Serious epiphany and now planning my life... (Math major help, please?)

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
1

<p>I decided I don't want to be premed, and I want to an actuary. I took a few actuarial exams to see if I would be any good at the profession, and after talking about this major switch with my parents, I decided to switch over from being an MCB major to an Applied Mathematics major!</p>

<p>I took AP Calc BC in high school and got a 5, but decided to retake the 1 series for med school. I'm currently finishing up 1B right now and hope to walk away with either a B+ or an A-. The lack of an A is due to me not showing up to discussion the last few weeks of the semester and consequently not turning in homework or taking quizzes, NOT because I don't understand the material. This is due to my current obsession over studying O-Chem, a subject I recently learned I despised. My apathy for the sciences convinced me I wouldn't be happy as a doctor in the future. While I'm good at it, I don't find the subject enjoyable to study/learn as I do math.</p>

<p>Anyways, so for a math major I have to take 1A/1B/53/54/55, then 104/110/113/128A/185, and then a focus in actuarial science so Math 128B and Stats 134/135. I also need to complete 3 more breadth classes (Ethics, Historical, Biological). Schedule for my sophomore, junior, and senior year seems to be like this:</p>

<p>SOPHOMORE
Fall
Viet 1A
Math 53
Econ 136</p>

<p>Spring
Viet 1B
Math 54/55
Easy breadth class</p>

<p>JUNIOR
Fall
Viet 100A
Math 110
Math 128A
Stats 134*(?)</p>

<p>Spring
Viet 100B
Math 104
Math 113</p>

<p>SENIOR
Fall
Math 128B
Math 85
Stats 135*(?)</p>

<p>Spring semester I hope to take some more finance/economic classes to help me with the actual job. I heard stats 134 is hard, so I can move it to the fall of senior year and take 135 during the spring. Problem is, I wanted to take it as a junior so I could take my second actuarial exam and pass before graduation. Taking it my senior year would push my exams back a year. I also plan to take some summer session courses to knock my breadth out of the way and maybe squeeze in a full math course to lighten my load during the actual school year, so hopefully I can fit in Math 128A or 110 in the summer so I could take Stats 134 along with only one upper-div math course.</p>

<p>Long story short, any comments on how I'm spacing out my classes in terms of difficulty? Any suggestions for easy breadth classes for the subjects I'm missing? What courses should I take in the summer (math ones that is) and what should I take spring of senior year? I admit my schedule is a bit unrealistic/idealistic, but I'm kind of not thinking straight since my head is flooded with information since my finals are in two days!</p>

2

<p>Most math courses are low workload, compared to lab science courses where the lab consumes a lot of time, as well as giving additional homework (writing lab reports). However, some people find proof oriented upper division math courses much more difficult than lower division math courses. Consider the honors versions of 53 and 54 for more theory/proofs.</p>

<p>Note that you can take 53, 54, and 55 in any order or together. If you take 53 and 54 next semester, you may be able to get a jump on your upper division math courses. (Taking them in the summer may also help in this respect.)</p>

<p>Have you looked at the following web sites?</p>

<p>[url=&lt;a href=“http://www.beanactuary.com/college/preparing.cfm]Be”&gt;http://www.beanactuary.com/college/preparing.cfm]Be</a> An Actuary - Preparing for an Actuarial Career While in College<a href=“general%20information”>/url</a>
[url=&lt;a href=“http://www.soa.org/education/exam-req/edu-vee.aspx]Validation”&gt;Validation by Educational Experience (VEE) | SOA]Validation</a> by Educational Experience<a href=“list%20of%20courses%20recommended%20for” title=“Validation by Educational Experience”>/url</a></p>

3

<p>How dedicated are you towards this goal? It seems like you were initially pre-med, became discouraged by O-Chem, and now want to switch to a major out due to a new interest. </p>

<p>Do you think your new interest in becoming an actuary will last? Although you may like Math now, proofs and upper division Math is almost completely different from the lower divisions and your AP Calc class. You should consider these type of questions before committing yourself completely to a new goal.</p>

<p>As for now, I believe you should stop scheduling and just focus on your finals. You don’t want to build up any more stress. Then after finals, you can start scheduling your classes again. It’s not like enrolling in classes now and enrolling in classes a few days from now will make a big difference anyways.</p>

