<p>Honestly, people are trying to help you see why it’s okay to be a math major. You’re the only one that keeps putting yourself down by finding all these negative oppositions to everything positive they’re saying.</p>
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<p>It is NOT ok for most kids who are good at math to major in math.</p>
<p>I know someone who majored in math and well, let me put it this way: he is a loser. Yeah, he doesn’t have the IQ of Bill Gates, but sadly he was actually an above average math student. It’s sad to see how he ended up, living with his parents, eating sandwiches, driving a 199x Honda, and always complaining about his low salary despite his spectacular college GPA. It’s like he never forgave himself for studying math.</p>
<p>If somebody offered to pay you to do whatever sort of work you wanted, what would you do? I don’t mean just proper jobs, but, for example, if you wanted to just solve math problems all day, that’d count too.</p>
<p>pmvd, being a math major doesn’t mean you have to do math for the rest of your life. the “person” you are talking about probably had a lot of other problems that led to his unfortunate adult life. your major does not dictate your life. there are hundreds of jobs that want math majors.</p>
<p>oh, and “eating sandwiches”?..(sigh)</p>
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<p>Exactly. I want a job that’s like an extension of math college courses. I suppose that doing research for some defense company might involve a fairly large amount of math problem solving, but then again, that’s not a realistic option, since you need to be a math genius to get that type of job. Also, I have no interest in teaching.</p>
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<p>That’s possible.</p>
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<p>But they look for someone who has a degree in math and something else.</p>
<p>The question is: what can I do with ONLY a bachelor’s degree in math?</p>
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<p>Look it up on Google, since none of us seem to be able to give you satisfactory answers. Seriously. Nine pages and you still don’t have an answer? Give it up, then!</p>
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There are no such jobs for anyone, except teaching. If that is what you like to do then you have no choice but to teach, the geniuses do not solve math problems they invent new maths and out on companies you will mostly work with treating masses of data.</p>
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<p>Some do that.</p>
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<p>Ok, I give up. I’ll just assume math is not for me, since I can’t think of anything to do with only a degree in math.</p>
<p>based on your reasoning, there is no major that provides an automatic gateway to making a comfortable salary right off the bat except for engineering (which you might try to quantify that all people who are in engineering are also geniuses). The jobs that make the most money are the jobs that involve managing/communicating with people and in most colleges, business and communications are considered blow-off majors. I think you’re sticking yourself in a rut and refusing to come out. I also think that for the first time in your life, you have to make decisions for yourself and you are not sure where to start. You’re not sure who to contact and what kind of job you should have. Your first job does not have to be specifically tailored to your major; there are many people in the population that work in fields completely different from their bachelor’s degree.</p>
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<p>pmvd, have you talked to any actual career counselors? Yes, a career as a mathematician is likely to require more than a bachelor’s degree, probably even a phd (although I suspect that most mathematicians who are truly passionate about their jobs would never be content with just a bachelor’s degree anyway - regardless of their IQ). </p>
<p>But as others have mentioned, there are lots of other fields that use math, or only require a math degree (actuary science?). Talk to some career counselors, or do some more research; here is one site you might want to look at: </p>
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<p>[Sloan</a> Career Cornerstone Center: Careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math & Healthcare](<a href=“http://www.careercornerstone.org/math/math.htm]Sloan”>Career Cornerstone Center: Careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math and Medicine)</p>
<p>However, you do need to broaden your sights and not look at everything in such a rigid pigeon-holed manner. That “something else” employers are looking for? Often, this is motivation, passion, positive attitude - and flexibility. 
