Math Lovers - How to choose Math major vs Engineering?

Parents Forum
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<p>Nah, you would not have to triple major and probably would not have to double major. What you may have to do is “dual” major which is different than a “double” major. With a dual major, you will allow some courses to “double count”. These are courses that are offered by both the math and computer science departments jointly. The usual suspects are:</p>

<p>Numerical Analysis
Numerical Solution/Methods of Ordinary Differential Equations
Numerical Solution/Methods of Partial Differential Equations
Numerical Linear Algebra
Optimization/Linear Programming (may be jointly offered by industrial/systems engineering)
Combinatorics (junior/senior-level course)
Graph Theory (junior/senior course)
Cryptology/Error-Correcting Codes
Simulation</p>

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<p>Re: where to start calculus if one has AP credit</p>

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<p>[UC</a> Berkeley](<a href=“http://math.berkeley.edu/courses_AP.html]UC”>http://math.berkeley.edu/courses_AP.html) suggests jumping ahead for students who got a 5; those with a 3 or 4 can jump ahead, but not really recommended to. There is an [url=<a href=“http://math.berkeley.edu/courses_honors.html]honors[/url”>http://math.berkeley.edu/courses_honors.html]honors[/url</a>] sequence starting at second semester calculus (H1B instead of 1B) in the fall.</p>

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<p>INGERP:</p>

<p>Do you love to think, ponder, and question if there is a method to the madness of humanity, life and death, then go with philosophy</p>

<p>Do you love sequences of 4-digit numbers (eg 1964) associated with people and places that existed in the past and believe they are the key to the future, then go with history</p>

<p>(admittedly, the last one is a stretch, but I’m a math geek)</p>

<p>INMOTION12 and GLOBAL TRAVELER,</p>

<p>A combination of engineering/software engineering/applied mathematics would be pretty hectic or awesome depending on your point of view. I think it depends on which engineering focus and which applied mathematics focus. For a combination of software engineering and applied mathematics, think Google.</p>

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<p>avoidingwork–I do appreciate the effort. DS#1 is currently a college junior. Will come out with either a philosophy major/history minor or phil/hist double major (that’s right! only two semesters left and he still hasnt decided!). Fell in love with philosophy in hs. Definitely the kind of kid who could sit around talking about it all day. (So unlike his mother, who would just want to know what the answer is so she could move on.) Has <obviously> also really liked his history courses at college. Says he feels more like he’s actually learned something from them. I know he has absolutely <em>no</em> idea what he wants to do after he graduates (although I’m guessing I’m not the only parent of a kid coming out of a LAC with a humanities degree who’s starting to wonder about next year??).</obviously></p>

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<p>ingerp, I don’t think the worry is limited to those with humanities degrees. </p>

<p>I had an interesting discussion with S1 (double degree in applied math and classical civilization). He thinks that being a luthier may be his 2nd career, and just needs to determine a 1st career. While I (double degree in math and computer science) have a 1st career in software development and want to find a 2nd career.</p>