4

<p>UCBAlumnus: I know this isn’t much of a comparison, but I really like learning/knowing the proofs in single-variable calculus. Everything makes a lot more sense for me personally when I understand the proofs. I’ve seen the first site and it’s actually where I found the practice problems to test my aptitude for the career. I will spend more time looking at the VEE after my finals. I am also for sure doing summer school next year, so hopefully I’ll knock out more classes and lighten my load for the school year.</p>

<p>187: I know this sounds extremely arrogant, but I feel like I would be good at anything I do be it the humanities, mathematics, or sciences. The problem lies with finding something I like since my interest in the subject dictates my dedication to it. To be honest, I chose the science/premed route because it’s what my mom wanted me to do and I had no other clear aspirations in mind. My dad actually lectured me countless times last year when I was deciding on majors and schools because he knew I wouldn’t like the sciences. In fact, when I called my parents to tell them about this, he went on saying how he knew I would change my mind about premed and wished I had listened to him before and chose something <em>I</em> wanted to focus instead of listening to my mom.</p>

<p>I plan on taking multivariable calculus and maybe an upper div theory class at a community college this summer for fun and exposure to the subject. Hopefully the classes reaffirms my interest in becoming an actuary! :)</p>

<p>As far as finals and O-Chem goes, I’m actually doing relatively okay in the class. I’m not doing as well as I’d hope, but I’ll probably walk away with a B/B+, depending on how the curve and final goes. However, you’re right. I should probably get back to studying now. :P</p>

5

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<p>Community colleges do not offer upper division courses.</p>

<p>Use [Welcome</a> to ASSIST](<a href=“http://www.assist.org%5DWelcome”>http://www.assist.org) to match up community college courses with Berkeley courses. You will probably find that the math courses match up better at a semester system community college. You may want to save Math 54 for next fall, when Math H54 is offered.</p>

<p>Alternatively, you can try to cover breadth courses (other than the ones that you have already taken or will take with Economics courses) at community college, so that you have more schedule space for Math, Statistics, and Economics.</p>

<p>Note that many of the same courses preparing for actuarial jobs and careers may make you recruitable for quantitative finance jobs.</p>

<p>You may also want to consider taking the CS 61 series and/or a course teaching MATLAB (Engineering 7, Statistics 133?).</p>

6

<p>I think you should take stat 134 as soon as you can because its a prereq for pretty much all the other stat courses. According to the stat dept website: “Students preparing for actuarial careers might consider taking Stat 151A, either 150 or 152, and 153.”</p>

7

<p>Matlab isn’t taught in Stat 133.
If you take Math 128a, you will be given the option of taking a 10 week 2 unit class on Matlab (Math98).</p>

8

<p>I’m just curious: How relevant are the proofs and stuff you learn in a math major to an actuarial career? </p>

<p>And an unrelated question, but one that I’m sure some people here can answer: how is a stats major different from a math major? Are there less proofs and more computational things?</p>

9

<p>With a few tweaks to the schedule I seem to be on track for VEE and major in Applied Mathematics with a concentration in Actuarial Science, except for Stats 153. When should I take that class? Before or after 134?</p>

<p>And I didn’t know that community college didn’t offer “upper div” type classes. :frowning: I was really hoping to get some exposure to the course before jumping into it at Cal.</p>

10

<p>Stat 134 is required for pretty much all the stat 15x series classes. Stat 135 and 133 are recommended for a lot of them as well.</p>

<p>Like JFgX says, take 134 as soon as you can if you intend to take any other upper div stats class.</p>

11

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<p>But you’re getting B+'s in Math 1B and Chem 3A? I don’t know much about Chem 3A, but these classes probably pale in comparison to say Math 104.</p>

12

<p>Getting only a B+ in Math 1B after having gotten a 5 on AP Calculus BC sounds like a study habit or time management problem…</p>

13

<p>singh2010: At the undergraduate level, the stat major is more concerned with computation and modeling without a very rigorous explanation of why the stuff works. In a proof based math course, you start with very basic definitions and axioms and build the theory using lemmas and theorems.</p>

14

<p>stay premed! undergraduate academics has no correlation to the practice of medicine. we dont need more quants sitting in front of screens analyzing numbers to make money</p>

15

<p>Are you in Math 1B with Prof. Aganagic?</p>

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<p>Undergraduate academics does have correlation in that if your GPA is too low, you are unlikely to get into any medical school in the US. A B+ average is generally considered too low to get into medical school in the US.</p>

17

<p>You come up with a final decision, OP?</p>