<p>For a time last semester when I wanted to be a math major (I still haven't declared my major), when I told someone that I was a math major, more times than not they smirked at me. I am not too good at reading nonverbal language, and was wondering if someone could help me understand the meaning of their response.</p>
<p>I mean, do people think of math majors as brainless drones who happen to be good with numbers and nothing else? Do they think of math majors as people who won't make it too far up in the socioeconomic food chain, and therefore are deemed inferior to say, business majors? Or do they smirk at math majors simply because that's a socially conditioned response that means "gotcha, you are a geek!"?</p>
<p>I don't think their response means "wow, this guy must be smart," because if that's what they thought they probably wouldn't have smirked in the first place. Perhaps their response means "I guess this guy isn't as dumb as he seems," but then again, can it be that so many people are so mean?</p>
<p>it probably means..."wow, have fun with that!" <em>sarasm</em>
believe it or not, most people who go to college are still scared of math. they probably laugh because they are scared.</p>
<p>my best friend's a math major and she's pretty damn smart, as many math majors are. I guess people might look at it as boring, but it's definitely not considered an easy major - if I had to rank all the major in my college from easiest to hardest, math would be in the top 10 most difficult, whereas business is kind of easy. math majors usually aren't career failures, they're often sucessful in the business world.</p>
<p>my dad works in finance and hires a lot of math majors. he says he finds that on average, they're smarter than business majors and obviously good with numbers.</p>
<p>Because the thought of being math majors terrifies us and when we find out that someone is a math major, we are overcome an awe that we can't quite make sense of.</p>
<p>Okay, that's an exaggeration, but that really is what I think when I hear somebody is a math major. You LIKE that? That's amazing! I'm glad someone does!</p>
<p>"Okay, that's an exaggeration, but that really is what I think when I hear somebody is a math major. You LIKE that? That's amazing! I'm glad someone does!"</p>
<p>Yup, this is probably how most people have reacted to how into math I am.</p>
<p>"my dad works in finance and hires a lot of math majors. he says he finds that on average, they're smarter than business majors and obviously good with numbers."</p>
<p>Well, not all math majors are good with numbers ;) math is pretty insanely abstract at a certain stage. I'm not good with numbers at all, but I love abstract mathematics for one thing...</p>
<p>Okay, fine, maybe I can handle a logical problem better than most majors could...but there are better at "clever" problems that do involve numbers. I bet a CS major could give almost any math major quite a bit of competition when it comes to cleverness.</p>
<p>F<strong><em>ing Disgusting Computer Science Major is the reason that you don’t want to go to class. He bathes roughly once every leap year and wears the same "totally awesome" Japanese video game (the import version was so much better) shirt for half a semester at a time. No matter how far away you get from him, the stench seems to travel across the room and assault your nostrils. F</em></strong>ing Disgusting Computer Science Major has no time for the English language, and he will often ask questions that make little to no sense and lack any sort of "grammatical structure." He’s the only character that can actually give Silent Foreign Curve Destroyer a run for his money on the intellectual scale, but that’s only because he was probably born with knowledge of linear algebra and differential equations.</p>
<p>SILENT FOREIGN CURVE DESTROYER</p>
<p>Silent Foreign Curve Destroyer has nothing better to do than study. While the average of the rest of the class is a respectable 45%, Silent Foreign Curve Destroyer has approximately a 1351% in the course, thereby totally destroying any chance you had of passing the class. Silent Foreign Curve Destroyer can be identified by the fact that he will be in the library before you get there and stay far after you've left. He will almost certainly wear the same clothing throughout the entire course, and, while he may be human, it's more likely that he's some kind of magic robot.</p>
<p>Uh oh. I usually wear the same clothing. That's a bad omen.</p>
<p>"I bet a CS major could give almost any math major quite a bit of competition when it comes to cleverness."</p>
<p>At least at my school, the Microsoft College Puzzle Challenge is dominated by the math majors, and those puzzles require a ridiculous amount of cleverness.</p>
<p>Because any math knowledge beyond what the Science majors are taught will never be needed. Math majors are inferior to Science majors in nearly every way.</p>
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Because any math knowledge beyond what the Science majors are taught will never be needed.
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Tell that to the physics professors who are using very sophisticated methods in topology on a daily basis, the programmers who use a discretized version of differential geometry to generate computer graphics, or the cryptographers who use abstract algebra to keep your data safe on the web. Clearly, higher math is completely and utterly useless.</p>
<p>"Tell that to the physics professors who are using very sophisticated methods in topology on a daily basis, the programmers who use a discretized version of differential geometry to generate computer graphics, or the cryptographers who use abstract algebra to keep your data safe on the web. Clearly, higher math is completely and utterly useless. "</p>
<p>You are talking about branches of mathematics that not all math majors are experts on. At my school, for instance, topology, differential geometry and cryptography are elective math courses, taught once every other year. Out of the subjects you mentioned, only abstract algebra is a required course for math majors. And for the record, how many job postings have you seen that specifically ask for knowledge of abstract algebra? How many even ask for a degree in math?</p>
<p>Math does branch off into various areas of pure abstraction that may be difficult to apply, but great science (and even great social science) often comes from seeing a way to apply methods built up in one area to another that no one else has seen in a way that delivers useful results. A friend of mine is a mathematician who taught himself molecular biology and then genetics and has become one of the leaders of the field of genomics and one of the more distinguished scientists in the world in part by using his mathematics background to develop insights in genetics. When my physicist father was inducted into the National Academy of Science, one of the other members of the Academy told me, "Your father is known as a virtuoso mathematician among physicists." This was said with no smirk and with serious respect and admiration. You'd find similar applications in economics. So, while I suspect that there are areas of math that will never be more than really, really challenging puzzles, it may be hard to know that some apparently hard to apply areas may later have applications. </p>
<p>The smirks may come in part from a) a general and usually correct sense that math guys are somewhat socially inept; b) the other-worldiness/disconnectedness of many mathematicians (and physicists and computer scientists, etc.) whose minds are always focused on math/physics, even when they are talking to others; and c) a sense of insecurity because the smirkers know that what you do is very hard and that many of them don't have a clue as to what you do and never will, while you can probably figure out what they do if you don't already know. I wouldn't worry about the smirks. If you are a serious math major, parts and b might be true, because living in your world full-time may be both important to being good at it and more fascinating to you than other stuff. And if your major makes people insecure because they figure you are smarter than they are, that's their problem. You might consider asking them about their majors and trying to understand what makes their fields interesting to them. Genuine interest in others often puts them at ease and causes them to like you.</p>
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You are talking about branches of mathematics that not all math majors are experts on.
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That just means that most math majors aren't taking enough math, not that math is useless. It's nearly impossible for a math major to be familiar with all important branches of math anyway. Take topology, for example. One would need 5+ semesters of topology to understand the topology some physicists are using. Most schools only offer 1 or 2 courses though.</p>
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And for the record, how many job postings have you seen that specifically ask for knowledge of abstract algebra? How many even ask for a degree in math?
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Quite a lot, actually. You just have to look for them in the right places. Employers looking specifically for a math major don't always advertise on Craigslist.</p>