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Reply 1
*bangs head*
Reply 2
why have you posted this twice?
Reply 3
kyosuke
Which school do you think has the best pure math department?
Cambridge, Princeton or harvard.

Which school is the most difficult to get into?

Assume I will be completinp part III of the cambridge tripos next year.

Do you think cambridge will be as recognized in the US as Harvard or Princeton Math?


It must be Harvard.
Cambridge Maths is not the same standards as Princeton or Harvard maths.

:cool:
Reply 4
What do you mean by not the same? One is harder the other not?
Reply 5
Dekota
It must be Harvard.
Cambridge Maths is not the same standards as Princeton or Harvard maths.

:cool:
dunno if this post is sarcastic or not, but either way don't listen to it - a 16 year old isn't gonna give the most informed advice :rolleyes:
Reply 6
Noam Elkies is a rubbish teacher.
Reply 7
kyosuke
Which school do you think has the best pure math department?
Cambridge, Princeton or harvard.

Which school is the most difficult to get into?

Assume I will be completinp part III of the cambridge tripos next year.

Do you think cambridge will be as recognized in the US as Harvard or Princeton Math?

Wait a minute; you are apparently smart enough to complete part III maths at Cambridge and expect to go on to postgrad study, and you are asking an anonymous internet forum populated mostly by teenagers what you should do with your life?

I could give you an opinion, of course, as could everyone else. But why don't you find someone who you can guarantee actually knows what they are talking about?

Just a thought...
Reply 8
kyosuke
Which school do you think has the best pure math department?
Cambridge, Princeton or harvard.

Which school is the most difficult to get into?

Assume I will be completinp part III of the cambridge tripos next year.

Do you think cambridge will be as recognized in the US as Harvard or Princeton Math?


You are just an annoying geek :biggrin: Trust me. You are already in Cambridge, it is one of the best universities if not in the world but atleast in the UK and if you are in part 11 of the Cambridge tripos, Obviously you can easily get in if you get the necessary grades or wat-ever they use in ranking, and I am not quite sure harvard might be difficult to get in. I don't know much about the third university. If not for that geekness of yours what are you looking for all the way to harvard? tution, accomondation, bla bla...lol sorry... I am really sorry if I sound a little bit rude.
Reply 9
kyosuke
Which school do you think has the best pure math department? Cambridge, Princeton or harvard.


My impression was that Cambridge and Princeton both on par.
They are both marginally better than Harvard for maths.
Reply 10
You should be thinking about your intended research topic and seek out academics who are the "best of the best" in that field. Write to them and ask them if they will be your supervisors, then apply to that university.

That university may not necessary be Cambridge, Harvard, or Princeton :wink:
Are you a Part II or Part III student, your initial post is slightly ambigious.

Korner gave a talk 2 weeks ago to the Part III students about applying to other universities, and mentioned its important for pure students to find the best supervisor for them, because by the time you leave Part III as a pure mathematician, your area of knowledge is quite a small one, and so if a department doesn't have a supervisor who knows that area, there is no point in you applying there. For applied mathematicians (like me) its a bit easier because if they don't have a supersymmetry supervisor, they might have a string theory supervisor, and the change isn't much hassle, since the subjects are interconnected.

As such, look on the websites to see if there are people who specialise in what you are doing in Part II or Part III now because they are the people you'll want as your supervisor. You don't want to apply for an algebraic topology PhD to find noone there does it, or the few people who do already have students.
I've just seen you posted here too : http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/t166799.html

Lets just say, by the sounds of it you don't realise how hard and competative Part III is. I'm a Part III student now, though doing applied as I mentioned, and the lectures are intense, the material complex and even people who were top in their own universities getting easy 1sts struggle. I had a General Relativity examples class on Tuesday where one guy who was new to Cambridge, but must have got a 1st elsewhere, just spent the class going "How did you do that?" "Where did that come from?" "Why can you do that?". Despite having got a very high 1st in his own university, he seemed far out of his depth in his 1st examples class, and it only gets worse.

