Math majors beware: most of you are wasting time and money

Student Lounge College Life
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<p>Oh c’mon — most business majors don’t know their @ss from their elbow. Business is more of just an applied econ major.</p>

<p>If ‘basic business’ questions are really the gatekeeper to these jobs (though I doubt it) — have you considered buying a basic book on business? You could probably find one for less than $30 on Amazon.</p>

<p>Why don’t you look up the Time 100 Most influential people for any of the last ten years and tell me if there is anyone, ANYONE on the list who isn’t a comp sci, engineering, or business major. What, hardly anyone is? Shocking</p>

42

<p>Older S is a math major and has had no problems getting interesting, well-paying work while still an UG. His programming skills are only enhanced by the math.</p>

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<p>Most people don’t get jobs related to their major. Do you think History majors all end up working in museums or something? Obviously not, they end up in random jobs from teaching to saleswork to corporate law. So how are math majors “wasting time and money” anymore than everyone studying Psych or International Relations or Biochemistry and every other major that exists?</p>

<p>

I think you’re either depressed or have really low self-esteem and crappy interpersonal skills and it may come across in interviews and work. </p>

<p>Btw, my dad has a Math degree and has worked in finance for 20something years now, and is pretty damn successful. My aunt studied Cultural Anthropology and is VP of a major cosmetics firm. Like everyone said, your job is usually not related to your major. </p>

<p>As a science major, I would LOVE to get a science job in healthcare, biotech, industry or for a firm, but I’d take anything I can get after I graduate. I would love to work in the interior design field for example!</p>

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<p>IMHO - if you really want to get out of your situation you need to first be more optimistic. You are really hard on yourself especially from what I can see from your posts. I highly doubt you are just “average”. Having a job in this economy is actually a really good thing there are plenty of grad students who have to intern because they could not find jobs and were forced to find other means of improving their resume.</p>

<p>There are lots of people who made it life through without any degrees… Simply having one is a testament of will power more than the education itself. </p>

<p>If you want to get out of this you are going to need to believe in yourself. Get up - take the GRE, maybe do it a couple of times because its a hard test, and apply to some grad/business schools. Not only will you be given the opportunity to meet new and interesting people, but you will have another chance at exploring a new major that you might find interesting. Math is always a good basis for ANYTHING. To be able to look at things analytically and logically in so many different aspects is quite simply amazing. It doesn’t have to be economics, it doesn’t have to be business, it could be anything - but you need to figure out what you really like and couple happily see yourself doing.</p>

<p>Good luck - really - but the longer you keep looking down, the harder it will be to get up. The sooner you do this the better.</p>

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<p>My mother graduated with a mathematics degree and went into programming. She was in the top of her class in a top 25 university. But as it goes, just because you have a degree and graduated with good grades doesn’t mean you can do real world work. She immediately went into programming and made the equivalent of 100k 6 years of working and now 20 years later she is making over 250k. Telling people math is a useless major based solely on your experience is a poor foundation to make such a claim. Maybe it is not that a math degree is useless, but…</p>

46

<p>OP, have you considered that you might have a horrible personality, body odor, annoying voice, or other defect unrelated to your degree that is holding you back?</p>

47

<p>thats why u go to grad school, i personally am concentrating in pure mathematics so as to not have any application to engineering or physics. Classes in symplectic topology or lie groups aren’t going to be very tasty to employers. </p>

<p>Thats why my adviser suggested in minoring in a field like CS or something of the like.</p>

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<p>My personal opinion is that, Undergraduate education is for avocation,graduate education for vocation. The four years you spend in college maybe the most precious four years you can ever have in your life, therefore, learn whatever you like, and do not care a fig about occupations or salaries etc. The majority of courses taught at colleges/Universities, I would confidently say, are not manifestly related to real job skills. Work skills should be learned only by working; bookish knowledge usually doesn’t help much.<br>
I am really grateful for your story, but don’t quite concur on certain points. Perhaps you will be in a better situation, if you go to a graduate school or something.</p>

