Tufts vs Upenn

SymGol
Sat, 23 Apr 2016 19:47:30 +0000

I would choose UPenn for two reasons: the math department as a whole is stronger, and top graduate schools tend to look for students who have prestigious undergraduate degrees, so UPenn would ultimately boost your longer-term career, esp getting into the best graduate school. In addition, applied math majors are most successful academically when they have theoretical background as well so you should be in a place where they recognize that and teach you to think theoretically as well as in applied math. Tufts is a good choice if you are also community oriented – the whole Boston area is amazing for mathematics. But most undergraduates stick to learning the undergraduate/early graduate level math, so an amazing city for math is less relevant than a very strong program.

That said, it’s also really worth looking up the courses you think you’d be interested in, and see if UPenn is really weak in applied math. If they really have nothing but the most elementary courses to offer, then Tufts would be a better choice. I would be surprised if that’s the case.