How much time do math majors have?

College Life
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<p>By the end of high school, I will have taken one year of multivariable calculus (after Calc BC). So far, in honors Algebra II and honors precalc I’ve gotten A’s. That said, I’m no math genius – I have to study for the tests, and I can’t even prove the pythagorean theorm without looking the proof up.</p>

<p>Assuming I go to a college like UMich Ann Arbor or UCLA, how much free time would I have if I majored in math with honors? Would I be able to have friends and go out (not necessarily to parties every night, but like going out to have dinner or go to a concert every now and then, and just kind of shooting the breeze)? Would a girlfriend be possible (if I happened to find someone that I like and who likes me back)? Would I have time to work out and practice music thirty minutes each a day and still get 7-8 hours of sleep?</p>

<p>I’d also like to take some language classes and maybe pick up another language or two (I already speak English, Spanish, and German). Would that be possible? Study abroad? Basically, I don’t want my life to be math and only math. I’d like to have many interests, get to know interesting people, and have some interesting experiences. Is this possible?</p>

<p>Also, what is the difference between applied math, pure math, and statistics as far as difficulty, content, and job opportunities go? Would I need to go on for even more school?</p>

<p>Sorry for the barrage of questions, and thanks a ton to anyone who responds!</p>

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<p>Why do you need to do an honors degree as a Wolverine or a Bruin? I guess that is the question bubbling its way to the top of my cognitive apex.</p>

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<p>I’m not a math major, but I’m a physics major with a math minor, which is fairly comparable. I do spend a lot of time hitting the books, but I still manage to have time for a girlfriend, and at least somewhat of a social life. There are times that I have to put my social life to the side when I have big exams coming up, but it doesn’t take up all of my time. </p>

<p>It’s worth keeping in mind that math gets a lot different once you get past introductory algebra and calculus. Both of those subjects are essentially courses on how to solve for x. When you get into calculus, differential equations, and linear algebra, you’re using more complex and abstract methods to do so, but you are still essentially solving for x. Once you get into the more upper level math classes, it starts to get really abstract and proof oriented. Depending on the branch you go in, you may have more applied courses than theoretical courses, but to get a math degree you will still have to take a lot of abstract courses. </p>

<p>You mentioned not being able to prove the Pythagorean Theorem. Proofs in geometry are a great deal different than the proofs you’ll do in abstract algebra or analysis courses, but the logical thought process of writing a proof usually starts with geometry. I’d suggest really working on getting to love proofs. </p>

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<p>I would second prezbucky’s questions: why honors and why these two schools? Do you live in Cal or Michigan? They’re both great schools but you’ll pay OOS tuition if you don’t live in state. Do the math, OOS tuition is not pretty.</p>

<p>If you want more time on your hands, don’t do honors. Make sure you understand what exactly you’ll have to do, because once you understand the demands you may not be so excited about honors anymore. On the other hand, you may find yourself even more interested.</p>

<p>I hate to break it to you but people don’t party every night in college, those are weekend events. The weekend starts on Thursday night at many schools. Personally, I became less interested in parties as I got closer to graduation. I think most people do.</p>

<p>I was never a math major but have been told by more than one of them that by the time you complete all the statistics requirements,you might as will just double major in it. This will vary by school.</p>

<p>It’s great you want to take language classes, I’ve caught on to the study abroad interest. Either of these schools will require a balanced university education anyway so you’re in luck. </p>

<p>Some universities have gotten excellent at offering study abroad choices and have built them so you can go and not lose a step in your major. US News does a nice job of ranking the universities that have the most robust study abroad programs. Check out the study abroad options at the schools that interest you.</p>

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<p>It’s worth pointing out that an honors math degree is going to be even more abstract than a standard math degree. If you don’t love writing proofs, then you’re going to have a very bad time in honors math. </p>

<p>Studying abroad can sound very appealing, but math is often one of the majors in which studying abroad doesn’t work so well. A lot of majors in the humanities and the social sciences have a lot of flexibility in the curriculum. Students can generally choose a given focus within their major. Math tends to be more rigidly sequenced. There is some flexibility in the upper level courses, but universities often have strict requirements for what classes absolutely must be taken. </p>

