im at a community college and planning to transfer next year (hopefully to ucsd or ucsb) and realizing its gonna be hard to complete the degree in two years because of all the lower division engineering requirements that my community college does not offer. So im thinking about changing to applied math. Ive always loved math and hated chemistry, and thought physics was okay. Is applied math a useful degree? Advice please?
Yes, applied math is a fine degree and it usually allows for a minor that you could take in finance or computer science, either of which will help you get a very good job after graduation in the financial industry.
I like the idea. The very first job might not be as glamorous as the EE or ME grads, but it’s really beneficial to have a couple people in a group who approach problems in a different way from everyone else.
It might (stress: MIGHT) be possible to get a graduate engineering degree with an applied math undergrad. There will probably be some prerequisites, but I’ve known a couple people to do that.
Many of the good jobs that applied math majors take are in finance, actuarial, or computing areas. Obviously, appropriate in-major and out-of-major elective choices can matter, and you also need to be willing and interested in those kinds of jobs.
From applied math to graduate study in engineering is probably most doable in industrial or computer engineering, though it depends on what in-major and out-of-major electives you take as an undergraduate.