job outlook for mathematician

Career Opportunities & Internships
21

<p>You should apply to USC. They offer really generous merit scholarships. ~125 incoming students each year receive full-tuition merit scholarships (not quite full-ride, because there is 10k/yr in additional costs like room/board). More than 200 students receive scholarships that cover half tuition (National Merit Finalists are guaranteed at least half-off scholarships).</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/private/1314/uscScholarships1314.pdf[/url]”>http://www.usc.edu/admission/undergraduate/private/1314/uscScholarships1314.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>You must submit your application to USC by December 1,2012 to be eligible for scholarships.
Your stats ensure that you would be a very competitive applicant for those merit scholarships (I think essays matter more than they usually do for these type of things, though).
<a href=“http://dornsife.usc.edu/trustee-presidential-deans-scholarships/[/url]”>http://dornsife.usc.edu/trustee-presidential-deans-scholarships/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Harvey Mudd (the best science/engineering/math LAC) also offers (admittedly less generous) merit scholarships: <a href=“http://www.hmc.edu/admission1/costsandaid1/typesofaid1/scholarshipsandgrants1/hmcmeritbasedawards.html[/url]”>http://www.hmc.edu/admission1/costsandaid1/typesofaid1/scholarshipsandgrants1/hmcmeritbasedawards.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>UChicago offers merit scholarships (these seem to be pretty competitive, though): <a href=“https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/costs/merit.shtml[/url]”>https://collegeadmissions.uchicago.edu/costs/merit.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>WUSTL offers merit scholarships (some full-ride):
<a href=“http://admissions.wustl.edu/scholarships/Pages/default.aspx[/url]”>http://admissions.wustl.edu/scholarships/Pages/default.aspx&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>CMU does too (<a href=“Home - Computing Services - Office of the CIO - Carnegie Mellon University”>Home - Computing Services - Office of the CIO - Carnegie Mellon University)</p>

<p>Granted, you should do more research into how competitive these scholarships are. As far as I know, USC would be the easiest to get merit scholarships at for you.</p>

22

<p>I skimmed over this topic, so forgive me if someone has already said this, but with a math degree you could almost definitely work for a defense/government contractor (e.g., Northrop Grumman) – this would be further bolstered if you had gone to one of the academies and/or had military experience. </p>

<p>Have you considered the Citadel in SC? It’s a good mix of a military and more traditional college. [url=&lt;a href=“http://www3.citadel.edu/tcf/pages/misc/scholarships.shtml]Scholarships[/url”&gt;http://www3.citadel.edu/tcf/pages/misc/scholarships.shtml]Scholarships[/url</a>]</p>

23

<p>The military service academies should not be counted on for safeties. They are also best for those who want to serve as officers in their respective branches of the military.</p>

<p>Your grades and scores may get some automatic full tuition to full ride merit scholarships:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/1348012-automatic-full-tuition-full-ride-scholarships.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>In addition, some competitive full ride merit scholarships may be worth applying to:</p>

<p>Park at NCSU
Morehead-Cain at UNC-CH
Robertson at UNC-CH and Duke
President’s at Georgia Tech</p>

<p>There are also some large competitive ROTC scholarships for students interested in military officer careers but who did not get into the military service academies.</p>

<p>As far as major goes, pure math curricula tend to leave plenty of room for free electives, so that you can take additional free elective courses in “applied” areas like computer science, statistics, operations research, and economics to give you some backup job and career options.</p>

<p>You may wish to compare the math course offerings at various schools. For example,</p>

<p>USAFA: [Course</a> Offerings](<a href=“http://www.usafa.edu/df/dfms/courseOfferings.cfm?catname=dfms]Course”>http://www.usafa.edu/df/dfms/courseOfferings.cfm?catname=dfms)
Berkeley: [General</a> Catalog - Mathematics Courses](<a href=“http://general-catalog.berkeley.edu/catalog/gcc_list_crse_req?p_dept_name=Mathematics&p_dept_cd=MATH]General”>http://general-catalog.berkeley.edu/catalog/gcc_list_crse_req?p_dept_name=Mathematics&p_dept_cd=MATH)</p>

24

<p>I studied applied math, and to be honest, it’s not that great. You are better off than lot of majors because you can always get a consulting job or take the test to become an actuary, but the test is a huge pain and really quite hard. To be an i-banker, which is probably the best paying job in any field, you need to be quick at mental math and being a math major doesn’t necessarily mean you’re quick at mental math. It sucks because math is one of the most conceptually difficult majors but the job prospects aren’t that great. </p>

<p>Most of my friends studied Physics, EECS, and Math, and the EECS’ job prospects are a lot better than the Physics and Math majors’. They were actively recruited by google, and if you become a google programmer you can start at 250k+. A lot of the Physics and Math majors went into IT work or consulting, which pays alright, but isn’t all that related to what you were studying.</p>