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<p>“My mother graduated with a mathematics degree…and now 20 years later she is making over 250k”</p>

<p>darkdream, your mother belongs to the top 1% of all people who graduate with a degree in mathematics.</p>

<p>"OP, have you considered that you might have a horrible personality, body odor, annoying voice, or other defect unrelated to your degree that is holding you back? "</p>

<p>TomServo, yes, I have. Unfortunately there is little I can do to fix the way I come across during social situations. I can be calm, relaxed, and easy-going, but the social ability is not there. I didn’t acquire it in college and I doubt I’ll acquire it now.</p>

50

<p>Apply math to economics?</p>

51

<p>fyi, my good friend is a math major, and he’ll make a cool 15k working for a major tech corporation the summer after his sophomore year</p>

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<p>IBfootballer, I’m good at math but I’m not exceptional. Maybe your good friend is.</p>

53

<p>An undergraduate degree in math or science in the 21st century should really be viewed as the foundation for grad school, law school, med school of some kind, or an MBA.</p>

<p>It’s not your chosen major that failed you, mathematik. It’s pretty much the same for most people with a four-year degree no matter what their major. If you’re not interested in pursuing a higher degree, then you have to look for opportunities where your background can get you a foot in the door, then network, network, network. Do the best you can where ever you are, and your connections will lift you up. That’s how anyone gets anywhere these days.</p>

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<p>Well that is not true for some people who majored in Mathematics, like me:</p>

<p>Education:</p>

<p>Stephen F. Austin State University
B.S. in Mathematics minor in Education</p>

<p>M.S. in Mathematics</p>

<p>I was a HS Math Teacher for 3 years and got a job right out of college and now i am a Associate Professor at Texas A&M University.</p>

55

<p>It’s scary when you start to recognize necro’d threads from when they were originally posted.</p>

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<p>hm, im majoring in math but i NEVER want to have a job, EVER. so this thread does NOT apply to me. im NOT worried by it. im not. it’s also really old and it’s silly to be scared by old things, since with the pace of change these days NOTHING from three years ago can be accepted as true today - EVERYTHING must be questioned and reevaluated, even simple things about our basic orientation, like which way is right and which way is left. i think the reason why one gets a math degree is to be educated. a math degree will make you look educated and this is important because a lot of people simply won’t accept you as friends or more if you’re not educated like they are. so if you want them to not be embarrassed to be around you, you need a degree to your name. when i have been nudged to finish school and encouraged to do so and my progress has been monitored and praised it hasn’t been because there’s any thought of what JOB i might have in my future in any of their minds (the people who have all said these things to me are older people with degrees themselves) but because it has seemed like i might not make it, and to be uneducated and <em>not</em> graduate is to be defective and deformed and to have something wrong with you which cannot be overlooked. i meant that: no amount of personality or interesting qualities, however appreciated or associated with the educated, will make up for having flunked out of or given up on college. then you’re unambitious, lazy, someone who people avert their gaze from and pretend like doesn’t exist.</p>

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<p>Hey there. I’m sorry about your plight, dude, but math majors provide very lucrative opportunities. My sister majored in maths and stats in a very good school. She graduated last year and is already making a decent 75k a year in a trading job.</p>

<p>I think what matters in the workforce is adaptability and application. If you are able to learn new things and apply learnt knowledge as you enter the workforce, fantastic opportunities are abundant. I think all majors provide opportunities, but math does so even more because it is so important in all aspects of finance/banking and even sciences!</p>

<p>Don’t be too sad. Go out there and find a new job, or improve your other skills (IT skills, management skills, etc.). Don’t discourage others not to take math just because it didn’t work out for you.</p>

