Top US Grad Schools (science)

[newfangle]

Hello everyone,
I'm currently compiling a list of suitible candidates for grad school applications. Apart from the Ivy Leagues (which typically have atrocious entrance requirements at the grad level, like having 2 additional languages besides English), I am quite ignorant about American Universities.

So what I'd like from you is a list of universities with relatively 'good' science programs (math in particular, but I doubt knowledge that specific can be found here).

Oh, and if the University happens to be your Alma Mater, your recommendation will be viewed as highly suspicious.

Also, I suppose I have to take my GRE and GRE Math exams, as well as worry about a student Visa. Any other beaurocratic nonsense I should worry about?

Thanks in advance!

 

[CartesianFart]

I recommend M.I.T.[Massachussettes Institute of Technology],if i had the chance to learn mathematics or science at a good university.

 

[Atlas14]

Duke University
M.I.T.
Virginia Tech

 

[downtown]

Cal Tech
Case Western Reserve University (affordable and has research oppertunties)
Purude
Illinois

 

[Fifty]

CalTech, UC Berkeley, Stanford, MIT, and the Ivies are all the "top of the top"

The USNEWS report has these as the top five in mathematics graduate programs:

MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Berkeley


Many of the large public schools have great science and math programs (U of Texas, U of Minnesota, U of Washington, U of Virginia, U of Michigan, UCLA)


If I were you, I would apply to a few of the "top top" schools, a few of those public schools I mentioned, and then a few "safety" schools that you know you will get into.


As far as formalities and the like, just make sure you keep up contact with some professors for recommendation letters.


You should keep in mind that cost of living in the bay area (stanford, berkeley) is insane, and its probably pretty high in Boston/Cambridge (MIT, Harvard) as well.


I just googled THIS, and although it is quite dated it is still a good list of "schools to check out"

 

[newfangle]

Awesome, thanks for the link Fifty.

If I could go to any school, it would most certainly be Penn. My summer supervisor earned his Ph.D. from there, and its math department is fairly specialized in the area I want to research. My marks are decent (probably about a 3.75 when I graduate), but I figure it will still be hard as hell to get in.

It's also fun that it costs about 90$ US per application. Woot!

 

[Moss]

Penn isn't bad...

I'd also recommend all the ones mentioned above, but also give a special props to the U of Minnesota for the below Ivy League MIT/Cal Tech, ect... level U's. (just because I'm biased...where's perfection when we need him?) .

But really, if you have a graduate degree from any of the Ivy League School's, Cal Tech, MIT, you'll have no problem finding a job.

 

[Perfection]

Yeah, come to the U of M and party with me.

I'm not sure how good the math grad program is, but I can tell you that it is probobly the coolest place ever.

 

[newfangle]

I would love to move away from Canada to a place that probably has more snow.

edit: Just realized Penn would be no better.

 

[Moss]

Yeah, come to the U of M and party with me.

I'm not sure how good the math grad program is, but I can tell you that it is probobly the coolest place ever.

Do you have a name tracer or something? Seems like everytime someone mentions your name, you show right up to reply?

 

[Fifty]

Northern California (stanford, berkeley) = best climate in USA

 

[Perfection]

Do you have a name tracer or something? Seems like everytime someone mentions your name, you show right up to reply?

Sometimes I use forum search to see if I've been referenced to recently, but mostly it's because I read just about every OT thread.

 

[Urederra]

Yeah, come to the U of M and party with me.

I'm not sure how good the math grad program is, but I can tell you that it is probobly the coolest place ever.

The coldest maybe.

BTW, second time I have seen you writting 'probobly'. Is it a recurrent typo or a spelling error?

 

[Perfection]

The coldest maybe.

Only during winter. Minnesota gets quite warm during the summer, and the spring and fall are cool but not that cold.

BTW, second time I have seen you writting 'probobly'. Is it a recurrent typo or a spelling error?

It's a bad habit.

 

[newfangle]

Northern California (stanford, berkeley) = best climate in USA

But the living costs are also probably the highest anywhere, correct? (unless I went to Honolulu).

 

[downtown]

It seems like some of the best Maths schools have the crappiest weather. The Northeast and the Upper Midwest seem to have some of the best graduate level schools...

 

[WillJ]

I'd recommend Cal Tech, since when you're a math grad, the last thing you want is to be distracted by fun.

U.S. World & News Report has online rankings for every grad school discipline, but of course those rankings cost money. (They do give you the very top ones for free, like Fifty posted.)

But really, if you have a graduate degree from any of the Ivy League School's, Cal Tech, MIT, you'll have no problem finding a job.

Not true. Sure as hell not true in the humanities (substitute Chicago for Cal Tech, etc., of course); math is slightly better.

Well, you certainly won't have trouble finding a job per se, but the job probably won't be nearly as good as you'd expect. At the University of South Alabama, for example, about half of the math professors have Ivy League (or equivalent) PhDs.

 

[Moss]

Not true. Sure as hell not true in the humanities (substitute Chicago for Cal Tech, etc., of course); math is slightly better.

Well, you certainly won't have trouble finding a job per se, but the job probably won't be nearly as good as you'd expect. At the University of South Alabama, for example, about half of the math professors have Ivy League (or equivalent) PhDs.

It just depends on what the person wants to do with that degree, and how motivated they are. But if you take the same person, and give them a masters degree from the University of Southern Florida or give that same person a masters degree from MIT...the employer is going to see that MIT degree, and if all things are similar, the MIT is most likely going to get the job.

Yes, if certain people just have issues finding a job...but if you take the same person, offer him or her degrees from certain Universities, the chances of them finding a job with the IVY league degree is much, much easier.

And if you look at the employment statistics for graduates of Ivy League schools and the amount of money, they are much higher than lesser U's for obvious reasons.

 

[WillJ]

It just depends on what the person wants to do with that degree, and how motivated they are. But if you take the same person, and give them a masters degree from the University of Southern Florida or give that same person a masters degree from MIT...the employer is going to see that MIT degree, and if all things are similar, the MIT is most likely going to get the job.

Yes, if certain people just have issues finding a job...but if you take the same person, offer him or her degrees from certain Universities, the chances of them finding a job with the IVY league degree is much, much easier.

And if you look at the employment statistics for graduates of Ivy League schools and the amount of money, they are much higher than lesser U's for obvious reasons.

You're certainly right that a degree from MIT is better than a degree from South Carolina State. But:

1. What I wanted to point out is that job placement in academia is a lot crappier than most people assume. (The exception is for fields where most people with the degree don't usually enter academia, like law and business. If you have a PhD in one of those, getting a good professorship is rediculously easy.)
2. In fields other than academia, a PhD is almost always over-education. 6 years of job training is much better spent than 6 years getting a doctorate, unless of course you just love the subject.
3. When it comes to academia, where you went to school is almost EVERYTHING. In the business world, where you went to school does matter but its importance is usually overestimated (including by you, methinks---finding a job with an Ivy degree is not "much, much easier," except in academia, but then that's not saying much).
4. Saying "certain people just have issues finding a job" makes it sound like people with a Harvard doctorate who end up teaching at South Carolina State are somehow stupid or otherwise inherently unemployable. Not true.

 

[Perfection]

Ooooh, the University of Minnesota is in the higest rank in Fifty's link...

And it has the advantage of being in Minneapolis, the bestest place in the world.