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How much more math do you need to take as an economics major out of curiosity? I know for a fact some graduate students in economics need insane amounts of math, but I'm curious what you have to do as an econ major.
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The only math that's required for an econ major at my college is Calc 1 and 2. A few econ courses have more math as prerequisite, but those courses are electives.</p>
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Most of this thread looks like unprovoked degree-envy and people from both sides with giant chips on their shoulders. How about get off CC and do some homework?
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<p>I have to second this. It seems like back and forth belittling of other majors, but if someone critiques their major — weapons are out.</p>
<p>I am a math major myself and haven't ever run into a statistic that describes what percent of undergrads go towards math teachers, grad school (in which subjects), finance (investments), insurance (actuarial work).....</p>
<p>Most math majors I run into around my university have plans of becoming accredited with the whatever of the state thingy-ma-bob to become a school teacher....or have no plan at all.</p>
<p>I would LOVE to have a great chance for a position with good prospects out of college in the finance field, but I don't see this happening without a specialized masters such as financial mathematics, or financial engineering. But of course it is possible, but I am just a dime in a dozen of math majors around the country.</p>
<p>I am not a putnam math superstar, microsoft puzzle champion, rhodes scholar, 4 times published writer.....I am just another modest student</p>
<p>BUT I WILL NOT succumb to teaching math at the high school level, even if it means getting a phd in finance after a masters.</p>
<p>The whole idea that math major implies teaching high school is retarded. Math majors are awesome, you are pretty much a raw talent prospect to companies. Math majors haven't spent four years learning how to move stacks of paper around, add web art to excell spread sheets, say "innovation" every other sentence, or any other valuable skill business majors learn. That doesn't mean we couldn't learn now if we wanted.</p>
<p>"BUT I WILL NOT succumb to teaching math at the high school level, even if it means getting a phd in finance after a masters. "</p>
<p>If you are a math major and want to become a math teacher, good for you. But if you are a math major, and end up becoming a math teacher because teaching is the only way out, because you can't make the cut for any of the jobs you had in mind the moment you chose to major in math, you are a loser. (I hate to use the word "loser," but can't think of a better word.)</p>
<p>" am not a putnam math superstar, microsoft puzzle champion, rhodes scholar, 4 times published writer.....I am just another modest student"</p>
<p>People will tell you of all the great jobs available for math majors. Sort of reminds me of the high school kid in your computer science class who comes along one day and tells you "yee, did you know that if you major in computer science you can make over $100,000/year?" Yeah, but the part that kid didn't tell you is that the ones who make over $100,000/year are the gifted ones, everyone else eats dirt. Same applies to math jobs. It appears that the ones who get the cool math jobs we dreamed of are the ones with IQs of 130+ and who became obsessed with math when they were 9. What about the bottom 98% percentile?</p>
<p>"The whole idea that math major implies teaching high school is retarded."</p>
<p>Majoring in math does not imply teaching high school math, but, unfortunately, it's what a lot of math majors end up doing after college, some because that's what they like doing, some because they can't make the cut elsewhere.</p>
<p>"Math majors are awesome, you are pretty much a raw talent prospect to companies."</p>
<p>Not really. Physicists and engineers and even some computer scientists are more awesome than most math majors. Their courseload is more difficult. They are more attractive to employers. If you want difficult math forget undergraduate math, try graduate math, which isn't what most people consider math anyway, it's just proofs and abstractions with little to no application to the real world that will make you want to pull your hair out.</p>
<p>"Math majors haven't spent four years learning how to move stacks of paper around, add web art to excell spread sheets, say "innovation" every other sentence, or any other valuable skill business majors learn. That doesn't mean we couldn't learn now if we wanted."</p>
<p>Math majors like doing math. Everyone knows a math major wouldn't last at those jobs. They would get bored and leave.</p>
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Not really. Physicists and engineers and even some computer scientists are more awesome than most math majors. Their courseload is more difficult. They are more attractive to employers. If you want difficult math forget undergraduate math, try graduate math, which isn't what most people consider math anyway, it's just proofs and abstractions with little to no application to the real world that will make you want to pull your hair out.
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<p>This may be true for pure math, although the applied math department at my school has lots of students that take engineering jobs (or engineering grad school) after undergrad, because they understand problem solving even better than engineers, who usually know more of know how to plug-and-play formulas. It's also helpful that the applied math people have a better understanding of numerically solving PDEs (something which most engineering programs do not require). </p>
<p>Engineers won't use 90% of what they learned in college on the job. It's easier for firms to hire people who know how to solve problems, not necessarily those who can recite equations or algorithms from memory.</p>
<p>"This may be true for pure math, although the applied math department at my school has lots of students that take engineering jobs (or engineering grad school) after undergrad, because they understand problem solving even better than engineers, who usually know more of know how to plug-and-play formulas. It's also helpful that the applied math people have a better understanding of numerically solving PDEs (something which most engineering programs do not require). "</p>
<p>At my school there is a math department, with no distinction between applied and pure math. My understanding is that the math major consists of a mixture of both applied and pure math. In regards to partial differential equations, I'm not even sure that course is offered at my school.</p>
<p>"Engineers won't use 90% of what they learned in college on the job. It's easier for firms to hire people who know how to solve problems, not necessarily those who can recite equations or algorithms from memory. "</p>
<p>In my opinion, the problem solving abilities of the average math major are overrated. All they have to do is memorize or sort of understand a few clever tricks and rules, and then use them to solve problems straight out of the textbook. It's mostly imitation and rarely out-of-the-box thinking comes into play.</p>
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In my opinion, the problem solving abilities of the average math major are overrated. All they have to do is memorize or sort of understand a few clever tricks and rules, and then use them to solve problems straight out of the textbook. It's mostly imitation and rarely out-of-the-box thinking comes into play.
