I work in a software company and when the devs hold internal training sessions on our new releases I am always amazed at the math and algorithms they incorporate from university research papers. There are some seriously smart guys in development today, and I have to believe many are pure math PhD’s with minors or BS in CS.
A very hot field right now that requires a lot of math skills is the “data scientist”. I suspect a more statistical bent would be useful than pure math, but it’s something to look at for the non-academic math person wondering what they can do outside of wall street (we know at least one pure math grad who got a job on wall street). Hit up google to see what I’m talking about; you probably don’t need a PhD for it, but my colleagues very frequently encounter data scientists at our customers who do have math PhD’s.
Sorry - should mention context - I teach at a directional university which is primarily about teaching. Most jobs are in this arena. Research institutions have an altogether different set of priorities. It’s not one size fits all.
I should add to my previous post that a PhD and research are assumed for academic positions- the level of the work and amount of it required will vary from one institution to another. In teaching centered, non-selective universities like mine, the candidate has to show willingness to teach a wide variety of students, be able to handle a heavy teaching load, and pursue research in their field, although the expectation of the caliber of research will not be as high as in higher level institutions.
When grad students apply for jobs, they send out generic CV’s and generic cover letters. Big mistake. Many of my colleagues at other small colleges just filter out anything without a focused cover letter addressed to the specific department. When you get between 200 and 300 applications, it becomes necessary to whittle it down like this. Future grad students would be well served to explore the world of academia across the varying types of institutions, not just the ones they know from their own education.
UCLA has a strong Biostatistics grad program in the Public Health program, and they did allow some upper division math students to take some of their courses. Not sure about now, and not sure of whether her interests will veer that way.
@ProudMomfromAZ
I can’t speak to the others but we do have a close trans friend (actually the child of a friend who we watched grow up) who graduated UW last spring and was just accepted to grad school there (social work and gender studies). UW actually featured them in #UWLoveStory not all that long ago.
Seattle is quite supportive in general but I know it’s a difficult road overall no matter where you go.
It is far too soon for the entering freshman to attempt to know what to do about grad schools. All of the choices will have faculty advisors to help navigate higher level courses and grad school choices. All three are top tier schools as well so their faculties should be known by their peers at other schools she may be interested in.
For now she should choose the school that is acceptable financially and she feels most comfortable with overall. She will do her best where she is happiest. Once she makes her decision she needs to forget the other possibilities- do not look back.