<p>International Relations:</p>
<p>...so, you gonna bag yourself an exotic husband with that?</p>
<p>When I was in journalism, everyone assumed I was either:</p>
<p>a) A heartless ******* who attacked fire victims for news quotes</p>
<p>or </p>
<p>b) Paparazzi-in-training.</p>
<p>Im a math major.</p>
<p>In college I always hang out in the math department and basically only talk to math/cs people. So I barely get any weird response in college. Although sometimes I do. </p>
<p>However, outside of college when I interact with the low-lifes of society I get the usual "...so you going into teaching? ".</p>
<p>At first I took the time to explain that even though being a Mathematics professor (not teacher) could be one of my possibilities in the future, its not what I have in mind right now. </p>
<p>I got tired of the same **** everytime so now I just say " yes probably. " I dont really care. </p>
<p>I have also noticed that responses vary A LOT by the major your talking to. If someone asks you and they are themselves a math/cs/eng major, the response is the most valid. They actually understand what im doing, appreciate it, and ask me for help because they are struggling in Calc2 with series (lol). Now the other weak majors are the ones who give you the retarded responses because they failed Trig or Algebra back in HS and are frustrared with math. <--- owned.</p>
<p>
[quote]
However, outside of college when I interact with the low-lifes of society I get the usual "...so you going into teaching? ".
[/quote]
Low lifes?</p>
<p>Yes.</p>
<p>Regular uneducated people.</p>
<p>You really think people who less educated than you are lowlifes?</p>
<p>Wow... pretentious. You do realize that term implies low moral character as well as a lower social class, right?</p>
<p>I must admit, I do have something of a prejudice against the following groups:</p>
<p>Pre-med, pre-law majors... it puts a bad taste in my mouth to know these people don't care about learning, just about grades.</p>
<p>Business majors... again, is it just money?</p>
<p>Fine Arts Majors... If you want to be an artist, that's fine, and if you want to critique art, that's fine. But do you really need a college education to do that? It seems like overkill.</p>
<p>Math majors... now, it's no fault of the discipline, but of academia in general. Students majoring in math don't see enough application, and aren't exposed to enough breadth of material. They are taught to shun technology by professors who themselves believe that their subject is above those that rely on math, and as such, these are among the most conceited and overconfident people I have ever known.</p>
<p>I have nothing but respect, however, for other majors in science, engineering, liberal arts, and social sciences. Now, that doesn't mean I would respect all people in those majors... some people only come to college to get good grades to find high paying jobs. This happens a lot in engineering, but not universally.</p>
<p>I believe any student who (1) is at college to advance their career or (2) convince themselves that they are smarter and/or more knowledgable than everybody else is a waste of resources and should be dealt with accordingly. College should be about learning as much as you can, which includes knowing that every discipline is unique and worthy of study and that good students in different fields are equals. What one studies doesn't set them apart.</p>
<p>csprof2000, what do you think would be an adequate breadth of material for a math major?</p>
<p>Electrical engineering:it's so hard.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Yes.</p>
<p>Regular uneducated people.
[/quote]
I know what they are.</p>
<p>I couldn't tell if you were kidding or being sarcastic though. If you meant it, then I'd hate to meet you in real life :/</p>
<p>csprof2000, how are engineers not obsessed with their grades? All the ones I know are more concerned about it than pre-law/pre-med because of the huge grade depression. It's fine that you are prefer people who are in generally more relaxed majors, but I'm just pointing out that engineering is generally considered a pre-professional/grade-centric major. This presents a problem to your statement:</p>
<p>"some people only come to college to get good grades to find high paying jobs. This happens a lot in engineering, but not universally."</p>
<p>Universally all pre-law and pre-med students only care about grades to get high-paying jobs, and universally all business majors are only in it for the money?</p>
<p>Barium:</p>
<p>I believe that the tone of undergraduate mathematics education should change... at least the way it's done here in the US. Applications... such as physics, computer science, economics, etc. ... should be celebrated and embraced, not pushed to the side and looked down upon. The beauty of mathematics is that it not only is beautiful per se, but that it has such a wide range of applications and that the ideas apply to so many other areas. I believe the former is generally emphasized excessively to the detriment of the latter.</p>
<p>Again, this is not a problem for motivated students, who will always find ways of making their educations worthwhile. But I believe that mathematics students are particularly at risk of academic in-breeding, whereby they become mathematicians in a box.</p>
<p>Most undergraduate mathematics programs here in the US do not require (in my opinion) nearly enough application / technique classes. Most graduates have only a rudimentary understanding of computers and computational techniques, although most will need them in jobs or academic research. Advanced courses in physical sciences - classical mechanics, for example - where students can see why one bothers to study differential equations in the first place. Vector calculus and linear algebra are presented as interesting playthings, not as the powerful tools used by researches in E&M. Etc.</p>
