How hard is a Math Major?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
1

<p>I'm really interested in doing a Math Major at Cornell, and if accepted the last Math course I would have completed would be AP Calc BC and AP Stat, most likely 5s in both. I have always been the top of my class in math by far, but I am assuming so have other kids hwo want to be a math major at Cornell.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>What level math will the other kids have completed? Someone told me that at Ivy league schools a lot of the kids have already completed the ENTIRE calc sequence and that was really surprising to me.</p></li>
<li><p>Do you take the intro math courses with other non-math majors? because if so that sounds like an easy A as that would be a math majors strength in addition to their main focus where others would struggle with that and not focus on it as much.</p></li>
<li><p>Are the upper level Math classes very competitive with a lot of pre-meds? because as you can tell by my name I plan on pre-med, so what are most of the other Math majors plans? Pre-med? Econ? Finance? Grad school? Comp Sci?</p></li>
<li><p>Math is in Arts and Science, but in terms of GPA and average grade does it tend to be more like arts or science?</p></li>
</ol>

2

<p>2. Do you take the intro math courses with other non-math majors? because if so that sounds like an easy A as that would be a math majors strength in addition to their main focus where others would struggle with that and not focus on it as much.</p>

<p>Earlier math courses tend to be open to all math students, but math majors are advised to take more honors courses if I’m not mistaken. Also, math at Cornell is notoriously tricky because of the difficulty of course material and exams, so no class is really an easy A.</p>

<p>3. Are the upper level Math classes very competitive with a lot of pre-meds? because as you can tell by my name I plan on pre-med, so what are most of the other Math majors plans? Pre-med? Econ? Finance? Grad school? Comp Sci?</p>

<p>I’m not too sure there are very many pre-meds in the math major but I could be wrong. Those other options are definitely common paths for math majors, however.</p>

3

<p>I have a friend who is a Math Major, and the level of math he knew going into college was Calc I, II, and III. So single variable derivatives/integrals and multivariable fun stuff.
Other people I knew, already had a mixed background, some knowing some or all of the following: Calc I and II stuff with some Linear Algebra.</p>

<p>Some Math Majors could take the intro calc classes like Calc II with non majors. Most Math Majors I knew studiously elected for the harder Honors version.</p>

<p>I do not think the upper level math is competitive. The material is so hard and theoretical, people either can understand the material or not. And the math majors will help other math majors out with understanding the material. So in my opinion, it is not competitive.</p>

4

<ol>
<li>What level math will the other kids have completed? Someone told me that at Ivy league schools a lot of the kids have already completed the ENTIRE calc sequence and that was really surprising to me.</li>
</ol>

<p>Some people have, but I would say most haven’t, simply because most high schools offer only up to AP Calc AB or BC.</p>

<ol>
<li>Do you take the intro math courses with other non-math majors? because if so that sounds like an easy A as that would be a math majors strength in addition to their main focus where others would struggle with that and not focus on it as much.</li>
</ol>

<p>As was said above, for Calc II and above, there are honors alternatives. I wouldn’t say you should think math will be an easy A (yet). Math classes in high school vary widely in quality between schools and I would say it’s too soon to tell how great you are at math compared to other Cornell students. Some people will get through the Calc sequence at Cornell without studying, others will study a lot and still struggle for a C, whereas in high school, everyone was getting A’s. Most people at Cornell, even the English majors had straight A’s in math all through school. Just because they aren’t math majors doesn’t mean they didn’t have math talent. Most people taking math at Cornell beyond Calc I are science majors, engineers, and economics/finance people (if not math majors), so they are comfortable with numbers. That said, if you were top of your class in math in high school and you intend to do a math major, you probably should challenge yourself and go for the honors sequence. </p>

<ol>
<li>Are the upper level Math classes very competitive with a lot of pre-meds? because as you can tell by my name I plan on pre-med, so what are most of the other Math majors plans? Pre-med? Econ? Finance? Grad school? Comp Sci?</li>
</ol>

<p>That’s about right. Pre-med is probably the least common on that list though. Upper level math isn’t necessarily competitive because usually by that point, people are either really good at math or they aren’t. That said, if you aren’t really good at math, it will be really hard. If you’re someone who “gets it” (which most people taking those courses are), you’ll be fine.</p>

<ol>
<li>Math is in Arts and Science, but in terms of GPA and average grade does it tend to be more like arts or science?</li>
</ol>

<p>I didn’t realize there was a huge GPA disparity between “Arts” classes and “Science” classes…</p>

5

<p>My daughter graduated with double majors (math/econ) and minor in gender studies. She didn’t have higher than AP Calc BC going into college. Her math grades were her lowest (B). She found lower level math course at Cornell harder, concepts weren’t that difficult, but exams were very hard (she would do every problem set, but found the exam to be completely different). As she moved up to higher level math, she started getting better grades in math. Not sure if it’s because she became smarter or just better at picking courses. She had As in econ and other humanities courses. In 2011, I think there were probably 20 math graduates.</p>

6

<p>Math majors can decide to take math classes intended for people going on to graduate school in Math (e.g. MATH2230 and 2240, the honors Vector Calculus and Linear Algebra sequence, MATH1220, which is Honors Calculus II) and then, you get into classes only math majors take (upper-level Linear Algebra, Topology, Analysis…)</p>