Applied math is not simply math. Math as a whole is not just math. At the collegiate level, math can be broken up into a bunch of types but there are two big buckets: pure math and applied math. Pure math is math for the sake of math. It’s beautiful and it’s amazing, but it isn’t really focused on how that math can be applied. Applied math is focused heavily on the application of math, which shouldn’t be surprising given the name.
Where pure math is concepts, applied math is just that: math, applied. If you want to be able to use math in the workforce, say in science, business, or government, applied math is the route for you. Below we’ve outlined our top 10 programs for undergraduate applied math in the United States.
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Cambridge, Massachusetts
MIT is the place to study STEM in the United States according to just about every rating and ranking body. The Bachelor of Science in Mathematics at MIT offers concentrations in pure mathematics, general mathematics, or applied mathematics. While this program is more generalized than some others that offer a BS in applied math specifically, it goes deep. Students benefit from being surrounded by brilliant minds who consider thinking differently to be the norm.
Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts
Harvard offers math students a liberal arts degree, but a quantitative one, through the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard. If you attend, you’ll pursue courses in math and the area in which you want to apply your new math skills, like Astronomy, Computer Science, Decision and Control, Sociology, or even the Study of the Human Past. There are over a dozen options. There are lots of opportunities for research, and student clubs like the Harvard College Open Data Project and the Harvard Sports Analysis Collective engage people outside of the classroom.
Yale University New Haven, Connecticut
The Applied Mathematics program at Yale helps students focus on the “core of essential concepts and techniques used in addressing most problems” so that they can apply them to a wide range of fields from the hard sciences to the social sciences. Students often go into the program planning to go to graduate school, and can layer the major with another major. In the program, you’ll also work with the Director of Undergraduate Studies to chart your time at Yale and where applied math will take you in the future. You should also take a look at the major in Statistics and Data Science, which was created in 2017.
Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, Maryland
The Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics at Johns Hopkins is in the Whiting School of Engineering, and students “create interdisciplinary solutions inspired by problems arising in engineering, and the physical, biological, information, and social sciences.” There are Bachelor of Art and Bachelor of Science options, and you can take courses like “Statistical Analysis,” “Chance and Risk,” and “Cryptology and Coding.”
Stanford University Stanford, California
The applied mathematics program in the Stanford Department of Mathematics is focused on “scientific computing, stochastic modeling, and applied analysis.” Interestingly, they point out that much of the applied math at Stanford is actually done outside of the math department in the Statistics Department, the Center for Turbulence Research, and other departments for science and engineering. They love and lean into the interface between theoretical applied math and engineering-focused math. Other areas of research in the math department include combinatorics, financial math, and representation theory
California Institute of Technology Pasadena, California
CIT is the MIT of the west coast, and they offer a degree in Applied and Computational Mathematics that is an amazing option for students who want a west coast experience for college. The major is in the Computing & Mathematical Sciences department, and they specifically gear students up for careers in (but not limited to) engineering, materials sciences, mathematical biology, fluid mechanics, and more. The program is customized to you with a faculty adviser.
Rice University Houston, Texas
The Bachelor of Art in Computational and Applied Mathematics at Rice helps students develop skills useful in “consulting, banking, energy, health, e-commerce, services, and many others.” Students are also prepped to go on to graduate or professional school, such as law school or business school. Students who go through the program have a “deep knowledge” of algorithms that they can apply in the real world, and those in the major take four technical electives to explore fields where they may want to apply their degree.
Washington University in St. Louis St. Louis, Missouri
The major in Applied Mathematics in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at WashU is a math major, but students focus on the application of those math skills in fields like “science, engineering, and computing.” There are amazing ongoing lecture series that bring leading minds to campus for talks, workshops, and seminars, and there are also specific “women in math” programs.
Columbia University New York, New York
In the Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics in the college of engineering at Columbia, students pursuing the Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics are encouraged to use the long list of elective options to tailor the major to their needs and interests. Students even have the option to focus their electives on a specialty, but they don’t need to. Despite this flexibility, the program is super intensive, and you’d be surrounded by some of the best of the best students and professors.
Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Carnegie Mellon offers a Bachelor of Science in Mathematical Sciences with a concentration in Computational and Applied Mathematics. Students in the major “are required to complete an introductory computer science course,” and there are electives specifically for students who are considering graduate studies. There are also interdisciplinary Bachelor of Science degrees in Mathematics and Economics or Computational Finance.
If you are thinking about studying applied math in college, you should be taking the hardest math classes you can while in high school. These will help your application stand out from the pack.
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