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<p>I’m a freshman math major at Case Western (well, not really, because we’re not allowed to declare our majors until November). It’s not nearly as good for math as the schools you listed, and they don’t have an honors math major, but I thought I’d reply anyway. :slight_smile: </p>

<p>This semester, my math classes are undergraduate real analysis and probability theory. (I have transfer credit for multivariable calculus, differential equations, number theory, abstract algebra, and a scientific computing class, which I took through dual enrollment at a mediocre state school last year.) I started out taking a graduate abstract algebra class, but I dropped it because it was too much work with my other classes even though I liked it and I wasn’t doing all that badly. Math classes don’t usually have high workloads like (I’m told) engineering classes, because there aren’t any labs and you mostly just do the homework every week and take a few exams every semester, but you’ll have to spend more time on difficult problems. </p>

<p>It’s probably good that you have to study for tests, because you’ll have to study for tests in college.

Do you live in Michigan? I got into Michigan, and the main reason I didn’t go was that it’s absurdly expensive out-of-state. So is UCLA.

I have a boyfriend and I spend a lot of time with him, but he’s also a math major, so we have some of the same classes and do homework together a lot of the time.

Probably not every day, and sometimes you won’t want to even if you can. It depends on how well you manage your time.

Math Ph.D. programs typically have foreign language requirements (usually French, German, or Russian), so I would hope so.<br>

I know of two math-specific study abroad problems, [Budapest</a> Semesters](<a href=“http://www.budapestsemesters.com/]Budapest”>http://www.budapestsemesters.com/) and [Math</a> in Moscow](<a href=“http://www.mccme.ru/mathinmoscow/]Math”>Math in Moscow – Study Abroad Program in Mathematics). There’s also [url=<a href=“http://math.jacobs-university.de/summerschool/2013/]this[/url”>Modern Mathematics - Welcome]this[/url</a>] program, which is a lot shorter and only for underclassmen. </p>

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This varies. (Pure/general) math majors don’t have to take any statistics classes at my school. </p>

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<h2>@Youngscholar45 asked: Also, what is the difference between applied math, pure math, and statistics as far as difficulty, content, and job opportunities go? Would I need to go on for even more school?</h2>

<p>I am a math professor at a regional university, and so can try to clarify some of this. I got my PhD in Applied Math, although my thesis was fairly theoretical. So applied mathematicians may look at problems from the “real world”, but the perspective will be that of a mathematician. At the undergrad level, one needs a strong suite of core courses in math, including real analysis, and abstract algebra. The “Applied Math” program is so variable among universities. You really need to check each one out and inquire about job placements if you are interested.</p>

<p>The “difficulty” part depends so much on the university, instructor and other factors. If you can tackle problems from contests like the AMC8 or AMC 10 without too much hair pulling, you will like the challenge from difficult math courses. High school math courses, even the honors level ones, are not a good predictor of this type of math challenge. </p>

<p>In larger universities, Statistics is a separate department, and many math majors need not even take one course in stats (even some applied math majors!). That’s too bad - most jobs for someone with an undergrad degree in math expect some statistical background. </p>

<p>I’ve written in other posts about the job market for PhD mathematicians.
If you have a diverse set of interests, and have strong communication skills, and like languages, I would recommend a math or stats major with a strong undergrad minor in business. This would leave open possibilities other than grad school once you get a bachelors’s degree. Feel free to PM me if you would like more info.</p>

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<p>Why do you want to go into math? What do you want to do with that degree?</p>

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<p>My experience is that if you are really, really good at math, it actually takes less time than many other subjects. I’m not saying that it is easy, or that anyone can do it (I sure couldn’t do it), but the math majors that I knew in college had more free time than the people who were constantly reading philosophy and history and researching and writing multiple papers.</p>

<p>My wife, who went to a different college, noticed the same thing. But your mileage may vary.</p>

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<p>Isn’t this an arithmetic problem?</p>

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<p>@ThankYouforHelp‌ - That’s a good point. Math tends not to have ‘reading’ in the same sense as many majors. History and philosophy majors can have an absolutely staggering amount of reading to do in their classes. Math majors will clearly benefit by reading their textbooks, but many of them barely even really do that. Even so, the couple chapters a week that math majors might have to read are nothing in comparison to the hundreds of pages that history and philosophy majors are routinely required to read. </p>

