Is there money for math majors?

Right now I am currently a math major with a minor in statistics and keep hearing two different things. Some people say you could get a decent job with a math major and others say you can’t even get a job. Which one is true?

If you take a few programming classes, it will help a lot. Big data and machine learning are hot right now, and they use a lot of math and statistics.

The math department as well as career services at your school should be able to answer that question. I know at the Welcome to Our School days they always seem to have a flyer that shows career paths for Math Majors.

An obvious path is as an actuary helping insurance companies assess risk and set rates- solid, well-paying job. Data visualization and predictive modeling are also potential areas of employment, but would benefit from an advanced degree.

As a female STEM student, there are also scholarships open to help pay for school (even now, while you are in school, meaning you can apply now to pay for your remaining tenure). Google comes to mind (not as a search engine, but as a scholarship provider).

Career surveys indicate that finance and actuarial type jobs are among the more common “good” jobs for applied math and statistics majors. Some may also go into computing jobs. Appropriate out-of-major elective choices can certainly be helpful for any of these career directions.

Thanks for the input. I am taking programming class right now just to get some insight on C++.

Well, there are jobs out there for math majors. I know having been one. I did an internship with zero financial skills at a financial company where I traded stocks, equities, and managed a portfolio for a company. I learned all about the stock market myself. The second internship I did I similarly knew nothing about programming, but they were impressed during the interview. They offered me a job and I currently work as a programmer doing primarily dealing with financial reports. Where I work, C#, Java, and SQL are used frequently.

Becoming an actuary is good for your bank account, I would like to think. You’re going to have to take a bunch of tests if that’s what you want to become. I’d rather just get through a whole master’s degree in mechanical engineering/aerospace engineering than do that. I plan to keep my job as a programmer until I can get through my master’s.

Without answering how immediately marketable it is, I think an applied math degree with a heavy dose of s/w engineering classes can be a devastatingly effective set of tools. Your approach to solving a particular problem will be a little different than that of most of your peers, and that can lead to some true innovation.

I have a similar background and develop embedded control systems in a world mostly made up of EE’s, and have at least two peers with math degrees - one of whom got an MS in EE. A classmate parlayed the math/CS mix into medical school. In other words, if you aren’t certain whether you want to write phone apps, develop simulations for sonar systems, or work on future releases of your favorite OS, or all of these in series, I think the math with some CS can work really well. If you’re pretty certain you know what you want to do, then a little more traditional route might be better.

So, getting the first job? I don’t know. Long term satisfaction? Good to very good I think. But that’s just my opinion. There is a heck of a lot more you can do than just finance or actuarial science, but those are open too. I think they would drive me batty after a couple of years. Thankfully other people cope.

If you can finish a math major with a decent GPA, then you have the ability to learn programming on the side. You could probably pick up enough programming skills in a year or so to get a decent job. If you want more details or advice on learning to program, you can PM me.

As of now, I am half way through my math major with a 3.69 GPA but like everyone has been telling me, the bulk of the math courses are my junior and senior year where they really get challenging.

I think it’s more challenging for the average person who takes them. I don’t necessarily think it’d be more challenging for you. Also, I’ve found the difficulty of a class really depends on the professor. The amount of “seriousness” goes up.

When I took Complex Analysis, I did not have time to study for the class, but I was able to do most of the homework with very little reading of the book if I paid attention in class. However, when the exams came, it was barely recognizable. Stuff out of left field and some of it totally had nothing to do with Complex Analysis, IMO. Although he was perfectly alright as a lecturer, his tests could throw you for a loop. He would say this will definitely be on the test, this won’t be on the test, and then throw everything he said out and it was random come test time. It was definitely manageable, especially after having taken Real Analysis I with a good background in Calculus III.

There was a lot of suspense building up to the first test in Real Analysis I as (IMO and some others) 1/3 of the class was doing fine, 1/3 of the class was barely passing, and another 1/3 was failing before the midterm. Well, the people who were doing fine did fine, the 1/3 of the barely passing failed and the 1/3 failing uber failed. The next quarter, the teacher said that around 75% of his two sections total were failing, but he only failed 50%. A friend of mine decided to quit out of the major and become a business major but found out that around 50% failed as well for Real Analysis II. His tests were basically you either know it or you don’t. If you can’t connect all the pieces or it doesn’t immediately hit you over your head, you’re going to run out of time and most likely fail. “Trying” was not really rewarded. If “trying” was wrong reasoning all over the page, you basically got 1 point out of 10 or 0 if out of less. I liked him as a professor. He graded the better students more harshly on the homework than the ones who were failing. He was always willing to help people during office hours. He could be forgiving on quizzes. I don’t know why so many people failed because it seemed like everyone was trying extremely hard. Sometimes people just have a natural talent for proofs, though. I did put in a decent amount of effort into the first class and did OK. The second part was tougher, but I didn’t put as much time in and did better.

Abstract Algebra I for me was tough at the beginning because of her really strict grading. I basically was a low B student until the final when she decided to strike a deal with us cuz she had been out 4 weeks out of 10. Get a good grade on the final and I’ll replace your other tests with that grade. I brought it up to an A. Abstract Algebra II was easier in the beginning and more difficult towards the end. There was a take home test near the end where I started to question whether I could solve any of the problems and I had studied the chapters several times…it got hard for me, but I managed to pull through at the end. She was less forgiving and more strict about grading the second time. She would try hard not to fail people but if you weren’t doing well…what else could she do to salvage your grade? I thought she was a good professor.

I knew several people who aced the intro to proofs class but failed Real Analysis. I think I heard somewhere “You don’t take Real Analysis, Real Analysis takes you”. I think it’s really just one of those things where you’re just going to have to take the class to find out if you’ve got what it takes. I think it can definitely be a humbling experience for some. It can also be a huge wake up call that you’re in the wrong major.

Even though I got through the major, I did not want to pursue math any further as a degree. Heck, I haven’t done any advanced math since I was employed. Addition and subtraction is about as hard as it gets for me.
HOWEVER, the reasoning skills you develop and the creativity you have involved in proofs is useful for programming. As someone who had to self-teach programming for my job, I don’t always know where the solutions come from or where the insights come from. To me, it’s that same intuition in math that I had. A lot of the times I look at code and have an easy time narrowing down what part of the logic is causing the problem. I also had an easy time making some fairly complex reports cuz I got an idea of what the “proof” would look like to solve my problem. I think the reasoning skills you develop are priceless.