Just curious if a student can earn a math degree in the College, but take programming classes to enhance the curriculum, while still taking just the 33 required courses for the math degree. My oldest son did this at MIT. He’s getting just a math degree, but because he’s taken a number of CS classes, he’s actually going into data science as a career.
Yes, you can major in math and take CIS courses. How it will impact his credits will depend on the AP or other advanced credits and the details of the math major requirements.
To understand the details for an individual student’s situation, each student meets with their Faculty Advisor and completes an Academic Planning Worksheet. The worksheet shows them which requirements have been met, and which requirements still need to be completed. Based on that assessment, a student can decide how much flexibility they have for other courses, study abroad etc.
My son has no AP credits. All his work was at the community college, and Penn doesn’t take any of that, so he’ll be starting from scratch. Math is very hard for him, yet he works hard at it and is pretty successful. We’re just throwing out ideas for a degree that’s a reasonable amount of units to complete (33 for math) that might be useful. He had considered DMD (too many courses), Cinema (interesting, but what do you do with it?), English (vision disability could make it a problem), and Fine Arts (his current major, but he doesn’t see himself in this after all). Math is only 13 classes, and then he could do other stuff he wants for the other 20 units-cinema, animation, some creative writing maybe, and some programming. I think, if he takes just the 33 courses, he can take up to 4 classes outside the College, correct? So he could do four programming classes, which would go well with a math degree. Not sure he could actually complete a math degree (he has a math disability, but did get an A in his college calculus class), but it’s worth the dialogue.
I don’t think that there is a limit on the number of courses other than it can begin to impact his ability to complete his major requirements. If he is planning to take 4 CIS courses, he could take 6 and get a minor.
If math is in fact very hard for him then majoring in math doesn’t make much sense. Penn is very rigorous. And, in my opinion, there isn’t significant grade inflation in quantitive courses. Taking a handful of CS courses doesn’t make a compelling candidate for high tech CS positions. MIT differs from Penn in that employers assume, often correctly, that MIT graduates are deeply technical and that they will come up to speed in technically intensive jobs. Employers won’t make such assumptions about Penn graduates. What you’re proposing, if your assessment of your son’s innate math skills is accurate, is a recipe for disappointment.
I would question the wisdom of being a math major if it is a subject he find difficult. I appreciate the fact that he works hard and did well in his college calculus class. But, the math that he will need to take is way beyond calc 1. It seems like it could be a long slog for him.
Does he like math? If he wants to take math, maybe it would be better to major in something else and complete a math minor. Just a thought.
Yeah, we realize that it would be a long haul. But a Cinema degree? I dunno. I guess if he wanted to be film critic? He does like math and he likes programming. He really enjoys digital media. He had applied as an engineering major to a number of colleges (not Penn) last year, but then changed his mind. Bottom line is, he still doesn’t know what he wants to do. He’s very smart yet disabled in several areas, and I think no matter what major he chooses, it will be hard. As you say, it’s Penn and it’s my son. So my thought was, why not get something more practical if it’s possible? I think he plans to take Math 103 or 104 and CIS 110 for sure first semester, and maybe another math or CIS class, just so he can get his feet wet and see if he can keep up. I don’t think he’ll do a minor, but who knows?
@fogcity “If math is in fact very hard for him then majoring in math doesn’t make much sense.”
I wondered about that when she said he has disabilities in several areas. However, I don’t know the student, and the fact that he has disabilities and still got into Penn suggests to me that this is an amazing student in many ways.
I would recommend that the parent and student work with Penn to find the major that his right for him. In parallel with that, I believe that @sbjdorlo 's idea of getting his feet wet in a few areas is a good idea. You can develop an initial plan that is flexible and allow his experience and talents find the best niche for him.
@sbjdorlo I would consider focussing more on fit, and less on finding a major that requires fewer credits. If he fits best in a major with fewer requirements, that is great. However, if he needs to take an extra semester, to complete a major that is a better fit, I think it would be worth it.
Good luck!
While I totally wish it was the case that he could do an extra semester (or two), financially, that would never work. He gets a boatload of need-based aid from Penn (or he will). In addition, he has a four year $6000 a year National Merit scholarship. Without aid, there is nothing but loans for him, and he couldn’t take 30-60K of loans anyways. We are not in the position to help him more than a couple thousand a year, and once my dh retires within the next two years and gets likely a minimum wage job plus his pension, we will be in less of a position to help. I work part time now while I homeschool my youngest and help care for my dad, and as he gets older, I’ll increase my hours, but finances are a huge issue. The only thing I’ve heard is that sometimes you can petition a school to cover aid if a student has disabilities that require a student to take fewer units each year. I need to look into that.
Yes, my son had some first rate qualities, apparently, to get him into Penn, though truth be told, I still don’t know how he got in other than a good SAT score, decent grades, good recs, and a strong cello arts supplement.
I think you’re right, though, about exploring and not locking into a major; finding the right fit makes sense. He really got excited about Cinema, but then he worries that he won’t be able to do anything with the degree so what’s the point. The biggest thing in my mind would be that he would graduate debt-free if he did the Cinema degree, and then maybe he’ll have some options after that, and he can figure it out then.
Maybe Communications from the Annenberg School? There are probably some digital communication courses there.
We haven’t looked at that yet. We’ll take a look. Thanks.