If math really is the field you love and want to pursue, I suggest you go for at least a master’s degree because, given your other social deficits, I really fear that you will not be able to compete against other grads with similar educations, but who also have the people skills, motivation, positive attitude, and flexible thinking skills that you appear to lack. </p>
<p>Similarly, it would be beneficial for you to look for internships and research opportunities during undergrad years, so that you can acquire actual experience outside the classroom. You need to stop seeking some sort of magical formula to success which does not exist, and is only bringing out a negative and defeatist attitude in you. There is more than one way of reaching our goals, there are many paths you could follow if you would only allow yourself to try.</p>
<p>Pmvd,</p>
<p>You’re describing a degree that doesn’t exist. No one goes to college and only takes courses in one subject. Math majors don’t just load their schedule in math and take nothing else. There is 90 credits of free space.</p>
<p>Math majors can’t get comp sci jobs? You need to do more research. It doesn’t matter if you have a comp sci degree or not to get those jobs. If you are a good programmer, and have done internships then there won’t be a problem</p>
<p>Who cares if you know one guy who is a math major and a loser? There are losers in every major. Maybe that guy you know is actually just a loser, and would be no where no matter what he studied? Bill Gates has no degree and he is the richest man in the world. </p>
<p>[Famous</a> Nonmathematicians](<a href=“http://web.stcloudstate.edu/drbuske/famousnonmathematicians.html]Famous”>Famous Nonmathematicians)</p>
<p>Here is proof you are wrong. This is a list of famous math majors. Sure you know a guy who is a loser, but I guess on the other end you could be the Mayor of NY. </p>
<p>You’re missing the entire point of studying math on the undergrad level, it is to find a way to apply it! You need an area of application. Just because this isn’t required for the major doesn’t mean that you don’t have to do it to be successful. Guess what, engineers and comp sci majors take courses in the math department and it counts for them. Why does it not count when math majors take classes in theirs?</p>
<p>Math is the building block to many disciplines, name a scientific discipline that doesn’t use math at a high level.</p>
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<p>Euler, by your own admission, there are at least two caveats for a math major to get a computer science job: he needs to be a good programmer and he needs to have done internships. The question is, what can I do with just a degree in math?</p>
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<p>Which is why employers could just hire someone who studied one of those disciplines, since they also have a background in math.</p>
<p>Why are you so concerned with getting a job with just a math degree? Math degrees aren’t worthless because employers, grad schools, law schools, and professional schools will love a math degree because it shows you can think critically and solve problems. The thing is, while it’s a great stepping stone, it shouldn’t be your only talent.</p>
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<p>Because I want to major in math but since I won’t be able to do anything with a degree in math I might as well study something else. While I understand that there is more to college than getting a high paying job aftewards, I don’t want to live on $35,000 a year 4 years after college.</p>
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<p>I honestly believe that a math degree, all by itself, is worthless. I don’t know about you, but if I wanted to go into law I would study pre-law. If I wanted to go into computer science, I’d study computer science. If I wanted to work at a financial company, I’d study finance. I grant you that a math degree is a stepping stone, but it’s little more than that.</p>
<p>I don’t care about what graduate programs I could try to get into with a degree in math. I want to know what type of jobs I can do with ONLY a degree in math.</p>
<p>lol @ “study pre-law.”</p>
<p>“I honestly believe that a math degree, all by itself, is worthless. I don’t know about you, but if I wanted to go into law I would study pre-law. If I wanted to go into computer science, I’d study computer science. If I wanted to work at a financial company, I’d study finance.”</p>
<p>Law schools accept people from almost every major. There is no pre-law track like there is with pre-med.</p>
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Am I allowed to assume that you may go beyond the minimum requirements for the major in order to take a number of related classes in some specific area? Let’s see. If you focus on…</p>
<p>… statistics, you can do all sorts of things. Statistics come up in the evaluation of experiments in drug trials and psychological experiments, economics, sports, marketing, you name it. (Yes, most psychology and economics majors have some training in statistics, but not nearly enough to know what they are doing…)</p>
<p>… geometry, go work on computer graphics. </p>
<p>… tons and tons of analysis, pretty much any application in physics. </p>
<p>… algebra and number theory, the information security industry might have a job for you.</p>
<p>The key here is that mathematicians usually don’t work by themselves. They work as part of an interdisciplinary team. Yes, many other majors will receive some training in mathematical methods. But as a math major you have the opportunity to go much deeper into some subfield of math than a major in another field. </p>
<p>For example, I remember a former math major who went on to graduate school in computer science tell me that most computer scientists don’t know nearly enough math to work efficiently with sound. As a first-year graduate student w/o much background in computer science, she was able to help much older graduate students and post-docs because they were stuck on the math.</p>
<p>Of course part of being a team member is to acquire a basic knowledge of the others’ speciality so that you can communicate with each other. Many many majors have to take some math classes. What’s wrong with a math major taking a few classes in another field in turn? Asking what a math major can do without exposure to another field is like asking what a physics major can do without a background in calculus, or an economics major without training in statistics (/econometrics). The only difference is that math is considered part of their major, even though it is in a different subject. But mathematicians are too stubborn on keeping math pure to require students to take a single class in another field. But really, one should consider a minimal amount of training in a different subject part of the major.</p>
<p>maybe because non-math majors don’t like math and think it’s a waste of time.</p>
<p>myself being a math liker, when people tell me they’re an English major (and most Liberal Arts stuff)… I have to hold my tongue and try to prevent my facial muscles from wincing</p>
<p>Why do you wince when you hear someone is an English major?</p>
<p>educatemeplease, they are English majors and maybe their IQs are higher than yours. It’s impossible to accurately determine a person’s level of intelligence just by looking at their major. As a math major and therefore a logical thinker, you should know this.</p>