate-career-surveys-5.html#post16559971[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/internships-careers-employment/1121619-university-graduate-career-surveys-5.html#post16559971</a> .</p>
<p>I though Waterloo was slightly above Toronto, and undergraduate education of these Canadian universities are as excellent as that of UCLA in spite of lack of competition in their admission. That seems quite helpful information to me. I felt so relieved to hear that many students in this nation can decide their major later. Since I still have several years until I will have to decide it, I’m sure I can reach to some satisfactory conclusion. I saw many people majoring in math who eventually got jobs in the places such as Drop Box or Google. I totally agree with you about the quality of jobs for mathematicians.</p>
<p>There is a difference between majoring in math with the intention of then finding work as an actuary, computer programmer, teacher, etc. vs majoring in math with the intention of pursuing a career as a research mathematician. For the former, finding a school that is a good fit and offers strong complementary coursework is more important than finding the ‘best’ math program possible. For the latter, I think there may be more value to studying at a top program (which all of these are).</p>
<p>By reputation, UC Berkeley and U Toronto are both very competitive.</p>
<p>Re: #8</p>
<p>However, it is not impossible to find strong pure math and strong applied subjects like CS and economics in the same school (indeed, most or all of the schools in the OP’s list may qualify). Since math majors tend not to have huge numbers of courses or labs to fit into their schedules, it also should not be difficult to study pure math while also hedging by taking some courses in the applied subjects (particularly if one is already advanced in math).</p>
<p>Waterloo is quire well regarded in mathematics in Canada. The top Ontario math/physics/computer science/engineering students in Ontario typically go to either UofT or Waterloo. The thing is that Waterloo competes UofT only in these specific areas, not overall (eg. humanities or biology at Waterloo is nothing special). As such it really doesn’t have the reputation that Toronto does on message board such as CC (where most posters are American, and can maybe name 2 Canadian universities -Toronto and McGill). However it seems that Waterloo is pretty well respected by US companies because Microsoft recruits heavily out of Waterloo. Blackberry (Formally RIM also used to recruit a lot of students a lot of Waterloo).</p>
<p>I honestly dont know a ton about the US schools you listed except that Chicago has a great history and is very selective, and UC Berkley (and the UC system as a whole frankly) is kinda seen as the gold standard for a state run university in the US.</p>
<p>FWIW, there are several Canadian schools between Toronto and Waterloo on the Shanghai Rankings for Mathematics, but this covers far more than just undergrad education. But it might give you some additional Canadian schools to consider.</p>
<p>Berkeley is #3 on the list. Chicago is #14.</p>
<p>[Academic</a> Ranking of World Universities in Mathematics - 2013](<a href=“http://www.shanghairanking.com/SubjectMathematics2013.html]Academic”>http://www.shanghairanking.com/SubjectMathematics2013.html)</p>
<p>Well if you are going to look at the Chinese rankings you might as well also look at the other two major world university rankings: QS and TIMES Higher Education.</p>
<p>QS:
[QS</a> World University Rankings by Subject 2013 - Mathematics | Top Universities](<a href=“http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/university-subject-rankings/2013/mathematics]QS”>QS World University Rankings for Mathematics 2013 | Top Universities)</p>
<p>Berkeley is 4th, UCLA is 7th, Chicago is 11th, Toronto is 12th, Waterloo is 29th.</p>
<p>TIMES: (Physical Science)
[Top</a> 100 universities for Physical Sciences 2013-14 - Times Higher Education](<a href=“http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2013-14/subject-ranking/subject/physical-sciences]Top”>Subject Ranking 2013-14: Physical Sciences | Times Higher Education (THE))</p>
<p>Berkeley is 5th, UCLA is 9th, Chicago is 10th, Toronto is 17th</p>
<p>I am really impressed and surprised by Berkeley’s (and UCLA’s) Math/physical science ranking, I know it is a good school, but I didn’t think it would beat out most of the Ivy league for math. There is more than just rankings that are important when choosing a schools, but according to these rankings the UCs seem to come out on top for mathematics.</p>
<p>Again however I will say that Waterloo is a bit underrated in the rankings because it is so specialized and thus not as well known as the big name schools listed here.</p>
<p>If you’re that advanced in math to the point where minute differences in top departments becomes meaningful, you’d also differentiate between department sub specialty. Somehow I doubt you’re at that level which means attempting to differentiate between how far you can go at the above institutions is ridiculous. Fwiw, my former boss, who earned his phD in physics from CalTech did his UG at Waterloo. Multiple math phDs from MIT went to Berkeley for UG.</p>
<p>I’ve got to agree with whenhen. Unless you’re at the point where you’re taking advanced sophomore and early junior-level classes in high school, any of the math departments that you mentioned will be sufficient for your needs. Furthermore, there’s unlikely to be big differences between them when it comes to getting into graduate school (whether in Canada or the United States) as long as you do all of the things you’re supposed to for grad school (write papers, get to know professors, research experience).</p>
<p>Personally I would save my money and choose one of the Canadian universities, especially if you have the option to go to UToronto.</p>