Is a research university right for me?–

Research universities are colleges and universities whose faculty are active in research and publishing. Research universities offer a wide array of doctoral programs, especially in the sciences. They tend to be big, with tens of thousands of students. Do you prefer a larger university setting, such as largest public university in your state? Research universities are typically big, offering degrees in many different disciplines. Is a big high-powered research environment the thing for you? If not, you should think about a liberal arts college. In deciding on an undergraduate institution, ask yourself what sort of environment will best help you to be happy and excel. Consider whether you are self motivated enough to be a face in the crowd for some classes and largely unknown on campus at a large university. Of course you can find clubs and friends at a large university, but often liberal arts colleges have a more personal quality to them. If you want the community feel, a research university may not fit you well. Are you interested in STEM fields? Research universities have that name for a reason – real research is happening there. This can create an exciting atmosphere for students interested in STEM. Attending a research university can give you a better chance of getting into better programs for graduate degrees, although a lot of that depends on your performance.

Is an online college right for me?–

Online colleges are typically the same colleges and universities you could attend in-person, but for certain degree programs the college or unviersity has made the degree programs available to be completed online. For over 5 million students, online degree programs allow students to earn their degrees in the most flexible format available. Online degrees are as respected as the on-campus degrees you could earn from the same schools. There’s usually no distinction between the two degrees, and your degree and transcript will not say that the degree was earned online. Online degree programs are offered by a vast majority of colleges and universities, and the number of offering continues to grow. Whether you are searching for an associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate, there’s a good chance you can earn your degree online from a respectable online college. Are you a self-driven student? Perhaps the hardest aspect of obtaining an online degree is whether you will be disciplined enough to manage your time and course demands. Many online students report that online college made them more disciplined in all areas of their lives, but the flexible, self-paced learning that makes online colleges attractive can often be the same qualities that make it difficult. If you tend to be a procrastinator, you need to be honest with yourself. You can change your habits and propensities, or you can throw money down the drain. Do you need the flexibility of an online degree program? Most online students study online because of time demands of balancing work and life, or because the online college affords them the chance to attend a better school without moving. If you are serious about earning your degree for career advancement, online colleges make it possible. The most flexible options among online degrees are those that are asynchronous, meaning you don’t have scheduled times to meet with your class online. However, many students seek synchronous online degree programs so that they have some structure – set meeting times, scheduled exams, etc. The good news is that attending an online college doesn’t mean you will miss out on getting to know your professors and classmates. In fact, many online students who have experienced both online and on-campus courses report having easier access to their professors. Since most communication with your professor is expected to be in text – via email or your class learning management system – it makes asking your questions easier. The same students also report that they got to better know the thoughts of their classmates. While in-person course conversations can be dominated by a few extroverts, online courses that require online discussions make it so that you see all of your classmates’ thoughts and questions. If you’re interested in an online bachelor’s degree, check out what the best online colleges offer, or search our online degrees for the exact program that interests you. In either case, you will find well respected colleges and universities that offer online degrees.

Best Research Universities for Math Degrees

Q: Is a liberal arts college right for me?–

Often referred to as “teaching colleges” liberal arts colleges put a premium on undergraduate studies and offers a broad range of subjects for students to study. A college of liberal arts typically provides smaller class sizes, more direct engagement with professors, and, most importantly, the opportunity to sample a wide range of subject areas on the way to a bachelor’s degree. Do you want your professors to know you? Liberal arts colleges strive to cultivate campus cultures that encourage tight bonds between professors and students. Professors at these schools will typically conduct original research. Yet the best of these schools offer their faculty reduced teaching loads so that they can both be productive researchers and still have plenty of time for students (both in and outside the classroom). Do you want to feel like you know everybody? One of the most enticing features of a liberal arts college is that in very little time, you can feel like you know who’s who, which can create strong friendships and make walks across campus more fun. While your sports teams may never be on ESPN, it’s more likely that you’ll know the athletes as your peers. Beyond student and faculty relationships, it’s not unusual for the school president and other administrators to learn who you are. When faced with problems with your student account or the need to switch classes, this can be comforting during a stressful moment.

$Badge for BEST FOR MATH RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES$

By Dr. Jed Macosko and Dr. James Barham
Reviewed By Jenn Finley

Updated: Oct 18, 2024

Key Takeaways

We’ve identified the best research universities in the United States that invest heavily in research and provide extensive opportunities for students to participate in research.
The best research universities for math degrees maximize a student’s opportunity to interact with outstanding math faculty.
A math degree from one of the best research universities allow interdisciplinary collaboration and cutting-edge research projects for students.

