<p>I'm currently an Economics student with roughly 2 years left in school. I finished my math requirement for my major (Calculus III through integration is all that's really required for the BS) but I really enjoyed math when I was in it. My school is very large, so I have the luxury of being provided with many majors to choose from, and recently I have been contemplating switching to a BS in Financial Mathematics degree program.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any insight into this field of study? I've always been a decent math student, but I never considered myself to be anything other than ordinary when compared to my peers. I have confidence that I could learn the information, I'm just curious as to how hard the Financial track of mathematics actually gets. I have no interest in being a mathematician, and I will never be a part of academia. I am an entrepreneur and plan on staying in the business world, I am just very intrigued by math.</p>
<p>Does Financial math delve into "Real Analysis"? I don't know how to judge proof based math classes because I've never taken them really, so I am certainly curious and nervous as to how I would be able to handle upper-division math material.</p>
<p>*As a side note, I do enjoy my Economics classes. My reason for contemplating a switch in majors deals more with my interest in the financial aspect of markets. Econ is more of a macro psychology degree than it is a singular business oriented study.</p>
<p>Financial Mathematics is usually studied at the graduate level, after you got a broad foundation in quantitative methods as an undergraduate. </p>
<p>I would encourage you to reflect on your past math background. What is it that you liked about calculus and your high school math classes? Did you like the problem-solving, mulling things over, making connections between different concepts? The excitement of realizing that you could use calculus to model the water flow from your leaking faucet? Or did you like the clear-cut set of instructions and the existence of an unambiguous correct answer: to solve for x, do … to compute this integral, do… </p>
<p>The more you like the problem-solving and the less attached you are to step-by-step instructions, the happier you’ll be in advanced mathematics.</p>
<p>Hmm, that’s a good question. To be honest the bet thing about calculus to me was the “a-ha!” moment that came with every new set of concepts. Here at Big State U the concepts are not as much taught as they are expected that you learn before coming to class… then the lecturers dive deeper into the material. Every new concept at the beginning seemed slightly foreign, but my favorite feeling is when I truly grasp the idea and it’s connection to everything else. I guess it’s a bit of both this way, I do like the “do this step then follow with this one, etc” but only because it’s makes it autonomous. I can guarantee myself good grades before I enter an exam just by knowing concepts, but I do think that the best part is truly having a cognitive grasp o the material.</p>