Is Applied Math a good choice for me?

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I’m a person who has developed a lot of interests recently. Ever since I was little, I knew I wanted to get a degree in physics or astronomy, but now I have branched out. I was wondering if applied math is a good major for me because of the way I can branch out. I have interests in computer science and tech, finance and investing, and of course my original desire to do physics. I do not know which to pick, so I was thinking of just majoring in applied math so I can combine it with any minor I end up choosing when my interests are more clearly defined. I’m a rising high school senior. I’m also looking to minor in a language as well. Any pointers?

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by any minor, I meant any minor that is related to math, such as the ones I listed above (minus the foreign language)

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This sounds like a reasonable plan - whatever you decide to minor in, you can get advice from the professors in that department about the math classes that would benefit a career in that area. Applied math does apply to all of those fields, and many more.

Of course, you also have some level of flexibility with the other majors - many physics majors go into quantitative finance, for example.

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There are quite a few things that you can do with a degree in applied math. My bachelor’s was in applied math. My masters was in operations research which is a potential major that you should be aware of.

At one point I ran into someone I had known as an undergraduate student (he was also a math major). He had gone into acoustics. I got to see what he does on a day to day basis. The amount of math that is used in acoustics is huge – it was quite a cool thing for a math major to see, and probably a cool thing for him to do for a living.

One nit: If you are going to major in applied math, I would recommend that you take some programming / software engineering courses also. MIT has a major “18C” which is math with computer science, which I would have selected if they had it when I was there – I essentially did select it but by making it up myself. You should be able to come up with something similar at a very wide range of universities and colleges.

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