Earning a bachelor’s degree in math can open numerous professional doors. Majoring in mathematics prepares you for a variety of careers analyzing and interpreting numbers and data, whether real or hypothetical. With a mathematics major, you hone your skills of logic and analysis to organize numbers, find patterns, and predict outcomes. This could suit you to work as a financial planning consultant for private clients, a cost analyst for a major firm, or a statistician for an important public health campaign. Today, top influencers in mathematics are bringing new light to areas like Digital signal processing, Stochastic analysis, Mathematical digital art, Catastrophe theory, and much more.

Table of Contents

Top 10 Research Universities Math Programs in 2025

Harvard University
University of California, Berkeley
+3
Columbia University
+4
Stanford University
University of Chicago
+1
Yale University
+2
Princeton University
–5
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
–5
University of Michigan
+2
New York University
+5

2025 Ranking Update

Our Influence Ranking Engine™ leverages machine learning to track the real-world influence of colleges and universities over time. Below you’ll see which schools gained or lost ground for the 2025 school year.

UC Berkeley climbed 3 positions to the number 3 spot in our 2025 ranking of the best research universities for math degrees. The school created a new “Math Research Initiative,” which offers students access to cutting-edge projects in areas like computational algebra and applied mathematics. The university has also enhanced its Math Lab with state-of-the-art technology.

Columbia University jumped 4 spots to move into the 3rd position this year. The school has expanded undergraduate research opportunites with programs like the Columbia Math Undergraduate Summer Research program (CMUSR), offering in-depth, faculty-guided research experiences. Columbia also encourages interdisciplinary collaboration in areas like applied mathematics and mathematical physics. These collabs allows students to engage in cutting-edge research projects, including string theory, quantum geometry, and financial mathematics.

The best mathematics research universities are those with rich histories of influence, proven through the work produced by the program’s faculty and alumni. Beyond demonstrating scholarly impact in the field, the best math degree programs maximize your opportunities to interact with outstanding math faculty.

A bachelor’s degree in mathematics is an excellent starting point for a career in engineering, public health, economics, and much more. As a mathematics major, you’ll learn statistical analysis, linear algebra, differential equations, and a host of other foundational math subjects. Your mathematics degree will incorporate both theoretical concepts and practical applications in the full array of math sciences, including calculus, geometry, algorithms, and more. The best schools for mathematics are those which are regionally accredited, which offer a full array of mathematics concentrations, and which give you the chance to work with the best and most influential professors and classmates.

Degree popularity: Mathematics bachelor’s degrees are the 41st most popular undergraduate degrees across all student demographics, ranking much higher for men at 27th versus 48th for women. For white and Hispanic men it ranks 28th. It’s most popular among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders men, for whom it ranks the 16th most sought after degree, according to the number of degree earners reported by the National Center for Educational Statistics

How do we determine the best mathematics research universities?

Methodology

The people affiliated with a school are ultimately what make it great. This is why we rank the best colleges and universities based on what we call “Influence”.

The influence of a college or university is based on the schools’s top academic influencers related to the discipline in this ranking. We track the influence of faculty and alumni affiliate with these school counting not only the publications and citations of the school’s affiliated people, but we also consider the overall web presence of the faculty and alumni. The greater the citations, authority of web links, web searches, and page views, the greater the individuals’s influence. Those combined make up the departments’s influence in the field of study. We believe tracking the academic influence of the people affiliated with a school is the best indicator of academic excellence.

If you are serious about finding the best colleges and universities, you should be asking where the most influential professors are teaching, and whether their graduates themselves are advancing the school’s reputation for academic excellence. Most ranking sites rely on an opaque combination of reputation surveys and misused performance metrics. Influence, as measured by our InfluenceRanking engine, provides a ranking that is more insulated from manipulation, and more reflective of real-world educational outcomes.

Featured Programs

Best Research Universities for Math Degrees

Frequently Asked Questions About Math Bachelor’s Degrees

Today, top influencers in mathematics are bringing new light to areas like Digital signal processing, Stochastic analysis, Mathematical digital art, Catastrophe theory, and much more.

Mathematics is a great major because of its versatility. Math majors can work in virtually any sector. Whether your interest is in finance, immigration, or transportation, there’s a math career for you. Mathematics professionals get to dig deep into data and apply their findings to challenges in healthcare, military strategy, space exploration, supply chain management, and so much more. Some math majors work in completely theoretical areas, solving centuries-old problems. Others teach teenagers and adults practical mathematics and advanced ideas. If you’re fascinated by numbers, patterns and shapes, you will likely have many career paths from which to choose.

