<p>i'm just entering my sophomore year at Rutgers University and i'm currently undecided on what major to choose. </p>
<p>I have a great appreciation and fascination for math. I'm the kind of person who enjoys deriving formulas to see how they work instead of just memorizing them. </p>
<p>considering i finished calc 1 in my junior year and i've only done up to calc 2 by now, i feel sorely behind (some of my friends have finished cal 4 and more by now) and regret not going further in math. The reason i didn't go further in math is because i had originally planned to get an undergraduate business degree in finance which didn't require math further than calc 1. I've realized now that i don't want to have an undergraduate business degree mainly because i want a more broad undergraduate education than what our business school offers (our business school seems almost vocational to me now). </p>
<p>My question is: what kind of career prospects am i looking at if i major in math? my sense is that it will give me a strong quantitative background and thus give me a lot of options of going into any kind of quantitative work. Quantitative finance perhaps?</p>
<p>You should also know that I have an interest in CS; I've been programming for years and have taken up to the second intro course at Rutgers, data structures.</p>
<p>I didn’t major in math, but I think a math background can be fairly versatile. Previously, I worked at a scientific engineering firm in a very research-oriented division and I had a bunch of coworkers who had pure or applied math backgrounds. Currently, I work in wireless communications and mobile technology, and although there are fewer mathematicians here, they are around. For instance, one of the systems engineers with whom I interact daily has a phd in math. Anecdotally, I’ve heard that the NSA hires more mathematicians than any other employer, and indeed, some of my coworkers at my previous companies had worked in the NSA in the past.</p>
<p>I should note, however, that all of the mathematicians I’ve worked had graduate degrees.</p>
<p>“My question is: what kind of career prospects am i looking at if i major in math?”</p>
<p>I would want to say “anything to do with science and quantifiable information”, but the reality is that many jobs ask for practical knowledge and skills, not theoretical and abstract (where much of the math degree content actually falls). But given that the breadth of topics, fields and disciplines which are theoretically mathematical/quantifiable, the world is your oyster here, if you figure out how to apply yourself and mathematics.</p>
<p>“my sense is that it will give me a strong quantitative background and thus give me a lot of options of going into any kind of quantitative work. Quantitative finance perhaps?”</p>
<p>Yes. For example.</p>
<p>“You should also know that I have an interest in CS;”</p>
<p>You should. Studying CS AND math, rather than one or another, widens your opportunities considerably, and CS is mathematical as well, it just has this powerful and automated element (the computer).</p>
<p>I can’t give you an in depth answer, sorry. From what I read an applied math degree is very general of your looking for that type of thing. Although, there are specific areas of applied math I.e. statistics, comupation and numerical analysis.
I say add an applied math major( double major) and go in a field that is close to your own. Actuarial maybe.</p>
<p>There are plenty of careers for a math major. From Rutgers career services website.</p>
<p><a href=“http://careers.rutgers.edu/page.cfm?page_id=376§ion_id=8&major_id=56”>http://careers.rutgers.edu/page.cfm?page_id=376§ion_id=8&major_id=56</a></p>
<p>CS is always good too.</p>
<p>Just to relate to you a bit. I majored in accounting but loved math. Looking back, I would be a math major if I could do it again.</p>