<p>Hey I was considering in doing either a minor or possible a full blown major if I have time in math, but I was wondering how the math department at Columbia is? How are the professors overall and are students in the major quite happy about their position?</p>
<p>I was also wondering is it possible to do a econ/math double major and premed or would that be a bit much?</p>
<p>Finally, (I know I'm asking too many questions but just hang with me ) how much would a math major help with econ, does Columbia prepare you enough to make you an analytical/abstract thinker?</p>
<p>you can do a econ-math joint major, which is less work than a double major but more than a normal single major.. so maybe u can fit pre-med in there?</p>
<p>econ-math joint major may be more work than most single majors, but it's certainly not more work than a math major. with the econ-math you can avoid most of the truly difficult math classes.</p>
<p>The math department at Columbia is incredible. Our professors are some of the top math minds in the world. To be even an associate math prof at Columbia you pretty much have to have done something incredible, or gone to one of the top few grad programs in the world (usually MIT or Oxbridge). And yes, although math majors at Columbia usually end up working pretty hard, we certainly are happy about our position. When we graduate the opportunities for us are pretty incredible.</p>
<p>cerb, would you mind explaining what you meant by "stellar education"? are you referring to quality of teaching, development of abstract/analytical thinking etc.? any exceptionally good classes that math majors should take?</p>
<p>metsfan, any examples of these incredible opportunities? :D</p>
<p>All of the above, and a strong peer group and career opportunities afterward. Everyone needs the math majors. However, I don't know of any 'exceptionally good' math classes, because I was a neuro major--I think Discreet Time Models in Finance was a useful, although really hard class. That said, a couple of close friends were applied math and math, and usually had good things to say either about their professors, or cried over classes where they were more or less left to themselves to work through. I think they'll be happy about the latter case in the near future. At least in my case, I've derived the most benefit from classes like that because I've had to think for myself.
Any math/science major will give you a decent amount of analyitical and extrapolative thinking skills.</p>
<p>Thanks for the all the advice guys. But the thing with the joint econ/math major, is that i'm not really going in depth in either subject. I'll definitely major in econ but wanted to do the math double major because I think it would supplement my econ major and help development me into a more abstract/analytical thinker.</p>
<p>Partial Differential Equations still gives me nightmares. Same with quantum mechanics. Those were the only two classes I've taken, ever, where I was completely incapable, physically, of getting an A. </p>
<p>Prof. Marc Spiegelman (Applied Math) is one of the best teachers i've ever seen, in any department.</p>
<p>Taking a math or APMA major gives you more intellectual rigor than the Econ students who will often be sitting next to you in various classes - such as Analysis & Optimization, or Game Theory. You'll just outclass them - they'll be sweating bullets learning what you consider very basic, almost trivial material. The game theory class I took was 80% econ and 20% apma students, and every single applied math student i knew basically slept through the class, waltzed in and got an A, while the econ kids I knew in it were complaining about how hard it was. The Statistical Inference class you take as part of the applied math major will be 80% STAT Masters students, and 20% applied math undergrads. In my experience the Stat MA students continuously asked dumb, basic questions in class to the point where us smarty-pants undergrads simply stopped coming to class. No problems getting A's there either.</p>
<p>I only had a few classes that weren't basic math stuff (i.e. ODEs) with the true Math students. Those kids are sharp. The ones who can handle the Honors calculus track are basically all geniuses, and they love what they do, often volunteering at the Calc helproom mostly because they feel like it. One of the privileges of being a math or applied math student is getting to be around such smart people all the time, it really kicks your brain up a gear.</p>