I think you are jumping the gun ENORMOUSLY asking which of those 3 universities to apply to for a PhD when you haven't got a degree yet yourself, and are not currently on the Part III course (nor been accepted on to it!). Worry yourself about getting a place on Part III before you start asking which top university in the world for pure mathematics you should do a PhD at. You may be very good, but your posts suggest a slight naivity about the Cambridge (and other university) systems and difficulty. The professor I mentioned, Korner, gave an "introductory lecture" to the whole of Part III just before the beginning of term and he kept repeating "Its hard. I can't stress that enough, it is very hard", and he knows he's talking to stundents in the top fraction of a percent in the world for mathematics, he kept saying "It's very hard".

Get yourself a place here, then start stroking your ego about which world leading university to apply to.
Reply 13
Indeed, if there's one course for which Cambridge is unrivalled in its reputation as best in the world, it's part III Maths.
Reply 14
Oxbridge is unrivalled for mathematics. I read that Oxford's has 14 fellows of the Royal Society (one-in-six of the mathematical fellows worldwide), now it has 18. Cambridge is similar, because I also read that Oxbridge accounts for 1/3rd of all such fellows. THES yet again put Oxbridge on top for science, and I would reckon that for maths as well. America's biggest pure-mathematicians are all formerly from Oxbridge (Wiles, Kronheimer, Taylor etc.). Oxford however, has the larger pure maths faculty of the two, as opposed to the applied for Cambridge. Don't move out of Oxbridge circles, unless for experience's sake, or if you can't take it. Afterall, Wiles (at Princeton), chose to announce his proof at Cambridge, if only you heard him saying why (in Simon Singh's documentary), you wouldn't want to leave the mecca for mathematics you are currently in.
Taha

America's biggest pure-mathematicians are all formerly from Oxbridge (Wiles, Kronheimer, Taylor etc.)


Well if you want to choose those three I suppose you could try to make a case, but the list is hardly comprehensive. America has plenty of home grown talent.

Oxbridge maths is very good, but lets not be hyperbolic about it being the only choice, even in the UK. Once someone has made a decision in their research area it comes down to where the best people in the world are, and the answer isn't always Oxford or Cambridge or Princeton or wherever. For example, in the UK someone wanting to do cryptography would be better off in Royal Holloway than either Oxford or Cambridge. Someone doing differential geometry would hardly suffer from having a name like Donaldson (Imperial) as their supervisor.

And the Royal Society is a UK-based society. Is it surprising it's Oxbridge heavy? This is hardly a reflection though on American academics.
Reply 16
Ah the Public Internet Forum: mutual ego masturation since 1974
Calvin
Ah the Public Internet Forum: mutual ego masturation since 1974


was that addressed to me? :confused: i thought I was trying to take some middle ground
Reply 18
Neapolitan
For example, in the UK someone wanting to do cryptography would be better off in Royal Holloway than either Oxford or Cambridge. Someone doing differential geometry would hardly suffer from having a name like Donaldson (Imperial) as their supervisor.

The biggest figures in the world of (quantum) cryptography are based in Oxbridge, namely, Artur Ekert, now at Cambridge, and David Deutsch at Oxford; go to http://www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/archive/0001/13_2/06.shtml for reference. As for differential geometry, Donaldson is now past the career-peak he had at Oxford. Top researchers in this field too, are based in Oxbridge, for instance Nigel Hitchin and the latest sensation Dominic Joyce (in the Observer's list of 80 young people set to define the country's future, see http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,6903,1248007,00.html#Joyce), at Oxford.
Reply 19
No no of course not, I'm just echoing Alpha Numeric on this one.
Why the heck ask a public internet forum what you should do with your life, and one that probably knows a lot less about Post Graduate maths than the asker (though...)
I'm surprise someone who is already most of the way through university still thinks that the best thing for them will be to apply to whatever the most prestigous university for their subject is... :rolleyes: