I’m going to be entering University this upcoming fall as a freshman, and I already know I want to get my degree in mathematics. I’m reasonably certain that I’ll pursue a PhD in mathematics after I graduate, and as of right now I’m interested in doing research as a professor in a more pure area of math… However I feel like I should add a major or minor in something else, since jobs in academia seem to becoming more scarce and I wouldn’t want to he left with no applicable skills if I changed my mind about being a professor. My interests are STEM oriented, so if I added something it’d be either chemistry, computer science, or physics. I’m heavily leaning towards computer science, because I think it’d be interesting and the programming skills could be applicable to what I do in the future, but majoring in it in addition would potentially cause me to struggle with a 4 year graduation and would also prevent me from focusing solely on mathematics. So I guess my real questions are: Would doing something in a field like Comp Sci help with employment? Would it be necessary to double major or are minors sufficient? How would graduate math programs see me if I had to devote less time to math for something like computer science, and would the skills I learned in comp sci be /that/ useful for me if I do end up in academia?
I know I’ve got a lot of questions, but thanks in advance for any advice, personal experiences, etc
As many others on these boards will agree, a second major is rarly worth it if you must take more than 4 years to complete. If it were me or my kids, I’d drop that from consideration.
A minor might make sense but I’m a little confused trying to reconcile your desire to do pure math research with wanting another subject for employability. If you want to do pure math, by which I assume you mean more theoretical math, taking more math classes seems like the better option, combined with some undergraduate research. If you want more applied math, then a minor in physics or computer science might make sense, if you can do it within 4 years.
I don’t work in an academic environment so I would yield my opinion to someone with that direct experience. But I would strongly recommend the thoughts above as a starting position for determining what you want to do.
I still enjoy the other subjects I listed greatly, and the taking a 2nd major for employability is because I don’t want to get to junior or senior year and realize I don’t want to do pure math research, but then not have any other sort of skills fall back on.
The second scenario would be me completing a PhD in pure math and then trying to get a job doing research, but being inable to find one due to the competitiveness of academia right now… In which case I’d hope to use my other degree to help me find a different job, but something I’d enjoy at least.
I wouldn’t take more than 4 years if I did double major, I just would have to take summer courses (possibly). The more math classes thing is a concern for me and at the same time it’s not - I kind of want to take as many math classes as I can, but even so I’ve finished so many undergrad math courses even before going to college that I’d likely end up with a BA and MA in mathematics even while double majoring in something else
It sounds like you have already decided on the second major, which is fine. Pick one and go for it. I’m not against them, in fact my son is planning on a double major (or really a dual degree for those picky about the distinction). But he is doing it more for personal interest than employability.
As for employability, the math degree will still open a lot of doors. I’m aware that academic jobs are tough to get, as my S was briefly considering that path as well, but I can’t speak to how much an extra major/minor would help there. But in the business world there are a lot of options for a math major. If you like programming, a compuer science minor would probably help a lot. Not sure about physics or chemistry, others would need to add opinions there.
As an example, a few years ago I hired a person with a math bachelor degree. While my pisition was for an IT project manager, she started off her career in various programming positions and eventually worked her way into management. Don’t recall if she had a minor or not. But math sets you up for things like programming, as well as other fields. You don’t really need a double major for employability.
If just a math degree would still allow me to be employable, then I’d rather focus around that to prepare myself for graduate and then professional studies of mathematics. My parents just tell me that they think I’d be best double majoring, but hey they probably aren’t the most knowledgeable about that stuff so maybe I’ll just devote myself to math
If you major in math, then math courses will probably be up to about half of the courses you will take as an undergraduate. General education requirements will cover some of the rest of your courses, but then you will still have free electives that you can use to take anything you want (note that some non-math courses may also apply to general education requirements).
You can certainly take some CS courses among your free electives to get an idea of what it is like and whether that can be an acceptable backup plan for you. In addition, some areas of CS are useful for math (consider the use of computers in the proof of the four color theorem), and some can be considered types of math (e.g. complexity theory, cryptography).
Other common “backup subjects” for math majors include statistics and economics/finance.
So I think my current goal is to focus almost entirely on math - if I do that I’ll graduate in 4 years with a Master’s in math and even a few courses beyond, I think. I want to take a few comp sci courses just to get programming down, and might end up minoring in that - the other 2 subjects I think I’ll have to see how much room I’d have, but hopefully I’ll be able to take some more courses in those as electives.