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How good is Minnesota for numerical PDEs?

Posted: Sun Mar 03, 2013 5:03 pm
by elektron1999
I am interested to know. What do you think about Minnesota for Numerical PDEs? How do you think it compares to other top schools in this particular field? (for example Michigan or UT Austin)

Personally, I think Minnesota is probably #1 (or top 3) in the US for numerical PDEs, but this may be just my opinion. I based this opinion on citation counts, faculty size for this area, the IMA institute, etc, etc.

Please tell me what you think, and how would you rank Minnesota.
I know the " general prestige " of the school is not so "top"; do you think this is important? (for academic jobs after graduation)
I know US news ranks it #6 for applied math, but I am not sure who should I really listen to.

At the end, I know the decision depends on "fit" and not on rankings, but I just want to know what is the opinion of the general public. Thanks!

Re: How good is Minnesota for numerical PDEs?

Posted: Mon Mar 04, 2013 11:41 am
by ParsleyX
I have no idea. Sorry so many people have visited and not provided input.

Re: How good is Minnesota for numerical PDEs?

Posted: Mon Mar 04, 2013 1:32 pm
by tvboomer
As an undergraduate at the U of MN (Go Gophers!) who has done some research at the IMA in numerical PDEs, I have a very high opinion of the department and its staff. The IMA is a great facility (with newly renovated offices and first floor of the building) with friendly and intelligent faculty, as well as a number of new and well-kept computers. The proximity to the supercomputing institute would also certainly be a boon, in the event you have extremely high complexity computations to perform; and there are many yearly conferences that take place that bring in some of the birghtest minds from across the country. Furthermore, there are some very bright (and fairly young) minds studying dynamical systems and differential equations here, so there should be a good number of people to bounce ideas off of.

The only downside to the U, in my opinion, is the state of the mathematics building itself (Vincent Hall). It is rather old and hasn't seen any significant renovations in quite some time, outside of the occasional new paint job. The math library it houses is fairly substantive, though, and the building isn't exactly in disrepair. In all, the U is a great program; although I have little to compare it to, I sincerely doubt you would regret attending if you have a great interest in numerical PDEs.

Re: How good is Minnesota for numerical PDEs?

Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2013 9:16 am
by m_s
I too have heard ( mainly from my professor) that it is a great place for numerical pdes,but apart from the ranking you have mentioned, I couldn't find any other regarding its applied math rank.. I am seriously considering this place, but I was concerned about the impact of its low total ranking when later searching for an academic position. I am also thinking of UBC,Carnegie and UMD.. Any thoughts?

Re: How good is Minnesota for numerical PDEs?

Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2013 9:29 am
by math_applicant
m_s wrote: but I was concerned about the impact of its low total ranking
What do you mean by total ranking ? you mean the overall ranking of the math department or the whole university ? I am asking because US news ranking puts the Minnesota math department at rank 18 overall unless by "low" you mean lower than top 15 ??

as for question, you could try the NRC ranking on phds.org , they have a ranking for applied math departments and separate from the math departments ranking.

Re: How good is Minnesota for numerical PDEs?

Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2013 9:36 am
by m_s
I meant the QS ranking, that puts it on 49 I think.. I personally do not consider even top 50 as "low",let alone top 25,but I do not know how things work on the academics regarding what they consider as "low".. :?
Thanx for the info!