M.S. Applied & Computational Mathematics vs M.S. Software Engineering with math undergrad

SadHippo
Fri, 08 Aug 2014 21:34:43 +0000

Hello all :)

I am currently in my last year as a mathematics undergrad at UT Austin and looking into getting a M.S. to work in industry and I’m 50/50 on Software Engineering vs Applied & Computational Mathematics. I’ve been a little interested in computers and will have taken around 5 CS classes upon graduating. I’ve been looking at graduate schools in Texas where I plan to be for in-state-tuition and most of the Software Engineering Master’s programs have 3-5 pre-requisite classes that I will not have upon graduating. The programs prefer people with a CS undergrad but still accept related fields and then will likely add on a year to my Master’s to pick up the pre-reqs. Problem solving is my biggest strength by far and I hate reading and have terrible reading comprehension skills which, as a result, has made half my CS courses so far extremely easy and half very hard.

I would like to ask about the difference in marketability of each.

I have a feeling that S.E. is much more marketable overall than mathematics. The Texas mathematics graduate programs I am interested in are more specifically M.S. in Applied Mathematics with a Computational Mathematics specialization. Both feel very interesting to me. Math is my bigger strength and I’d comfortably meet all pre-reqs and be more likely to get funding for a TA position since I have a math undergrad. Could I get a job in software with a mathematics masters? I’d try to take CS courses as my few electives for a mathematics masters. I’d be very interested in working with software in particular that pertains to high level math so any sort of computational mathematics software or software that requires high level math skills to program.

Thanks!