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<p>My daughter is a math major - she does not have reading assignments for math but will have large problem sets to do after every class. Many of her math classes have been set up with a quiz once a week - so she does a lot of studying for them. Math classes also tend to have cumulative finals that you need to study for. Some of her match classes let her bring note pages for tests (basically bring a list of formulas.) One thing with math (unlike many humanities classes) is that once you fall behind or don’t understand it is very hard to catch up.</p>

<p>That all being said she has plenty of time to still have a life (socialize, have fun, be in clubs, etc.).</p>

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<p>I am a mathematics major at a decent program at UT Austin but not doing honors. I have quite a bit of free time compared to many of my friends that are in the sciences. In the sciences, they have many labs that are 1 or 2 credit hours but spend maybe 4 hours each week in the lab and on top of that have homework in it so they spend more time in class and more time doing homework than I do. It’s nice that I don’t have to do much of any reading as a math major and that my classes aren’t having labs but some will have discussion sessions. Office hours are more important for math majors because your courses are problem solving so you may need help and it is unfortunately common for math professors to have crowded office hours here. There may be places with free tutoring around your campus that are funded by your tuition dollars.</p>

<p>To answer your other question…</p>

<p>Applied mathematics has to do with real world problem solving. Pure mathematics is more theoretical and deals more with proofs and logic. Statistics is about strategies for interpreting and analyzing data. As far as marketability is concerned, I’d say statistics, applied mathematics, then pure mathematics in that order. From my experience of talking with many employers at the career fair here is that there’s a lot of demand for people with statistics backgrounds because it’s becoming so much easier to acquire data with technology improving and there aren’t enough people going into statistics to analyze that data. Applied mathematics I put at two because it has to do with real world problem solving but the issue I had with trying to figure out with the purpose of an applied mathematics degree was that many employers I talked to made it sound as if they like the people of that background for their problem solving abilities but they appear to be having those mathematics majors be working in a field that isn’t directly related to their degree. Pure mathematics I don’t have much experience in so I wouldn’t be the most knowledgeable about it.</p>

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<p>28 years after graduating from college in engineering, I still have dreams where I don’t go to math class for a month or more, and have no way of catching up! They are the most realistic dreams I have, and I always wake up in a cold sweat.</p>

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<p>Thank you all for the responses! I’d like to clarify a few things here, and I have a couple more questions. Firstly, I realize that college isn’t a 24/7 party, and I wouldn’t want it to be that way. When I say social life, I mean have friends (and maybe a girlfriend) who I can shoot the breeze with, go out to eat with, and explore the town I’m in with. I’m not super interested in drinking and partying and all that. Is a math major compatible with this?</p>

<p>I want to pursue math because it’s so powerful and cool, and I really want to understand how and why it works, not just how to solve for x. In addition, it’s a fairly employable degree, and (as a bonus) it doesn’t require a ton of reading. Also, I feel the thinking skills math develops would be useful in life in general. What are your experiences in this?</p>

<p>As for honors vs. non-honors, I’m not super sure why I want to go honors – I’ve just always been in honors, so it seemed to be the next logical step. What’s the difference between normal math and honors in terms of classes, difficulty, free time, and employability?</p>

<p>Thanks so much to all who responded!</p>

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<p>Any thoughts?</p>

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<p>Yeah, you’ll have time for all of those things. It’s not like you’re going to spend 18 hours a day doing math problems. It really depends on your own ability and motivation. If you’re seriously struggling to understand the math, and having to work through hundreds of problems to really ‘get’ the math, then you’re going to have an issue with making time for a social life (as well as succeeding as a math major), but if you’re interested in math, it’s likely that you have at least something of a mathematical intuition. I’ve found that as I progress in math, I spend less time working tons of examples. It really comes down more to conceptual understanding. Obviously you always have to work some examples to get the concepts in an applied way, but you don’t need to spend countless hours working every exercise in the book. </p>

<p>Unless you’re an introvert that would usually rather spend time sitting at their desk solving physics and math problems like me…lol</p>