<p>Need advise from others who have knowledge about these courses-</p>
<p>My child has taken 19900 and does not seem to be doing well in it. She says while she understands the material, she does not seem to have the skills to put the proof in writing.</p>
<p>She wants to give up any Analysis in Rn courses that she would have taken for any of the majors she was keen on- Econ or statistics. </p>
<p>Instead she thinks it is better to go for Computer science courses which have minor math role. She seems to be doing well in her Computer science class.</p>
<p>However, I wanted to know - what is a respectable math grade? How much will they matter in the whole scheme of things? They are only 3 or 4 courses- a student will probably take 40-50 courses over 4 years. </p>
<p>Are the other math courses in statistics major as hard as the ones likely to be in Analysis classes?</p>
<p>Does anyone have any idea about the recruiting for CS majors at UChicago?</p>
<p>I would not like for her to decide her major based on her grade on math alone. She has always been a great student- but maths at Chicago seems to have shaken her up. </p>
<p>Hi Dipali. I can answer some but not all of your questions.</p>
<p>(1) The statistics major has two different core math requirements, each of which can be fulfilled by three different options. The first is the multivariate calculus requirement, which can be fulfilled by MATH 200-201, a completely computational class, or the (Honors) Analysis in Rn sequence. MATH 200-201 is around the same difficulty as the regular Analysis in Rn sequence, while Honors Analysis is more difficult than both. The second requirement is linear algebra, which can be fulfilled by STAT 243, an applied linear algebra class, or the first two quarters of the (Honors) Abstract Algebra sequence in the math department. I have taken both STAT 243 and Honors Algebra, and the latter is slightly harder. You can thus finish a statistics major without doing any proof-focused classes.</p>
<p>(2) The computer science major requires ~4 proof-based classes. I think these are comparable in difficulty to Analysis in Rn.</p>
<p>(3) Around 30-40% of the grades in most math classes are As. The median is usually a B or B+.</p>
<p>(4) I do not think her performance in one class will matter in the “grand scheme of things”, and I don’t think it’s a good way to choose a major. I and many others I know have done just that at some point, and we’ve all regretted it.</p>
<p>(5) I have taken some of the other courses required for the statistics major, and they contained very few proofs. I enjoyed all of them.</p>
<p>(6) Your daughter will probably have the urge to do the exact opposite of what you tell her .</p>
<p>Here is the statistics-major page of the college catalog. It provides lots of detailed information. Let me know if you have any other questions!</p>
<p>Discrete Mathematics, Theory of Algorithms, and either Intro to Formal Languages or Intro to Complexity Theory are all required, and all are proof-based classes. I said ~4 since many of the electives are proof-based. More details can be found in the link below.</p>
<p>If she is in the honors analysis in RN…that is a highly theoretical course. It took it and in retrospect if she is not completely devoted to mathematics, she can probably find challenging but s bit more practical math classes. I would not fret over dropping that class if it is not for her…</p>
<p>199 is not Honors Analysis. It’s one version of the gateway course for post-calculus mathematics at Chicago, designed for people who took non-proof-based calculus courses or are otherwise not strong on proof methodology. The way the requirements are structured, no one who takes 199 would ever take Honors Analysis.</p>
<p>It’s precisely because of that gateway function that the OP’s question is important. Not completing 199 (or the equivalent) would significantly limit a student’s options for taking advanced math courses at Chicago.</p>
<p>The OP should be aware, however, that it is certainly possible to complete an Economics major without taking Math 199 or the equivalent, or any proof-based upper-level math courses. (I don’t think the same can be said about Statistics.) That’s not a good path to take if you want to get a PhD in Economics someday, but it’s a path taken by a fairly large percentage of the hundreds of Economics BAs the University of Chicago unleashes on the world each June.</p>
<p>Correcting the above, according to waddingnarwhal above you can complete a Statistics major without higher-level proof-based math courses, too.</p>
<p>You have to distinguish between what the Chicago faculty thinks students SHOULD do and what they REQUIRE students to do. There’s little question the Economics department (and many other departments with a strong quantitative focus) thinks that students SHOULD acquire a strong background in proof-based mathematics, but far from all of their students do that. As best I can determine, only about 300 students per class either complete or place out of Math 163 or Math 199. More than 150 of those are Math or Physics majors (some of whom may be doubling with Economics or Statistics). Among Math, Physics, and Econ, however, there are something like 450 unique students per class. . . and not everyone who qualifies for higher level math courses is majoring in Math, Physics, or Econ. The bottom line is that no more than half of Econ majors has taken Math 163, 199, or a higher-level math course.</p>
<p>I am curious about this JHS- from what I understand -UChicago is big on theoretical math compared to a lot of comparable schools. UChicago is not the only school churning out PHD’s in economics. How about other schools- how do their students deal with math when they go for a Phd in Economics?</p>
<p>I think pretty much every well-regarded Economics department expects its PhD students to have a very, very strong math background. For undergraduates, one way or another they tend to offer the option of a math-heavy track that would prepare them for a PhD program or a much less math-heavy track that would be fine for what 99% of undergraduates want to do with their Economics degrees.</p>
<p>If you look at the University of Chicago course catalog, the Economics Department actually recommends that students who plan to pursue a doctorate in Economics major not in Economics but in a Math Department option called Math with Specialization in Economics. Apart from that, they advise such students generally to take as much math as possible.</p>
<p>But most students majoring in Economics don’t plan to be professional economists. They don’t want a PhD, they want a good job, and maybe later a JD or an MBA, or a master’s degree in some specific field where they are establishing themselves. They want to go into business, or finance, or law, or investing, or politics. The number of people in those fields who have any working knowledge of linear algebra or topology, say, is relatively tiny. No one asks them to model the effect of changes in various money supply measures on bond futures or currency swaps, or the dynamics of wheat/rice substitution in Asian consumer diets. Apart from the world of quantitative securities trading strategists, most of the non-STEM world gets by fine without advanced math.</p>
<p>The difference between Chicago and other universities is that, at least until recently, Chicago did not have a separate Applied Math program, and its applied math options within the regular Math major were relatively unpopular (except for Math with Specialization in Economics) and differed comparatively little from the non-applied options. For example, last year Harvard awarded 29 degrees in math, and 66 in applied math. The equivalent numbers at Chicago were 123 and 2. But at an advanced level, applied math is also plenty theoretical, and I am certain Applied Math majors are expected to be conversant with proof methodology.</p>
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