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<p>It’s not the degree as much as the person and what they do with what they learn. When I was young and dumb, I got married during college. My husband was aghast that I so easily made higher grades with much less effort. So, he pressured me to change my plans to earn a Ph.D. in an uber geeky area and take on a softer degree that was less threatening to him. I did so under great pressure and to the disappointment of my professors. The college science award then when to my husband instead of to me. </p>

<p>Lo and behold, I still managed a multimillion dollar high tech product line, directing engineers who couldn’t believe a nonengineer got the job and fixing major engineering problems the previous managers failed to fix even though they were engineers. I then went on to manage a liaison between a major research university cutting edge science institute and a multi-billion dollar industry. Then, I homeschooled my genius son till he got into nearly a dozen Tier 1 universities, all on a degree that most consider lightweight. </p>

<p>If I could do that, I suggest that you could so much more with your math degree. I never expected anything to be handed to me. In fact, I went out and pursued things I was interested in and jobs were created for me because I was seen as a problem solver, leader, and innovator. I got jobs that people who precisely trained for the jobs didn’t get. It’s not what your major is as much as who you are and what you bring to the table. </p>

<p>I didn’t stop being able to understand and solve highly technical problems when I changed from a geeky major to a soft one. I didn’t stop reading geeky textbooks or learning. You need to keep learning, thinking, and add value to your degree by being able to apply it to real life problems that need to get solved. </p>

<p>I agree with the other posters who suggest that you find out what YOU are interested in, develop targeted skills and knowledge, get involved in those areas, and make yourself valuable to employers who need that. Hey, my own son is majoring in math, and he knows full well that he will be valuable to employers only so far as he can apply what he knows to solving their problems. </p>

<p>I fully support his choice. He’s an extremely talented mathematics student and excels in nearly every other topic as well. Part of the reason I trust his judgement is that I had him working since he was a child, initially as a volunteer and later as a $25 an hour tutor to college students. Sue me if you’re worried about child labor laws. He didn’t work full time. I did this because I wanted as part of my parenting and his education for him to know how to support himself through college and graduate school if needed. And, he does, despite having a full ride. He knows how to work with people, how to help them solve problems, how to be on a team, and how to flex to meet different people’s needs. </p>

<p>I am now introducing my son to successful high tech startup folks. He is learning how to develop business relationships, how to solve problems in growing a company, how to deal with regulations and legal issues. He’s twenty and hikes with successful entrepreneurs, government project managers, an very successful science agency types 2-3 times his age. He has mentors most students could never dream of having. And, he’s a math major.</p>

<p>Never, ever rely totally on what you are taught in class to prepare you for a career. It’s not as much what you are taught in class as what you do with it. I’ve reinvented my career several times to fit with what I wanted to do in the other parts of my life. Most people change careers 5 times. If you’re relying on a major to guarantee a career with steady employment and a good income, you are going to disappointed. Initiative, curiosity, networking, action, and enthusiasm will take you far.</p>

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<p>Yet another story that supports my argument that getting a double major is critical.</p>

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<p>I also had the same fear of what you are experiencing. Right when I started my BS in mathematics I tried to change to computer science but they wouldn’t let me. So I stuck out the math degree. Then I was working in a genetics lab making good money. I decided to go for my MS in mathematics which I completed and got a job at a biotech company, made lots of money and eventually went back to the academic setting which is more relaxed. I’m now working in MRI brain research and making ok money. But the bottom line is that you have to sell yourself during the interview. Not only are you a math major but you can adapt to anything, troubleshoot problems and demonstrate knowledge about the job field that you are going into. For example, I sat in on a lot of neuroanatomy classes before I got my current job. I was working at Whole Foods while waiting for my application to go through for my current job. The employers really liked that and knew that I was motivated to work. So, it’s not just the degree, but the way you present yourself during interviews and how you prepare for the subject matter. You could get an MS in CS or something similar at night while you are working and move up the latter! If that is what interests you that is. Always pursue a job in a field that interests you. Then you will be naturally motivated and people will pick up on that.</p>