<p>Hi guys. These questions have bother me a great deal this week as I think about my major for college next year. who should be mathematician? what are the traits and characteristics that will make a person successful in a math career?
are these traits inborn or practiced?</p>
<p>I think you have to be exceptionally bright to be a mathematician. But if you want to get a job in math related fields, like teaching, working for companies, it would be a lot easier.</p>
<p>You have to literally think and speak mathematics. Conceptually in the actual upper level math, they deal with A LOT of abstract principles beyond Calculus, Diff EQ, etc. Math is a language. I’d say you have to be truly passionate about it.</p>
<p>my bf is a math major. he said the upper levels are not much different from english, since there are a lot more words and a lot more reading. The upper level math books contain less pictures and more words, and start to look more like a novel, instead of a math text book. You should major in math if you like puzzles, solving problems, learning things like where numbers came from, the history of math, and don’t mind the risk of going crazy. :D</p>
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<p>And even then, passion will only get you so far. At some level, raw talent just takes over, and either you’ve got it or you don’t.</p>
<p>For profiles of people who have jobs that require a mathematics background, see <a href=“http://www.maa.org/careers/welcome.html[/url]”>http://www.maa.org/careers/welcome.html</a>. Not all of them are mathematicians, but all studied serious mathematics.</p>