<p>Wondering which math track would be most appropriate for a CS major.</p>
<p>Department</a> of Mathematics < The University of Alabama</p>
<p>What would be the best track for:</p>
<ol>
<li>Engineering</li>
<li>Business (Quant)</li>
<li>Not sure.</li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I’m double majoring in Industrial Engineering (with focus in OR) and in CS. That would be similar to doing CS and Applied Math under the Optimization track. </p>
<p>Most appropriate would likely be whatever the student is most interested in however.</p>
<p>Will your son have enough space in his CS sequenced schedule to fit in the classes for a math major?</p>
<p>Applied Math works well for engineering. Some people who only have Applied Math degrees get hired as engineering at aerospace companies.</p>
<p>Math courses in algebra and number theory would be helpful if the CS interest is cryptography.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids, he’s coming in with 36 college credits so double majoring shouldn’t be a problem.</p>
<p>My son is majoring in computer science/applied math at Brown, which is a single combo degree. He’s also considering a second major in physics. He’s ultimately interested in starting his own video game company and the math and physics knowledge is useful in creating realistic action.</p>
<p>But he’s also keeping his options open for the early years after graduation. In the applied math area, I think a strong background in advanced statistics is very useful for the business community. The opportunities for large companies to do sophisticated data-mining with its customer data is only really beginning.</p>
<p>For a CS major?
Applied mathematics - scientific computing track
Applied mathematics - optimization track</p>
<p>For engineering?
Applied mathematics - scientific computing track</p>
<p>For business?
Applied mathematics - optimization track</p>
<p>Not sure?
Hard to say. A CS major should avoid pure/classical tracks. The statistics track is generally useful regardless of what STEM field you study and what job you end up getting.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids, he’s coming in with 36 college credits so double majoring shouldn’t be a problem.</p>
<p>That may be so, but it may depend on what those credits are for. That said, both of my kids came in with over 40 credits, but I’m not sure that the ChemE son could have fit in a double major. </p>
<p>Have you laid out all the requirements semester by semester, year by year? And since Math is in A&S, will he have to complete all the A&S Core as well?</p>
<p>Not sure what additonal core courses are required for a math major. It looks like he has to take 5 math classes in additon to the math classes required for CS.</p>
<p>He took 2 dual enrollment classes which can be used for elective credit and 5 AP classes (Chem, Bio, Calc, US Hist, Computer Science). His school only has 120 student, so his options were limited. He self-studied for 2 of the AP exams. Also, foreign languages aren’t his thing so he wasn’t able to goose his credits there.</p>
<p>He’s in the STEM MBA program too, so we’ll see if he has time to fit it all in.</p>
<p>Mrs. Turbo double majored as an undergrad in Comp Sci (heavy duty math option) and Statistics. Considering how important Big Data / Analytics is, and how useful stats is for this, it may be worthwhile. She topped it off with an MS Applied Statistics and another degree in Industrial Engineering. </p>
<p>She’s not the numerical analysis type wiz, more the corporate IT / business analytics type, but statistics and data visualization skills come very handy in the business world. </p>
<p>Also consider stats if you plan grad school in business analytics. A friend’s wife is doing MS Analytics and the stats requirements are quite serious, a lot more than the “Mary had a little data” features one would expect. We’re doing a super Big Data project at work right now and have to use inference to determine usage patterns and again statistics is very handy.</p>
<p>Still, for engineering work nothing beats good ole’ Applied Math type stuff, or for finance/business type stuff the quantative / OR stuff. Good areas all, just pick what you’d like to do.</p>
<p>I’m actually in the business quant space.</p>
<p>It really depends on what he wants to do, engineering would mean take more calculus and optimization classes, business/big data would be more statistics, though if he gets into something like market risk the calculus (esp stochastic) comes back.</p>
<p>If business-</p>
<p>I would concentrate on blowing out one major and minoring in the others. A 3.5-3.7 double major doesn’t look as good as a 3.8-4.0 single major. Obviously I’m partial to math/stat. VBA and basic programming will get you as far as you ever need to go; most business programming is just relational database manipulation anyway.</p>
<p>Alabama does not have the best recruiting from there, but the top students at any school will always do well. Big internships will be key to landing the big bank/analytics job out of undergrad.</p>
<p>An MBA in this space(and I’d argue any space, but I’m familiar with this one) without experience is a waste of time. 3-4 years quant work + a top 20 MBA however is a very, very competitive candidate.</p>
<p>Also, in this space, people forget academics only get you so far. Business and the real world is mostly about interpersonal relationships and how you carry yourself. Make sure your son works on speaking clearly and confidently and presenting himself well. Tons of 4.0’s from top schools don’t get jobs in the quant world because they neglected developing socially. If he’s more of the academic type, engineering is definitely the route to pursue.</p>
<p>Thanks, I’ll PM you, but one of the things that really impressed me about Alabama is that they really seem to work with the kids on their soft skills.</p>
<p>He’s interning at a local educational software company and when we were doing college visits, I had him describe the work he was doing.</p>
<p>We toured 5 universities on our southern trip and I saw him get better each time. On the last visit, a CS prof offered him a job/research opportunity on the spot.</p>
<p>I’m in tech and my soft skills have probably held me back a bit, so I recognize the importance.</p>
<p>He got into “better” schools, but we liked what UA had to offer.</p>
<p>I just started posting after lurking for a cousin of mine(great info on here) so I’m not sure I can get PMs yet.</p>
<p>And trust me, I went to the University of South Carolina- I don’t give one patoot about ‘better’ schools. I work with people who spent 5 to 20x what I did on education and ended up in the same job- it’s just a bit harder to get connections for us SEC folk. I’m surrounded by UMich, ND, Carnegie Mellon, MIT and the iveys. </p>
<p>The internships and experience got me the interviews at the big banks, but the interviewing skills got me the job (~4 years ago)</p>
<p>Educational software is a great internship, looks like he’s on the right path already.</p>
<p>
[quote]
He’s in the STEM MBA program too, so we’ll see if he has time to fit it all in.
[quote]
</p>
<p>My son planned to double major in Math/CS and do University Scholars for his masters in CS in 4 years. </p>
<p>At the end of this year, he has decided a minor in math is more than good enough. As he built his 4 year plan, he realized that he would have very heavy classes. He wantsto make sure that he does well in his classes, and has time to get involved in other activities as well. And complete a few internships. </p>
<p>Work with your son to lay out a proposed 4 year plan with all of the credits. It was pretty eye opening to see how heavy those semesters would be. </p>
<p>He entered UA with over 70 credits.</p>