Feeling like I've made a terrible mistake

Transfer Students
1

<p>I keep feeling like I've made a terrible mistake: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-life/1665712-totally-screwed-need-some-advice.html"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-life/1665712-totally-screwed-need-some-advice.html&lt;/a> and <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/transfer-students/1667506-i-quite-literally-threw-the-next-year-into-the-trash-advice.html"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/transfer-students/1667506-i-quite-literally-threw-the-next-year-into-the-trash-advice.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I feel like there's no one else that I can turn to for assistance or guidance. I have a scholarship dependent on whether or not I major in math. But I have lots of friends and family warning me that majoring in math is one of the biggest mistakes that I can make--i.e., I'd be throwing away good money. I'd like to say that I have decent mathematical aptitude: I've gotten As in all Calculus I through III, linear algebra, differential equations, and statistics, but that either represents grade inflation when I didn't deserve it or I actually knew what I was doing. I hope it's the latter.</p>

<p>Here's my summer situation: I got notice of my scholarship in June, a little late after I'd made university plans for the fall. I'd planned to enroll in a university that I could commute to (about a 10 minute commute) under the major of engineering (since, until I got the scholarship, it didn't look like the math major was meant to be). I kept telling myself that engineering was for the best since I would save lots of money just commuting from home. But in a panic, thinking that taking that math major scholarship was just too good to pass up, I withdrew from the engineering program and made it official that I was attending the other university for the math major. But now I keep having significant doubt in my mind that choosing the math major over the engineering major was an even bigger mistake--mainly just because I keep thinking about my future prospects and friends and family are pressuring me to switch.</p>

<p>I need to go ahead and mention that the university I could commute to from home will take students all the way up until the last day before classes start which is nice. Thus, I was thinking that if I panic about taking the math major, I could last-minute register and continue with the engineering program. I might only lose about $4,000 in the process which is alright I guess, but that's still a lot of money. What steps can I take to not feel regretful about what decision I end up making? "Following your heart" is not good advice--I keep waffling and having total regret once I make the decision. Any ideas?</p>

<p>Move-in day for the dorms in fast approaching and I don't want to move in, then panic before class starts and have to move out.</p>

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<p>Engineering is mostly what you have already been doing in calculus. Find a problem, learn the steps to solve it, repeat. Mostly computation to critical thinking. </p>

<p>Math major is the other way around, it’s mostly critical thinking compared to computation. Do you like mathematical proofs, the logic behind what you are doing, and are you good at seeing hidden patterns? Youtube has plenty of videos on abstract algebra and real analysts, check them out and see what you think. </p>

3

<p>The closest pure math course I took was Linear algebra(second half). There was very little computational questions, the majority of test questions were proofs. Show X is really Y, type of deals. My brain didn’t do very well in that class. While I do care about relationships, I didn’t care for the restriction of proofs. In many lower divsional proofs, there is generally one way of proving something (Although in upper div, ten people could potentially solve the same proof in 10 unique ways). In physics, students were encouraged to find the answer, in their own way. True some methods were longer other, but displacement is the same. Anyway, which class did you enjoy more? Maybe thats an indicator</p>

<p>Also your major is a vehicle to your career goals. If you want to make money w.o doing a lot of schooling after BS, Engineering is a way to go. So is Actuarial science. And both have a lot of money generating potential. If you want to get your MS, Math isn’t a waste. You can find good jobs in the math fields, if you know where to look.</p>

<p>As for the terrible mistake feeling, its obvious you are indecisive, and you have no passion either way. The community can not help you with that. You need to buckle down and convince yourself which is the right decision. If you can’t do that, that feeling will follow you, regardless which path you take. </p>