Math Majors

Hey /sci/, I know that there many intelligent people on this board since every math question gets at least one, correct, serious response, no matter how difficult.

I'm majoring in math right now as an undergrad, I was planning on becoming a professor. But I'm wondering if I'm chasing a pipe dream by trying to do this. I mean I'm certainly no genius, and maybe i should really be thinking of money and how I'm going to support myself rather than pursuing something that i love.

I'll be honest, what really got me thinking about this was this article: http://philip.greenspun.com/careers/women-in-science

What are your opinions? For those of you that are majoring in math, what do you plan to do once you graduate?

Work for the FBI.

i just finished finished my degree and waiting for the results. majority (75%) of maths graduates go into the financial sector i.e investment banking, actuary etc. i am applying to a few companies except they all want a 2:1 degree. one of the two exams i at the end of this term went horribly wrong, which has a very high chance of bringing me down to a 2:2.

>>1

I am also a math major. We are blessed to be able to make a good living by doing something interesting that we love. Sure, if you're smart enough to major in math, there are plenty other things you could do for much more money, but academics has enough money in it for a comfortable life. Money won't make anyone happy, only math can.

"Johnson, I need to you integrate this polynomial toot sweet, then I have a proof about Abelian groups and shit for you"
-your future boss

There are a good amount of jobs open to people with good experience with Matlab, especially if you know some CS or Physics. Most math majors I've known usually were dual majors between stats, actuary, physics,or CS...myself included

1. Learn Arabic
2. Apply to the NSA
3. ?????
4. Profit (a lot)

In all seriousness, the above will get you loaded, but being a professor is good money as it is. I'm going to be one, don't give it up because of money if it's what you really want to do.

Being a professor is good money and all but you have to spend however many years on your masters and PhD, then there is going to be kind of post doctoral, and then work your ass off say 5 years for tenure. Then you have complete job security. All these higher studies stuff is constant hard work pretty much, you don't have to be a genius or anything for it. Obviously trying for it is not going to guarantee anything. More than likely if you finish your PhD or masters, and have good publications, you are going to be offered a job that looks better than being a professor.

the problem with being a professor, as the linked article points out, is not the salary of a professor (especially a tenured professor). It's the fact that a shit load of people never really make it to that point, and end up having spent a shitload of time and effort to get a PhD for no financial gain. Also if you do succeed in being a professor, you're stuck doing a ton of work (assuming you want a serious chance of tenure) when you could be, you know, having a family and social life.

ive considered the following:
actuary
getting a masters and teaching community college
NSA/other government jobs

hi maths forum

Divide by zero. Oh shi-

>>1
I'm a physics major, and in the same problem lol.

>>3
2:1 degree = ???

>>4
Only if you can get a job in academia.

>>7
NSA is single largest employer of mathematicians in the world.  It also eats your soul, though you do get a lot of money out of it.

Becoming a professor is a terrible idea.  Beat that into your head furiously and if you still want to do it after you have HONESTLY convinced yourself that it is a terrible career path, then do it.

That's why I'm still shooting for a career as a math professor.

Does anyone know much about community college teaching? I know it doesn't require a PhD, but I've looked at a lot of the CC's near where I live "recommend" a PhD for most or all of the jobs, which is worrisome.

Also, with regards to private schools (mainly high school level), do they usually require any sort of teaching certification? I was originally going to get certified to teach in my state while I worked on my BS in Math, but the undergrad director at my university talked me out of this (fucker!) by saying it would make it harder to get into grad school. If I stay at my current university it would take another two years (probably concurrent with an MS in Math) to get certified now, and I don't really have any interest in teaching in public schools since every family member I know who has hated it.

>>15
Community college is public.

>>16
The public school comment was in regards to high school level teaching.

>>15
well in my admittedly remote area, a bachelor is all you need -- I mean they have to pay loads extra to fly people in if they can't get some local guy to do a course or two as a casual employee

Anyway you don't need a fucking PhD to teach some math-phobic adult how to do fractions all over again, let alone how to make a depreciation schedule table.  may as well require a Phd for pipefitting and chefs, christ

>>18
Most of the ones here "recommend" PhD's, they don't require. Nevertheless I would be worried that any non-PhD candidates would basically get an automatic rejection for any position which a PhD applies to. (For the record, a majority of the math teachers at the community college nearest me have PhD's.) At any rate, I'm more interested in teaching decent level classes - calculus sequence or matrix algebra or whatever.

I'm feeling really keen, for some of that good ol' green

Marijuana MUST be legalized.

I feel the need, the need for weed!

Marijuana MUST be legalized.