This post is to help guide my 9th-grade son, who has done a lot of math till now but is not well-informed about what it means to major in math during college and what career options/academic paths open up for math majors. He has sat in JMOs and is currently applying for summer math camps like Promys, Mathily, etc.
How did you/your kid decide to major in math in college? How long did it take and what factors were considered?
What are some career options or academic paths (in terms of grad school) that are available for math majors?
What are pros and cons of majoring in math in college in hindsight?
We have a math major who got there the back way! Didn’t do anything in HS - no competitions or anything. Finished CalcBC in grade 10 & took DE math for the next 2 years. Enjoyed math but loved a lot of other things as well (including literature, philosphy, etc). Headed off to college planning to be a chem major. First semester discovered that chem was not the right path, but loved the math pathways in college, and discovered math research.
During college did some summer internships. Summer after sophomore year got an internship with the NSA. Didn’t love it, but did well enough that the following year was sent by the NSA to the UK to work with MI5 (for real). Is now doing a PhD in math and vacillating between going into academia (turns out to love teaching & have flair for it, and is doing original research that is getting some attention), going into developing software for hybrid learning programs (another internship, with a job offer dangling), and going back to the NSA. At this point I really can’t tell which path will win!
For opinions: I wouldn’t get over-invested in guiding your son. He will have lots of opportunities to make and remake the decisions, and he is very young yet for you to be assessing the pros and cons of a college major! He might be a mathmo- but he might be a budding physicist or CS person or any number of other things. Try to follow him, not lead.
I also applied to college planning to study chemistry, but took a gap year before I started and found I missed math hugely. I also discovered that math was a lot less work, because it had no labs, so I switched to math. Did a math degree and stayed for a PhD. Never wanted to be an academic, the PhD was just for fun and because I wanted to row crew and enjoy college a bit longer.
Career wise I ended up in tech consulting, which combines analysis (albeit mainly Excel) with writing and presenting, and is very enjoyable. A math degree doesn’t impact that directly but it does a lot to persuade clients that you might be smart enough to be able to help them. The PhD was what taught me to write and present.
Pros and cons are the same: if you can do math it’s easy. If you can’t it’s awful, especially as the long tail of ability is more obvious than in almost any other subject. So in thinking about pursuing this as a path, you need to both love math (for example, I still find it fun to look at Putnam problem sets when I have a long flight) and be good at it.
Thx. for sharing your son’s journey, which I find both fascinating and helpful. All the best re his next step!
Totally hear your point about not getting too invested. Nowadays, we are having more conversations re college and the beyond, as he has been participating in math competitions on college campuses and is now applying for summer math camps. I thought becoming more informed can only be helpful, including what to focus on during college visits.
Thx. for sharing your story. It is interesting to hear that you did Ph.D for rowing, etc.
You bring up a great point re one’s natural readiness and aptitude for math, esp. for further studies beyond undergrad. I am inclined to think that hard work is more important than natural talent even in math. But, suppose natural talent cannot be discounted either.
It leads me to wonder whether one’s enjoyment of math is related to the level of natural talent.
A friend in college, who is now a math professor at Oxford, told me that you needed 2 hours of inspiration in 3 years to produce a great math PhD thesis. That was very true (though I didn’t have that much inspiration so my PhD thesis was only average), I came up with the key proofs in the bath and lying in bed. Dreaming of solutions and then waking up and writing them down is very common. I don’t think of that as hard work. It’s not at all like a PhD in other subjects. Doing math Olympiad stuff is not dissimilar.
@Twoin18 is modest, so didn’t point out that he was at Cambridge (UK), and whatever about being a Cantabrigian, rowing at Cambridge is a Very Big Deal!
As @Twoin18 suggests, it’s not just “natural talent” - it’s the genuine enjoyment of math that is the key.
And yes, if your son really is a mathmo, the UK is a great option, as it lets them do all math all the time with other people who do math for pleasure.
My son applied to college planning to study physics with math as a supporting major, but once he started advanced math that has become his focus. He is still majoring in physics and has added CS as a third major, but has completed so many math courses there by doubling and tripling up that he will complete the major requirements by the end of this sophomore year with approval to start graduate math courses in the fall.
He is starting to explore theoretical physics with a physics professor and is being mentored this summer by a math professor in a graduate level math theory that is important in physics, to combine his love of math with his physics and computer science skills. Right now he would say that he wants to be a professor after getting a Masters in Math at his current school then a PhD in math elsewhere, but he is still very early in his education.