<p>I just completed my first year of college in the science and engineering school at my university. I took mostly pre-requisite basics that covered all majors (physics, calculus, general chemistry) during my first year, along with some other liberal arts requirements because I still wasn't quite sure what I intended to do. Now that I am going to be a sophomore, I still have little idea of what I would like to do. I initially applied as a mathematics major, but my parents tried to convince me otherwise, telling me about how I'll "only be a teacher" and I explored the option of a BS in an engineering focus. The only one that sort of interested me was Industrial and Systems Engineering, and I feel like that was only because it sounds like a lot of applied math. To any current or graduated math majors, what made you pick math and what did you decide to focus on? I really don't want to do pure math, but I would like to know what other people plan on doing with their math majors to give me an idea of options to think about. </p>
<p>I plan on getting a job with the largest employer of mathematicians in the United States. I also plan on taking part in student government for a credit. I plan on minoring in computer science. I am also interested in astronomy and physics. I am also interested in political science.</p>
<p>What made me pick math? Actually, I had first wanted to major in electrical-electronics engineering but I heard CSULA was not taking anymore applications, so I majored in Physics instead. After a year, I changed to Math so I can graduate a year sooner since Physics upper classes were not offered regularly. ALSO, I thought since Physics uses Math a lot I thought “the truth about the universe” can be found in Math. After my BS, I applied for graduate school majoring in Applied Math writing down in my application “I want to develop a transportation that uses magnetic levitation.” (Ten years down the line, Japan have trains that run on magnetic levitation.) I had actually been planning to use my BS to enter government service and get paid studying nuclear engineering but I had forgotten all about it when I applied for graduate school. But after 1 day of graduate school, I decided to teach math in junior high, get paid for it, while still attending CSULA to get the required teaching certificate. Now I’m trying to find what Master of Science degree program is there in Computer Science, Mathematics, or Psychology that will solve this: “methodology to make math or any subject be learned by the average person just as easily as any other subject.”</p>
<p>Seems like you know what you like. Applied math can do lots of things in addition to teaching. You can explore being an actuary and get a job that hires and supports people on an actuarial track. They can be market analysts, financial analysts. Do modeling and forecasting. Business and marketing analytics. Some even will work as software engineers. Aside from finance, insurance and tech some scientific and industrial areas require these skills.</p>
<p>My daughter started doing sciences like chem and physics and the math to support that and got into computer science so did a math-cs combined major, got an advanced degree in machine learning and is working as a data scientist which is in demand across many industries.</p>