<p>I see a fair amount of students double majoring in applied math and cs/eecs, but does applied math help at all with programming ability? In other words, how useful would the skills and proofs learned in applied math courses be in the tech industry?</p>
<p>Or would it be better to use my freetime doing side projects?</p>
<p>It may help in specific applications. E.g. algebra and number theory can help if you want to go into cryptography.</p>
<p>I saw this answer to the question “What does it take to be an expert in computer programming?” at Quora.com</p>
<p>Part of the answer:</p>
<p>The second is understanding computer science. This is math and logic, but a somewhat unusual kind. Learn Boolean algebra, not just the basics to do logic, but the system by which logic can operate on the algebra itself. Learn algorithms and data structures; objects are pretty much just both in one box. Learn automata and grammars and their relationship to each other. Learn graph and set theory. Learn complexity and optimization and finite math, and a bit of calculus helps, too. These are not simply ways of learning how to program; they are ways of understanding the relationships within programs themselves.</p>
<p>See: [Computer</a> Programming: What does it take to be an expert in computer programming? - Quora](<a href=“http://www.quora.com/Computer-Programming/What-does-it-take-to-be-an-expert-in-computer-programming]Computer”>http://www.quora.com/Computer-Programming/What-does-it-take-to-be-an-expert-in-computer-programming)</p>
<p>Math is a lot of problem solving and proofs, so is likely to be helpful for CS. Directly applicable? Depends on what you’re doing.</p>