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<p>Caltech is simply too small a school for me to feel comfortable. </p>
<p>I am not completely mathematically inexperienced or stupid, but I am still no genius. By the time I graduate I will have five courses beyond Calc BC, only three of which are proof-based and only one at the graduate / advanced undergraduate level. AoPS and other threads on here say that everyone in the class is former MOP and have taken at a minimum courses in abstract algebra, real and complex analysis, number theory, point-set and algebra topology, etc., some of which I haven’t done even independently beyond an introductory level. I am total math nerd and try to spend my day doing math and would like to do nothing more, but I am bound to being an undesirable “math major (lite)” because I am neither smart enough nor experienced enough to not meet serious resistance at the suggestion of taking a course like Math 55. If I have to fall back on consulting, which is what it seems all this is pointing to, it will not be the end of the world, but if I could I would love to be in rigorous mathematics courses for four years if for nothing else but the fun of it. If that was what I really wanted to do or would not be severely disappointed if that was where I ended up, I would be more interested in finding an easy major and doing closer to the minimum academically just to maintain a high GPA. Would doing a weak math major even be feasible or just simply frowned upon? Would I be looking at a GPA so low that I couldn’t even get a consulting or investment banking job if I wanted to? And based on how everyone is receiving me, I obviously lack the personal qualities needed for jobs that so heavily rely on personality. </p>
<p>Comp sci major at a state school, here I come. :(</p>