<p>CollectivSynergy: </p>
<p>I acknowledged that a good number of engineering students are in it just for the jobs, but many aren't - and my point was that more are in it for the right reasons than are in pre-law or pre-med programs.</p>
<p>Also, I go on to say that students in any major can be in that major for the right reasons, and that my prejudices were really only statistical; obviously, you must evaluate things on a case-by-case basis.</p>
<p>Really, its already happening in the US where more and more applications are used in introductory college math courses such as calculus. The issue is double faceted. Almost always this leads away from mathematical rigor and focuses on computation and regurgitation with a mix of applications. This lowers the level of critical thinking among college science/engineering students and mathematics students. Of course you can make the argument that critical reasoning is not reduced because the applications need not be regurgitation. While that may be true, its also clear that the problems become limited in difficulty due to the time constrants. A math professor may not have enough time to throughly cover the principals of engineering or physics or any other field requiring mathematical applications. Thus, the problems are often very simple and lack creativity. </p>
<p>This leads to the next problem: redundancy. Most applications in math revolves around physics problems and occasionally other problems within natural and social sciences. This applications are likely to be discussed ad nauseum in their respective classes and need not be discussed again in math. For example, when doing a torque problem, one has to use integral calculus to find the moment of inertia. This is also covered in calculus but is dumbed down to simplify things. If you want to learn how to calculate moments, you should just take a physics class. Not a math class. Unfortunately, many engineering students are having their education robbed from them after the revelation that they had not learned a single thing in math because it was all covered in physics. Most likely they would have not only learned more in theory oriented calculus, they would have also become stronger critical thinkers and problem solvers. </p>
<p>Moreover, even without application, math majors are still very useful in the sense that they develops strong thinking skills. And its precisely these critical thinking skills that makes one successful in his/her jobs. Also, these skills are useful in standardized testing which, believe it or not, is still the gate to many high end careers(med, law etc). </p>
<p>
[quote]
In 5 minutes of searching, I found this...If you rank the average GRE scores by department, physics/astronomy rank 1st in quantitative, verbal, and writing. LSAT scores ? Physics/math takes it again. GMAT? Physics is first again. If you look at the combined scores for the three tests, and add in the average salary for graduating seniors, the top three are physics, math and economics. Surprise?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Down-grading</a> | Columbia Spectator
Why</a> Economics?</p>
<p>If a math major wanted to learn how his math applied itself to other areas, he would take a different major.</p>
<p>It's really as simple as that.</p>
<p>I'm a film production major and the usual response i get it</p>
<p>"There's no money in that"</p>
<p>"Wow, so what are you going to do after you graduate?"</p>
<p>But sometimes i get complimented :) which is nice</p>
<p>Some random person: "So what are you majoring in?"
Me: "Sociology and government."
Rando: <em>scratches head</em> "So you're learning the best way to screw over different groups of people?"</p>
<p>Or...
Rando: "So what's your major?"
Me: "Government"
Rando: <em>scratches head</em> "So you want to pursue a career as a liar?"
Me: "Excuse me? Do you mean * lawyer *?
Rando: "Lawyer, liar, politician...Same thing"</p>
<p>I know what they are.</p>
<p>I couldn't tell if you were kidding or being sarcastic though. If you meant it, then I'd hate to meet you in real life :/</p>
<hr>
<p>^ I was being sarcastic. Although I feel good about myself for being a math major...im not a total ******* (jerk) :)</p>
<p>
[quote]
Some random person: "So what are you majoring in?"
Me: "Sociology and government."
Rando: <em>scratches head</em> "So you're learning the best way to screw over different groups of people?"</p>
<p>Or...
Rando: "So what's your major?"
Me: "Government"
Rando: <em>scratches head</em> "So you want to pursue a career as a liar?"
Me: "Excuse me? Do you mean lawyer ?
Rando: "Lawyer, liar, politician...Same thing"
[/quote]
Interesting... I've never heard of a major in government.</p>
<p>That said, I'd expect most people to give that response, as it's a funny one!</p>
<p>I'm a political science major. Once one of my lit teachers talked about how I was majoring in "politics." -_-</p>
<p>I told her I was majoring in the study of political behavior, and saying that I was majoring in politics was like saying economists major in money. She didn't really get it and kept going on about the evils of politicians or something.</p>
<p>Acere, glad you were being sarcastic... I guess that went over my head. :)</p>
<p>"Oh you want to be a nurse? Why not a doctor?" - Most people I've told assume that nurses are people who aren't smart enough to become doctors.</p>