Once you’ve declared your major in mathematics, you will likely be required to complete a set of core courses in a number of math- and STEM-related subject areas. While your concentration will give you a chance to choose from a wide range of highly-specialized mathematics electives, there are several common courses that most math majors will be required to take, including:

Discrete Mathematics
Differential Equations
Calculus
Algorithms
Linear Algebra
Statistics
Applied Partial Differential Equations
Vector Calculus
Numerical Analysis
Differential Geometry

Earning a degree in mathematics can qualify you for a number of well-paying jobs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the number of jobs for mathematics majors is expected to grow at a dramatic rate of 33% by 2029, which is much faster than the average for all occupations. And earnings are also significantly higher than the average for all occupations, with mathematicians and statisticians earning a median annual wage of $92,030 per year in 2019.

Frequently Asked Questions About Research Universities, Liberal Arts Colleges, Online Colleges

In pursuing a bachelor’s degree, you will need to choose between three kinds of schools: research universities, liberal arts colleges, and online colleges.

Research universities are colleges and universities whose faculty are active in research and publishing. Research universities offer a wide array of doctoral programs, especially in the sciences. They tend to be big, with tens of thousands of students.

Do you prefer a larger university setting, such as largest public university in your state? Research universities are typically big, offering degrees in many different disciplines.

Is a big high-powered research environment the thing for you? If not, you should think about a liberal arts college. In deciding on an undergraduate institution, ask yourself what sort of environment will best help you to be happy and excel.

Consider whether you are self motivated enough to be a face in the crowd for some classes and largely unknown on campus at a large university. Of course you can find clubs and friends at a large university, but often liberal arts colleges have a more personal quality to them. If you want the community feel, a research university may not fit you well.
Are you interested in STEM fields? Research universities have that name for a reason – real research is happening there. This can create an exciting atmosphere for students interested in STEM. Attending a research university can give you a better chance of getting into better programs for graduate degrees, although a lot of that depends on your performance.

Learn more about research universities by reading about the best research universities in the US.

Often referred to as “teaching colleges” liberal arts colleges put a premium on undergraduate studies and offers a broad range of subjects for students to study. A college of liberal arts typically provides smaller class sizes, more direct engagement with professors, and, most importantly, the opportunity to sample a wide range of subject areas on the way to a bachelor’s degree.

Do you want your professors to know you? Liberal arts colleges strive to cultivate campus cultures that encourage tight bonds between professors and students.

Professors at these schools will typically conduct original research. Yet the best of these schools offer their faculty reduced teaching loads so that they can both be productive researchers and still have plenty of time for students (both in and outside the classroom).

Do you want to feel like you know everybody? One of the most enticing features of a liberal arts college is that in very little time, you can feel like you know who’s who, which can create strong friendships and make walks across campus more fun. While your sports teams may never be on ESPN, it’s more likely that you’ll know the athletes as your peers.

Beyond student and faculty relationships, it’s not unusual for the school president and other administrators to learn who you are. When faced with problems with your student account or the need to switch classes, this can be comforting during a stressful moment.

Learn more about liberal arts colleges by reading about the best liberal arts colleges in the US.

If you think a liberal arts college may be a better fit for you, see our ranking of the best liberal arts colleges for a bachelor’s in mathematics.

Online colleges are typically the same colleges and universities you could attend in-person, but for certain degree programs the college or unviersity has made the degree programs available to be completed online. For over 5 million students, online degree programs allow students to earn their degrees in the most flexible format available.

Online degrees are as respected as the on-campus degrees you could earn from the same schools. There’s usually no distinction between the two degrees, and your degree and transcript will not say that the degree was earned online.

Online degree programs are offered by a vast majority of colleges and universities, and the number of offering continues to grow. Whether you are searching for an associate, bachelor’s, master’s, or doctorate, there’s a good chance you can earn your degree online from a respectable online college.

Are you a self-driven student? Perhaps the hardest aspect of obtaining an online degree is whether you will be disciplined enough to manage your time and course demands.

Many online students report that online college made them more disciplined in all areas of their lives, but the flexible, self-paced learning that makes online colleges attractive can often be the same qualities that make it difficult. If you tend to be a procrastinator, you need to be honest with yourself. You can change your habits and propensities, or you can throw money down the drain.

