<p>I love math and may want to major in it during undergraduate. I was just wondering where can I go from there? Get my masters in math? PhD? Am i able to get masters in a different field? What kind of jobs could I get right out of school? or would I need to have a masters or PhD or something?</p>
<p>i'm lost and would love some help lol</p>
<p>Obviously the MA and PhD are options if you find out you want to teach at the college level. A master’s in secondary or elementary education is also a popular option for teaching. If you want to do business, an MBA is an option, as is going to work as an actuary right out of undergrad. A math degree is not limiting at all, you have numerous options in the private sector.</p>
<p>AMS (American Mathematical Society) provides a lot of useful info for HS and college students contemplating math majors and/or investigating potential careers. Try these links to its website:</p>
<p>[What</a> Do Mathematicians Do](<a href=“http://www.ams.org/employment/whatmathematiciansdo.html]What”>AMS :: What Do Mathematicians Do)</p>
<p>[Careers</a> and Employment](<a href=“http://www.ams.org/employment]Careers”>AMS :: Employment Services)</p>
<p>majoring in Applied Mathematics might provide better job opportunities with just bachelor’s degree, though I’m not sure… >:x Also look into becoming an actuary if you’re interested in working for insurance companies.</p>
<p>Here are some options:</p>
<p>1) actuary – things to do with risk management. A math major with knowledge of things like statistics and some programming is probably best equipped, and a graduate degree isn’t really part of the culture. Rather, you take lots of exams after college and passing them lets you get to a higher position.</p>
<p>2) financial maths in general – there are master’s programs in this. Check out, for example, that of UChicago, which is very good I think. Very competitive to get into, requires a maths or other technical degree, familiarity in basic things like linear algebra, calculus, basic analysis, stochastic processes, and some programming helps again. Work experience is usually a huge plus to get into these programs. A graduate degree in a technical field can help.</p>
<p>3) engineering – you can choose to major in engineering as well or take some classes alongside the maths concentration and go on to do a graduate degree that trains you in mathematical modeling or something. Operations Research uses plenty of mathematics. Things like optimization techniques, if you’re interested. EE’s signal processing is structured so that you study signals and systems at my school; the signals are functions, and the system is some kind of space of functions on which there are operators. This obviously lends itself to linear algebraic language. </p>
<p>4) computer science – plenty of mathematics goes into algorithms. </p>
<p>5) research mathematician – go to get a PhD and then become an expert in some area of mathematics, with the goal to solve the current problems in the field. For this, use undergrad to get a very solid exposure to different topics in maths in order to have strong background to decide what you want to contribute to most in the future. You have to know a TON of different things to be able to tread this path realistically, because seeing the connections among different fields is one of the only ways you can solve problems people might care about.</p>
<p>6) maths teacher – pure teaching.</p>
<p>7) law school – maths folk are very strong in logical reasoning and assuming you don’t mind reading, you’ll be able to ace the LSAT and get into a good law school. Someone I know did it. </p>
<p>… I’m sure there are more, but this is a good start and lists many plausible tracks.</p>
<p>Thanks for your post, mathboy. I’m planning to major in applied math so I can take economics, finance and philosophy classes, but the parents (who are financing the education) want me to do an operations research/financial engineering type major because according to them, “you can only become a teacher with a math degree.” It probably doesn’t occur to them that the backup option for OR is to work at UPS/DHL.</p>
<p>Do you know of any other attractive backup options (for applied math) besides the ones you already listed? </p>
<p>Basically
(1) is my backup if I don’t get into finance straight out of undergrad,
(2) is more in line with what I am looking for, but I’m hoping I don’t need an MSFM to get there.
(3) and (4) are out of the question because I can’t stand “normal” engineering jobs, not even OR at some supply chain place. Severely dislike programming as well.
(5) is too much of a time investment, not enough payoff.
(6) I hate teaching.
(7) I’m thinking about, but that involves more bills for law school.</p>
<p>ShruggingSheep -</p>
<p>The real question is, why are you interested in maths? My philosophy is that if you answer that for yourself, the career option for you will become clear. If you don’t like standard engineering jobs, there’s plenty of engineering/OR/biology research that requires strong applied maths background. Among the options I listed, you’re really covered – if you actually find the applied maths stuff a good fit for you, you will succeed in some career I listed. </p>
<p>Your parents will come around if you explain to them the situation carefully; perhaps they are foreigners and are unaware that the scope of a maths degree in the U.S. is much greater than in many foreign nations.</p>
<p>My advice to you is that if financial maths careers do not work out for you, keep your eye open for where you can use maths. You must have the ability to do some basic programming for many of the options, though this doesn’t mean a “standard programming” job by any means. Programming will just be a medium to realize the fruits of some of your maths ideas. If you are open like this, you will find people who need your skills, but they may very well be in engineering, etc, though not at all necessarily standard jobs.</p>
<p>I think I like math because it’s basically theoretical problem solving. I really wish to avoid any position that deals with the manufacturing/production of a physical good, so even stuff like OR simulation for a plant or supply chain sounds unappealing. </p>
<p>I’m leaning more towards the services side (finance, actuary, consulting, maybe law). Are there any good backup options for applied math major in those kinds of service sectors?</p>
<p>If math is your passion then I hope you considering teaching. Americans are falling behind in math and we need teachers who have a passion for what they do so do consider teaching as an option.</p>
<p>You could also (if you want an alternate path) take the pre-reqs for Masters in Accounting or another business field and get a masters (e.g. MPA). Your math skills well be very attractive to employers.</p>
<p>Assuming you can get cleared, the NSA hires many mathematicians as cryptographers. They have summer internships that might help you figure out if this interests you.</p>
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<p>Honestly, there is a lot of demand for people with skills in those sectors, so I’m not quite sure what you mean by “backup,” but going through the training necessary for this stuff or even trying it will tell you whether you’re in good shape for a career in it. So just develop the skills necessary and you will be fine – sort of like with anything else.</p>
<p>I caution you, though, that if you do not like applying maths with the express aim of producing a product, you may not like it with the express aim of providing a service. In both cases, you will be restricted as to what kind of maths you want to use. Solving actual theoretical problems that meet your fancy is called academia :D</p>
<p>Computational Math major here…software engineering for 20 years.</p>