<p>To major in math or not to major in math
That is the question.</p>
<p>Throughout highschool, the only subjects that really interested me were History, Mathematics, and Visual Arts
and out of the three Math seems like the most - um - down to earch major.</p>
<p>I wasn't particularly 'best' at math</p>
<p>I was well-rounded for every subject (not 'amazing' at any subject, just got around 90-92% for every subject) but I like math the best.</p>
<p>So I was all up for majoring in math until I heard the average GPA at Berkeley was 2.2............</p>
<p>Yeah I know what I'm going to do with a math major (probably go to Law School after or do something in computer)
but to go to Law school you need high GPas...</p>
<p>any Berkeley Math majors want to tell me what majoring in Math at Berkeley is like?........</p>
<p>my alternate option would be... majoring in Econ but Econ and math are just not the same y'know?</p>
<p>Here’s the thing – if you major solely in mathematics, you probably will want to go to graduate school if you want the best career options. A math major can do several things if having significant background in fields other than just math, given most other majors have comparatively very low sophistication in mathematical techniques. </p>
<p>However, a math enthusiast who did nothing else and knows nothing else (for instance, didn’t do something like pick up lots of CS knowledge along the way) generally has limited career options. </p>
<p>Definitely it isn’t an easy major, but there are plenty of very bright people who do very well here in the department. Also, Berkeley’s math faculty is some of the most renowned in the nation, and really isn’t second to any – their recommendations and support can help immensely in getting you into graduate school, though they aren’t by any means easy to impress. </p>
<p>Several good things to study with math: biology, physics, computer science, IEOR, electrical engineering (especially signal processing), economics (e.g. econometrics), statistics (goes along with economics for instance). </p>
<p>Figure out what you’re interested in, and study that! That simple. But you have to be aggressive in figuring out what you’re into.</p>
<p>EDIT: If you’re careful with the professors you take courses with, you can get a good math GPA. What’s mroe, having a near 4.0 in math looks pretty damn impressive to anyone. And last, math majors tend to do very well on things like the LSAT. I know one guy who just missed a perfect on it, and he’s one of the brighter math majors I know.</p>
<p>If your goal is to get to Law school, then choosing the right major is very important. You want to major in something that interests you and at the same time can give you a good shot at a near perfect gpa. Law schools do NOT care what you major in, the only time majors matter is if you want to go to patent law (you have to be a science major to take the patent bar). You said you were interested in history, why not go for that then? </p>
<p>LSAT is probably a bit more important than GPA but both are extremely important, more than anything else. Generally, Biology/Chemistry majors score the highest on the LSAT, then Philosophy/Political Science/Religion, etc. If you want to get into Boalt, then GPA would be weighed slightly more than LSAT (avg GPA being near 3.72++). I strongly suggest you take your time and choose wisely, if you go in without thinking and end up with a 3.0 as a math major, then you will most likely be auto rejected from HYS,Boalt, and several other T14 (unless you somehow score a 180). </p>
<p>Sephorazn18, could you cite your sources in regards to this statement: “Generally, Biology/Chemistry majors score the highest on the LSAT, then Philosophy/Political Science/Religion, etc”?</p>
<p>You said you like history, the Classics department offers a major in Classical Civilizations. This major won’t qualify you for graduate school, but it is thought of as a sort of pre-law/pre-med/etc. major. Classics courses are really easy.</p>
<p>if you look at the bottom of the LSAT table you’ll see that the source is the Journal of Economic Education. It’d be ridiculous if they had 82,000 students that took the LSAT when roughly 150,000 people take it every year.</p>
<p>Seems like you took stats. However, the fact that it is a smaller sample does not really make a difference. The fact that it is a different sample is a big difference. There is little reason for us to believe scores are generalizable. For example, if we had scores for Business majors from Berkeley, we would have no reason to believe they would generalize to all Business majors. At UIC, Business majors are ranked 24/29 in scores. I would guess that Business majors would rank higher at Cal because of the selection process.</p>
<p>Well, you can actually combine your interest in history and math through studying econ. I know that isn’t the question at hand, but I just wanted to point out that you can study history and use econ as a framework for historical events (ex. 1792, 1848, 1937, 1980s) and then you can use math to create economic models based on your historical knowledge. Of course, this suggestion would be angled towards more applied math than pure math. I think the major advantage of this career path is economic modeling makes big money, and if you love money more than spending lots of years in school or around school, then this may be a good choice for you.</p>
<p>Do you really know what a math major is like? </p>
<p>In high school, they give you a problem, you set up an integral expression, solve and put a box around your answer. As a math major, you wouldn’t be engaging in such work; instead, you’d be trying to prove rather pointless things such as “prove the sum of a rational and irrational number is irrational.” And while some may find this math orgasmic, the truth is many, including this self-professed math lover, don’t. </p>
<p>So with this in mind, reasses your goals…do you REALLY want to become a math major or do you instead want to apply your math knowledge? If the latter is true, then think about a major in engineering, physics, statistics or economics.</p>
<p>I actually like proving things like prove the sum of a rational and irrational number is irrational.". It’s just that I heard that for a math major, effort isn’t enough - you have to be born smart. is that true if you go on to higher levels?</p>
<p>I mean I am ready to put in the effort…
but what if the effort isn’t enough?</p>
<p>and I am very bad at writing / writing essays… so that’s why I’m trying to stay away from history major lol
(I got 580 in SAT writing… 8-9 in the essay… lol)</p>
<p>SAT writing is just BS since they take about 3 seconds to look through it. (I used to grade SAT writing at my summer job at a tutoring center and the grader just looks for a couple of things in your essay before assigning a number; they don’t actually read it.)</p>
<p>It’s more important that you consider what people who have actually read your essays say about your writing (your teachers, parents, friends, etc.).</p>