<p>I'm seriously interested in this major.Math major seems to be one of the best majors for undergraduate students.Math is widely used in almost all the disciplines.I am surprised that so few people here are interested in math major.</p>
<p>But I am not good at math(this is a very serious problem),I am not sure whether I can handle math major later.</p>
<p>If you're not good at math, then don't major at math. You won't survive.</p>
<p>Plus, more than likely, you've only done high school math, and if you have trouble with that, just wait til you get to college math. You'll have to do many proofs and work with many abstract ideas. If you've taken AP Calculus, your teacher may have shown you some delta-epsilon proofs. Now imagine that the delta-epsilon stuff is expanded to be in about 80% of proofs in a course and you have to understand and <em>gasp</em> produce these proofs yourself. This is real analysis, and pretty much every college requires it for math majors. Do you really want to put yourself through this if you're not good at math?</p>
<p>Here's a preview of some (rather elementary, I might add) real analysis material:</p>
<p>Hopefully I've scared you enough.</p>
<p>Think about it. If you're "not good at math," do you really want to struggle through at least 10 higher-level math classes (minimum requirement for a math major)?</p>
<p>Are you interested in math becaue it's good/prestigious for a variety of jobs or because you like the subject? I agree with the previous posters. Phuriku is spot-on about proofs. If you want a job using math, you might also consider accounting or finance, which are not as proof-based.</p>
<p>......seriously if your not good at math don't major in it, you WILL fail out.</p>
<p>and idk were you got the idea that math leads you to tons of good prestigious jobs, it doesn't you can go to various grad schools with it, like law or med. those lead to obvious careers, you can teach, or you can work for the NSA, the single biggest employer of math majors, aside from the you can do anything with it beside know that your smarter than everyone else around you.</p>
<p>er...actually I have learned calculus.I am also aware that delta-epsilon proofs can be very difficult,that's why I'm reluctant.</p>
<p>I'm not trying to do a job which needs math.I just happen to find that most jobs I'm interested in require a lot of math materials(engineering,finance....etc).</p>
<p>The math major is probably the best major if you want to get into a scientific field but are undecided on what that field could be. You can get a job in pretty much anything that involves quantitative analysis, and if you're interested in graduate school, it can lead a lot of places.</p>
<p>This, however, is no reason to major in it if you don't like it or are not skilled in it.</p>
<p>maybe it's a better idea to take extra math courses(more than required) while major in something else like engineering?</p>
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I'm not trying to do a job which needs math.I just happen to find that most jobs I'm interested in require a lot of math materials(engineering,finance....etc).
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<p>So you are trying to do a job which needs math.</p>
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maybe it's a better idea to take extra math courses(more than required) while major in something else like engineering?
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<p>Do what you want to do. Which major fits your interests the best and will lead you to a job that you will enjoy in the future? And after you've narrowed that list down, which ones of those are you capable of doing?</p>
<p>Epsilon-delta proofs...Phuriku, I realize that most people never see a math proof, but I don't think epsilon-delta proofs are a very good example. Here's one!! It's Ramsey-theory-ish!</p>
<p>Theorem: Say you're at a party with six people (including yourself). There's either a group of three people who all know each other, or a group of three people are all strangers to each other. (You can assume there aren't any stalkers at the party.)</p>
<p>Proof: Let's take one person, any person in particular, call her Alice. Either Alice knows at least three other people, or there are at least three strangers to that person. (Think about that line and see why it's true before you move on.) Let's say it's the first case, that Alice knows three people at the party; let's call them Bob, Cathy, and Dave. Now, if any two of those three people know each other -- let's say it's Bob and Dave -- then we have three people who all know each other: Alice, Bob, and Dave, and we're done. But if NO two of those people know each other, then Bob, Cathy, and Dave are all strangers, and we're done. If there are at least three strangers to Alice, then you use a parallel argument to do the same thing.</p>
<p>If you liked that, you'd make a good math major. If you didn't, you may still like an applied math major or just a mostly-applied math major.</p>
<p>What? That's nothing like what you'll be doing as a math major. The mathematician doesn't even have the attention span to read that.</p>
<p>Trust me, I'm a math major.</p>
<p>Phuriku, what the CRAP? You've never taken a Combinatorics class, then, I take it.</p>
<p>Combinatorics is applied mathematics, buddy. Computer scientists take it. Mathematicians do not (unless they have a specific interest in it).</p>
<p>Wikipedia article on combinatorics, first line: Combinatorics is a branch of pure mathematics concerning the study of discrete (and usually finite) objects.</p>
<p>applied math will be fine.I don't want to study pure math,instead,I hope I can use math in my life and career.</p>
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Wikipedia article on combinatorics, first line: Combinatorics is a branch of pure mathematics concerning the study of discrete (and usually finite) objects.
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<p>If you want to go that way, a quick google search brings you:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.math.miami.edu/grad/applied.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.math.miami.edu/grad/applied.htm</a></p>
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Most of our faculty members are active in research that involves applied mathematics, including combinatorics, computational mathematics, dynamical systems, general relativity, linear and nonlinear analysis, mathematical biology, numerical analysis, ordinary and partial differential equations, and probability and statistics.
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<p><a href="http://math.mit.edu/applied/faculty.html%5B/url%5D">http://math.mit.edu/applied/faculty.html</a></p>
<p>As you can see from this link, there are a lot of "applied mathematics" research interests among the MIT faculty, and combinatorics is often listed.</p>
<p>I wonder which one is the good math class that sort of makes people realize</p>
<p>1) "Wow, I really like this subject! I think I want to become a math major!", or
2) "Gawd! I hate this class, and I hate math! I think I'm going to become a dance major instead!"</p>
<p>Right now, I'm a freshman at a college, and I have done well on all of the math classes up to the calculus class I took over this summer in college. I'm pretty interested in math, but I don't know that if I want to major in it... yet.</p>
<p>I don't think you can really get to know how real math classes go if you just take high school courses or community college courses. Like I said earlier, college math is so much different from high school math.</p>
<p>Yeah, and that's why I was wondering if there's any class that I can "get to know how real math classes go" that I can take in my earlier years of my college life.</p>
<p>phuriku, you should have pointed out that some college math entails trivial exercises and concepts that are not rigorous at all. I'd say that only beyond a certain course level (Multivariable Calculus, Linear Algebra, etc.) will you see proofs being practiced in an open, free-response style essay and answers being formulated upon hours and hours of critical problem solving and just all-around hardcore thinking. At that point, the days of numerical SAT-like answers and mathematical application of basic concepts (such as in Precalculus/Calculus) will be long gone.</p>
<p>I encourage you to try something along the lines of Real Analysis, Topology, Abstract Algebra, or maybe even Differential Geometry just to get a feel of something rigorous. Go try Real Analysis - I think it can give you that feel for whether or not you can handle becoming a math major.</p>