Imperial College or NYU or UCLA?

I am going in as a physics major in Imperial College and major in Maths if I end up in NYU or UCLA. I know NYU has a great applied maths major and is especially known for the Courant Institute. But, how would that benefit a maths student? I mean, after all I am not a applied maths major.

I wonder which school would give me a better chance if I want to transfer to an Ivy school after freshman year or apply for an Ivy graduate school after graduation from NYU.

Any insights would be appreciated. I am an international student btw.

Reply 1

username839699

www.mathematicsgre.com

Look through the profiles of the people there. The general consensus is that things are harder for applicants outside of the US. Being at NYU, especially if you'd like to go into applied mathematics, would be advantageous because of the possibility to get involved in undergraduate research (if not an NYU, then elsewhere), which is not very common in the UK, where getting into a PhD program has more to do with academic performance. Subject GRE scores for international students also need to be higher.

Also, for graduate school in applied maths, it doesn't matter if the school is an Ivy or not. The important questions to ask are "Are there faculty members in this university who are involved in my areas of research and would I like to work with them?". Things are much easier if you do your undergraduate study in the USA if you'd like to go there for graduate school.

Did you get any kind of scholarship or financial aid at either institution?

Also, if after your freshman year, you decide you don't want to do physics, you don't get to change at Imperial, unless you start all over again! (afaik, but one should still verify this)
At a US school, on the other hand, you could switch to another science/applied science major and have your credits carried over without much difficulty...

Also note that I don't have first hand experience with any of those schools. I'm just a prospective undergraduate student who likes applied math and am interested in studying in the USA and Europe. :-)
(or Asia)

(edited 12 years ago)

Imperial College London

London

Reply 2

DynamicSyngery

Maths and physics are really quite different subjects. This is the first choice you have to make.

Of the three universities I would say ICL is the most prestigious in general. It may be helpful to study in the US if you want to do postgrad in the US.

If you just want to go to a Famous University for a PhD at some point you should choose physics because it is easier to be accepted to a PhD in physics than maths.

Reply 3

AbuAK

If you plan to work in North America, go to either NYU or UCLA, personally I could choose UCLA for the weather.

Reply 4

Xyrish

Of course we will know that there is a university of New York as you will know there is a university of Beijing, but the average person won't really know how good it is.

Reply 5

smileatyourself

Original post by Xyrish

Of course we will know that there is a university of New York as you will know there is a university of Beijing, but the average person won't really know how good it is.

The Chinese win the IMO year after year so I'd imagine their unis are of a high standard.

Just we don't hear about them.

Reply 6

thematrixDuo

Hi I am in a similar situation cuz I am also admitted to UCLA and Imperial. and I am also an international student. I choose Imperial because UCLA is really running out of funds. Btw I have red news that UCLA fakes the average SAT scores of its admitted student to be ranked higher. So I guess UCLA is not really a good place to go unless you have the ambition to transfer to a better uni after 1 year of college work.

Reply 7

Sofia Ababou

Hey. I would say go to NYU. Maybe UCLA is good inside the US but it's not very known worldwide while NYU is. Imperial college is great but not as great as NYU. It's not Oxford or LSE, see what I mean? The american ranking ranks NYU as 15 in the world and ranks Berkeley as 18. Just to say NYU is better than some Ivys.