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Have you taken any real math courses? And by real I don't mean something like calculus or differential equations or linear algebra, but something like functional analysis, real analysis or abstract algebra?</p>
<p>^ pmvd, from reading your posts, it's obvious that not only are you sadly ignorant about Math majors, but you seem to have a weird obsession with people's majors and proving that they're worthless or something...you've created multiple threads obsessing over prestige of majors. i'm really curious as to know your major...i guess it's not Math since you seem to know nothing about it lol.</p>
<p>"Have you taken any real math courses? And by real I don't mean something like calculus or differential equations or linear algebra, but something like functional analysis, real analysis or abstract algebra? "</p>
<p>See, there lies the difference between your way of thinking and mine. The first math courses you mentioned are taught in undergraduate school; they are what I consider math; they are the reason I contemplated the possibility of majoring exclusively in math. The second math courses are also briefly taught in undegraduate school, as an introduction to what's to come in graduate school, but they are not what I think of when I think about math. You could argue that pure math is better than applied math, but if you can't find a job doing applied math, good luck finding a job doing pure math.</p>
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See, there lies the difference between your way of thinking and mine. The first math courses you mentioned are taught in undergraduate school; they are what I consider math; they are the reason I contemplated the possibility of majoring exclusively in math. The second math courses are also briefly taught in undegraduate school, as an introduction to what's to come in graduate school, but they are not what I think of when I think about math. You could argue that pure math is better than applied math, but if you can't find a job doing applied math, good luck finding a job doing pure math.
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My point was that such courses are what makes math majors different from physics majors or engineering majors, the other courses I mentioned which are basic for every hard science degree are therefore redundant to analyse since they are actually read by both.</p>
<p>Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying that you learn more problem solving and such doing math, its just that math is still far from simple memorizations, and I am on roughly the same level as both a physics and a math bachelor so I know what I am talking about.
(I don't study in the US so I am not doing any major, but I checked what is required for those majors and I got most of the requisites for both)</p>
<p>And you can get quite good jobs if you go into stuff like finance math without being a genius, and doing anything purely will always just lead to either becoming a teacher or becoming a scientist. I mean, there are no direct applications of "theoretical" anything or else it wouldn't be "theoretical".</p>
<p>"And you can get quite good jobs if you go into stuff like finance math without being a genius, and doing anything purely will always just lead to either becoming a teacher or becoming a scientist. I mean, there are no direct applications of "theoretical" anything or else it wouldn't be "theoretical"."</p>
<p>But the question is not what you can with a BA in math AND a degree in something else. I think the question is more about what you can do with only a BA in math.</p>
<p>Ahh! I don't smirk at ANY major, almost all of them are respectable.</p>
<p>...except philosophy, haha</p>
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"Have you taken any real math courses? And by real I don't mean something like calculus or differential equations or linear algebra, but something like functional analysis, real analysis or abstract algebra? "</p>
<p>See, there lies the difference between your way of thinking and mine. The first math courses you mentioned are taught in undergraduate school; they are what I consider math; they are the reason I contemplated the possibility of majoring exclusively in math. The second math courses are also briefly taught in undegraduate school, as an introduction to what's to come in graduate school, but they are not what I think of when I think about math. You could argue that pure math is better than applied math, but if you can't find a job doing applied math, good luck finding a job doing pure math.
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<p>The first two years of math for engineers doesn't constitute most of the math an undergraduate math major learns. At the very least, they will take real analysis, complex analysis, abstract algebra, and topology (if we're talking pure math), which are far different animals from calculus and linear algebra. </p>
<p>I'm a little sad that you only consider math to be what engineers learn. It's a lot deeper than that. You probably should look into the courses taught in math departments after the first two years. AFAIK, it's still considered undergraduate. </p>
<p>Also, pure math and applied math share some qualities, although they require different types of minds to be really successful. A pure math major will be at least a little uncomfortable in a more applied math setting, and vice versa. It's not like pure math majors are strictly better than applied math majors.</p>
<p>pmvd, what do you major in?</p>
<p>initially only math but I am currently undecided</p>
<p>^ ohh I kind of get the point of this thread now lol - look you should relax and stop being so paranoid about your choice of major. so what if it's not Business or Nursing or Engineering? it doesn't have to have direct applications.</p>
<p>My family has a lot of math-double majors (math/comp sci, math/econ) and many of them ended up in finance. if you're interested in something not pure mathematics but some simpler applied math, you might wanna take a few econ classes as electives or something. just a thought. </p>
<p>many people get liberal arts degrees that have nothing to do with their career path. a Math degree shows an employer you're smart, capable, and (if you have a decent GPA) hard working.</p>
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initially only math but I am currently undecided
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So, what do you want to do with your life? The best option you have seems to be an engineer since you want to work with just the bachelor degree and you don't want to work as a high school teacher, but how is that different from people who study applied math and get jobs with that?</p>
<p>Also finance math is a math degree, applied but still math degree and those do get jobs. Maybe you need a master or so but still...</p>
<p>"So, what do you want to do with your life? The best option you have seems to be an engineer since you want to work with just the bachelor degree and you don't want to work as a high school teacher, but how is that different from people who study applied math and get jobs with that?</p>
<p>Also finance math is a math degree, applied but still math degree and those do get jobs. Maybe you need a master or so but still... "</p>
<p>what type of jobs do engineers with only a bachelor's degree typically end up doing? And what are they like?</p>
<p>pmvd, have you looked at the information at bls.gov?</p>
<p>Occupational</a> Outlook Handbook, 2008-09 Edition</p>
<p>There is a lot of good information there about different fields, the required education level, and how competitive they expect to be in the future.</p>