top ranking universities in mathematics?

Question

which universities have good rankings in mathematics? [prefer somewhere in california, especially southern california]

Answer 1

First of all, it depends on where you are in school. If you are applying (or thinking about it) to a graduate school, see the above post by AnyMouse, he's pretty right on that. If you are applying to an undergraduate school, the school you go to is a lot less important, and you really can't make choices on "what interests you," because it's 90%+ going to be that you don't know what interests you yet. Again, this is only for undergrad, but my suggestion to you is to go where it is cheaper (or at least cheaper in comparison). If you go to the Univ of Iowa, or Univ of Rhode Island, it isn't going to make that much difference for an undergrad. People talk a lot about "I went to Harvard" or "Yale," but in reality, a graduate school cares more about who you are than whom you went to school with. If you are a smart person and work hard, you can get into whatever graduate school you want, no matter where you got your B.S. Also remember that at large universities (like state colleges), you will have a chance to take classes as high as you want (because they have graduate programs, and you aren't going to get higher than these grad programs in you years as an undergrad). Remember, this is math not politics, people don't care about names as much, they care about quality, and IMHO you can get the best quality for your money by staying at the best state school in your state. If you get a scholarship to some prestigious school, then the best (ranked) schools are Princeton, Berkley, Harvard, MIT, Michigan . . . you can find a good ranking system at phds.org, but the reason this is a good ranking system is because it is for graduate students, when doing your undergraduate work, it matters more about you than the college.

Whatever you choose, do something that you love, and work at it. Everything else will fall into place from there.

About So. Cal. Check out UCLA and Harvey Mudd.

Answer 2

It actually depends on which area of mathematics you are interested in. What matters more than the name of the school is your advisor. Studying at an unheard of school, but with a well-known advisor is often much more beneficial than studying at one of "US News and Distorts" top picks.

For example:
If you find that your interest lies in Noncommutative Geometry, you would do well to study at Vanderbilt with Yu, Kasparov, Connes, ... or Penn State with Roe, Higson, ...

Search the literature in the area that interests you, and find the names of the top people, and see where they are. Send them an email about their research. That is the best way to pick a school.

Answer 3

if you're looking for a grad schooll, MIT, harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Berkeley, see http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/phdsci/brief/mat_brief.php