<p>So here's the story. I'll be a senior next year and I absolutely love math. I'll be going to college already having taken math up to Differential Equations. I understand that Undergraduate math is very different than high school math but I could honestly do math homework all day long and never get tired of it and actually enjoy it up to this point so I'm fairly confident that I'll be doing something with math. As all current math research is being conducted through physics(modeling natures processes with math functions, something i find fascinating), through many hours of researching careers, I have decided i want to become a Mathematical Physicist, or Theoretical Physicist. I know that this can change while at college, but all other math careers, such as Actuarial Science, are too monotonous, and doing research and being a professor would be interesting. Granted, I understand that the hollywood-ized version is a bit different but I feel it's something i would enjoy. After many hours of also researching Physics, I can honestly say Im fascinated with every aspect of it. I also understand that simply researching ideas is very different that taking classes, but it's a start. The part i find most interesting is particle physics and interestingly enough, String theory and QFT rely heavily on math.</p>
<p>So here's the question. As being a Particle Physicist requires a lot of math and physics, I thought doing a double major in Math and Physics for UG would be optimal. This would also give me a solid foundation in Physics while allowing me to pursue my passion in math. My first question is how hard and time consuming would this be at MIT and Stanford? I know at MIT I wouldn't be able to place out of Multivariable and I'm not sure about Stanford. But would this double major be doable at these universities without taking 5 years or having to take 5 classes every semester(/quarter for stanford)? If someone who's done this could give me some insight that would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>All current math research is most certainly not being conducted through physics. Most research in math does not involve physics at all. I’m not sure where you got that idea… Most math research is done without any regard to its applications to things outside of math. Occasionally people will just append things like “this may be of application to these fields” as an afterthought, but that is not what drives math research.</p>
<p>You’ll need to spend more than “many hours” researching physics before you really settle on it. If you really enjoy math in undergraduate math courses, you’ll likely hate the way math is done in undergraduate physics courses. </p>
<p>The double major is certainly doable in 4 years, but you’ll need to take at least 4 math/physics courses per semester after freshman year (or ~3 per quarter, for that system). Each major will be somewhere around 10-15 required courses. By your junior, maybe even sophomore year, you will probably want to focus on one of the two majors a bit more, which will be the one you will pursue graduate studies in. You’ll need to take a lot more electives in this major if you want to get into graduate school, as the requirements are typically pretty minimal.</p>
<p>^I would like to add, however, that Math and Physics tend to have several overlapping classes. All of the math classes required for a physics major are usually applicable to the math major as well, so that’s 2-3 classes that overlap. And sometimes a physics class can be applied as a math elective, and vice versa, so that’s another 1-2 classes of overlap.</p>
<p>I think you’ll definitely want to get a PhD, and will also want to get involved in research with professors/labs.</p>
<p>What I would do is take one math and one physics class per semester/quarter for the first year. I would avoid taking honors classes your first semester/quarter, only because you need to evaluate how hard your school is. You could also try taking both honors and non-honors and then dropping one of them before the drop deadline, if you so desire. Also involve yourself in research over the summer. Then evaluate which field you like best.</p>
<p>If you really like both, AND you do really well in both, you can double major. If you really love one field and kind of like another field, or do worse in another field, maybe major in one and minor in the other. Or you might end up disliking one of the fields, so you can just single major.</p>
<p>While it is definitely possible to do both majors, I would recommended you choose one and minor in the other. I am a physics major minoring in math. I did this because I realized that physics was my passion and that I wanted to concentrate all my effort on it rather than splitting my time between both majors. Although knowing math really helps for theoretical physics, most of the math you need is taught in physics courses in a different way than how it is taught in math courses. I am currently doing theoretical/computational physics research which uses some group theory and it is used in a much different context than how I learned it when I took abstract algebra.</p>
<p>what is some of the current research being done in the math field? so for example if i got my phd in math and was doing research on it at a university what would i be doing?</p>