Do you need the flexibility of an online degree program? Most online students study online because of time demands of balancing work and life, or because the online college affords them the chance to attend a better school without moving.

If you are serious about earning your degree for career advancement, online colleges make it possible. The most flexible options among online degrees are those that are asynchronous, meaning you don’t have scheduled times to meet with your class online. However, many students seek synchronous online degree programs so that they have some structure – set meeting times, scheduled exams, etc.

The good news is that attending an online college doesn’t mean you will miss out on getting to know your professors and classmates. In fact, many online students who have experienced both online and on-campus courses report having easier access to their professors.

Since most communication with your professor is expected to be in text – via email or your class learning management system – it makes asking your questions easier. The same students also report that they got to better know the thoughts of their classmates. While in-person course conversations can be dominated by a few extroverts, online courses that require online discussions make it so that you see all of your classmates’ thoughts and questions.

If you’re interested in an online bachelor’s degree, check out what the best online colleges offer, or search our online degrees for the exact program that interests you. In either case, you will find well respected colleges and universities that offer online degrees.

Go to all Research Universities for Mathematics programs

The Best Mathematics Schools in Your State

Learn More About Mathematics

If you want to know more about mathematics, then check out our related content:

Learn how to major in math
Think about your next step and what you can do with a master’s degree in mathematics
Learn more about law from our interviews with influential mathematicians
Find out who are the most influential mathematicians today
Get free math resources online, with an emphasis on BIPOC student needs

Do you have a question about this topic? Ask it here

Best Research Universities for Math Degrees

Key Takeaways

Top 10 Research Universities Math Programs in 2025

2025 Ranking Update

Featured Programs

Best Research Universities for Math Degrees

Last Year’s Ranking:

Career Outlook for Mathematics degree at Harvard University

Most Influential Alumni

Harvard University Math Major:

Career Outlook for Mathematics degree at University of California, Berkeley

Most Influential Alumni

UC Berkeley Math Majors:

Career Outlook for Mathematics degree at Columbia University

Most Influential Alumni

Columbia University Math Major:

Career Outlook for Mathematics degree at Stanford University

Most Influential Alumni

Stanford University Math Major:

Career Outlook for Mathematics degree at University of Chicago

Most Influential Alumni

University of Chicago Math Major:

University of Chicago Math Major Specializations:

Career Outlook for Mathematics degree at Yale University

Most Influential Alumni

Yale University Math Majors:

Career Outlook for Mathematics degree at Princeton University

Most Influential Alumni

Princeton University Math Major:

Career Outlook for Mathematics degree at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Most Influential Alumni

MIT Math Major Concentrations:

Career Outlook for Mathematics degree at University of Michigan

Most Influential Alumni

University of Michigan Math Majors:

Career Outlook for Mathematics degree at New York University

Most Influential Alumni

NYU Math Major:

Career Outlook for Mathematics degree at Cornell University

Most Influential Alumni

Cornell University Math Major:

Career Outlook for Mathematics degree at University of Pennsylvania

Most Influential Alumni

University of Pennsylvania Math Majors/Concentrations:

Career Outlook for Mathematics degree at University of California, Los Angeles

Most Influential Alumni

UCLA Math Majors:

Career Outlook for Mathematics degree at Johns Hopkins University

Most Influential Alumni

JHU Math Major:

Career Outlook for Mathematics degree at California Institute of Technology

Most Influential Alumni

CalTech Math Major:

Career Outlook for Mathematics degree at Duke University

Most Influential Alumni

Duke University Math Majors:

Career Outlook for Mathematics degree at University of Southern California

Most Influential Alumni

USC Math Majors:

Career Outlook for Mathematics degree at University of Texas at Austin

Most Influential Alumni

UT Austin Math Majors:

Career Outlook for Mathematics degree at University of Washington

Most Influential Alumni

University of Washington Math Majors:

Career Outlook for Mathematics degree at Northwestern University

Most Influential Alumni

Northwestern University Math Major:

Career Outlook for Mathematics degree at Carnegie Mellon University

Most Influential Alumni

CMU Math Major Concentrations:

Career Outlook for Mathematics degree at Brown University

Most Influential Alumni

Brown University Math Majors:

Career Outlook for Mathematics degree at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Most Influential Alumni

UNC Chapel Hill Math Majors:

Career Outlook for Mathematics degree at University of Notre Dame

Most Influential Alumni

University of Notre Dame Math Major Concentrations: