Actually going to fall for the meme

I have just one question Veeky Forums, how do Math programs fair from one University to another?

Are they pretty interchangeable?

What are some things people should look out for that indicate a shitty Mathematics department?

Long story short, all my main choices denied me because of a criminal record issue that I'm having and I'm stuck going with my absolute backup, pic related.

The school is garbage-tier, but I figure that Math is Math right? I am going to get basically the same quality of Mathematics degree from wherever right? I was originally interested in CS/EE stuff but the program at this school is code-monkey garbage-tier so I was just going to do Mathematics instead.

Mathematics isn't just a meme right guys?

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Undergrad at no-name school.

Master's at okay school.

Doing PhD at good school, but not top 20. I am not really anything special. Surprised I got in.

The difference between a school that focuses on teaching (my undergrad LAC) and a school that can offer PhDs is gigantic. The sort of courses offered is gigantic.

I would say that if the department offers PhDs in math, then your math education will be good, and comparable to most.

Do keep in mind though that at many of the absolute best schools for math, they start the first semester with real analysis and do lower-tier college 2nd/3rd/something 4th year stuff in their 1st and 2nd years.

The -variety- of courses -offered- is -much more diverse-, that sentence was awkward.

I just looked and Ball State has an MA in math program. That's not ideal but it is better than most colleges.

The program itself is probably about the same. Maybe a couple of top tier universities (MIT, Harvard, Caltech) will have different programs (but most students are on a normal track, they just have quicker tracks for talented students). The problem is that different schools are seen differently. You have your top tier schools, then well known state schools (UNC, UCB, VA Tech, UMI, etc.) then everything else. The math programs may be the same, but employers don't really recognize this, so if you went to a better school you're more likely to be hired.

Interesting, that's relatively similar to what I had. My math program was Calc I & II (single variable), elementary linear algebra (super basic systems of equations and row reducing, mostly for people with no experience with matrices), vector geometry (algebraic operations with vectors and Euler's formula), multivariate calculus, differential equations (still basic, stuff like variation of parameters, integrating coefficients, separation of variables, etc.), calculus of several variables (vector calculus, stuff like divergence, curl, Laplacian and del operators, line/surface integrals, and Green's, divergence, and Stoke's theorems), intro to proofs (basic ideas in formal logic and the different types of proofs in stuff like basic number theory and set theory), linear algebra I (theory based linear algebra, vector spaces, Markov chains, the concept of span in linear transformations for 1-1, onto, etc., and more on eigenvalues/eigenvectors/diagonalizability), modern algebra (basic abstract algebra, groups, rings, onto, 1-1, modular arithmetic, abelian groups, and dihedral groups), advanced calculus (intro to real analysis, open/closed intervals, basic set theory, then delta/epsilon proofs for convergence, limits, continuity, etc. leading to proving the IVT, MVT, and other shit from basic calculus).

After that I had a choice, I just had to take 4 4xxx level classes so I took linear algebra II (normed linear spaces, inner product spaces, singular value decomposition, Gram Schmidt, etc.), chaos and dynamical systems (solving systems of differential equations via steady states, nullclines, and manifolds, linearizing non-linear ODEs, and an introduction to chaotic systems), number theory (Fermat's little theorem, modular arithmetic, decimal expansions, and a bunch of other stuff that was basically described as "cool stuff with the integers" as a precursor to cryptography), and mathematical modeling (a systems biology class). That was just the math classes.

>The sort of courses offered is gigantic.
This is actually a big deal, and something people might not realize going in. The best part of my education was the special topics courses. Profs who are extra interested in something specific and beyond the undergrad curriculum put together courses in stuff like algebraic number theory, computational algebraic geometry, and geometric group theory, and I only went to a medium sized school.

How does this compare? I graduated last year with a double major in math and chemistry? This doesn't seem super comprehensive but the courses were Moore Method and pretty rigorous

youtube.com/watch?v=fJdA7dwx6-4

>moore method
>undergrad

Moore method is great but doesn't cover very much material

I would never approve of its use outside of a topics course.

UT Austin? Looks similar to what I did, but did you really only do 8 classes? I had to take like 14 classes (when adjusting for a couple 2 credit classes in the beginning) or 12 when you get AP credit for single variable calculus I & II just in mathematics (I'm sure you had to take science classes for application areas too). Also, did you not have any complex analysis classes or non-linear ODEs/PDEs classes?

8 4 credit courses. My chemistry degree was a 68 or 72 credit major but for some reason the math major has a much lower credit requirement

That's crazy. I would consider math to be an easier major (in terms of classes, definitely not in terms of content, anything business, arts, politics/psychology is of course easier) because you need 14 math classes (which is on the lower end, I hear), then like 4-6 concentration areas, some then another 8-10 classes in requirements out of major. Strangely enough, I also did math and chemistry and found the number of credits in chemistry to be more intimidating than math, though chemistry had more classes (each with its own lab, which sucked).

I'm not shitting on your school in case it's coming across that way, I'm just surprised you can knock out a math major in 8 classes (or presumably 10 with single var calculus).

>choose one of algebraic structures, real analysis, and topology
>none of those subjects have further classes
>discrete mathematics 2
That's...interesting.

I don't think you're shitting on it but it always came across as strange to me that it was such a quick major. There were only a few of us in my year (5 actually). We had 3 people get into grad school so I guess it isn't too terrible.
It's standard for majors to choose a topic from one of those courses after they have taken it and do research under a professor in it

I think I'm the most concerned about only choosing one class from those three, and that you can completely get out of taking any of them with some sort of seminar class. Nobody should be able to get a math degree without at least a semester each of algebra, analysis, and topology.

Oh I see what you're saying.
Yeah it doesn't seem comprehensive. I took algebra and topology with a research semester on manifolds but I'm completely out of it when it comes to analysis and number theory.

I go here and my gf is a math major here. She likes it; hasn't had any problems.

Number theory isn't super important, but analysis is. Though, as long as you took a single class in analysis you're probably fine.

Actually, let me rephrase that. Analysis is good for having a rigorous understanding of calculus, but unless you go to graduate school, you'll never use it.

That's you're basic undergrad mathematics degree. It'll get you into a grad program.

I am interested in cryptography specifically, what classes are more important for that? Abstract Algebra obvi, but is analysis important for good crypto?

Hey, I'm in Austin and considering going for math. How did you like it?

~~number theory~~~

How is the mathematics department in Georgia Tech and University of Georgia?

Veeky Forums delivers! Well said user.

Also, be careful about small college programs. They often have a lot of distribution requirements and not many upper level math courses. I went to one, and there was very little for me to take in the latter years. So I had maybe 1.5 math classes on average per semester.

Then, when you get to grad school, you find the people around you (especially foreign students) took math and nothing but math for 4 years. They literally had 3 or 4 times the number of math courses I had.

How did you make up the difference between your course disparity?

I kind of frontloaded all the electives and humanities into the first semester and then made it so that my other semesters were nothing but science. Honestly it was kind of a bad idea, and I regret it. Way too many labs all the time. I screwed up.

How did you screw up? Took so many courses that you didn't have enough time to focus on each one? Labs suck

Different user, but I did that as well, and I ended up not being able to schedule all of my classes together because of too many lab conflicts, and got stuck behind another year.

Going into my super-senior for undergrad this Fall, but on the upside, I've been doing research this whole time and will continue next year so I'll come out with a few publications and a good 1.5k hours in the lab at least.

Yeah I basically did the same thing, it just ended up in a lot of scheduling conflicts and a lot of intense classes back to back with no humanities blow-offs to lighten the load. I'm curious about other peoples experiences.

I basically started a CS minor just so I could have easy blow off classes to even out my Math workload.

This is here

My Master's degree made up for my weakness. I didn't really learn topology or complex analysis until I went to my Master's university (which had a PhD program, hence my comments).

I try not to apply stereotypes to individuals, but as a group, foreign students seem to have a good foundation of techniques but not much intuition.

Intuition and an actual understanding of math seems to be much more important in grad school. I don't think I was really behind the Asians by much at all.

Good luck man.

By the way, OP, I do go to Ball State in case you need any advice or anything.

I'd be interested to hear your overall opinions about anything you feel relevant. A general review would be really helpful to me. The only first hand info I have is from an alcoholic acquaintance of mine who studied history there, so that basically tells me nothing.

I've been to the campus a couple times and checked out the library/union etc but it was hard for me to get a feel for the place really.

Mathematics is a fucking meme that I've only seen extreme autists do.

I'm actually interested mostly in CS, but after emailing back and forth with the CS director at the school I am 100% sure that is not an option unless I want to waste money/years of my life on stuff I already taught myself. I'm trying to pick something that will challenge me and expand my horizons? I'd be interested to hear of others opinions.

I think it's a nice campus; You can get anywhere with a 15 minute walk, and the environment is really green.

I'm sure you've heard the phrase "Immersive Learning" by now, and that's because Ball State is a research-oriented university. I'm in the chemistry department, and they make sure that you come out with some sort of research. I personally like it.

Obviously it is not a top 10 school for any STEM field, but I don't regret going to BSU over Purdue or IU; Some could argue that there is an advantage since the classes are smaller and you can get more facetime with the professors. For example, in the chemistry department there are many expensive instruments that undergrads get to use, whereas universities like Purde would never let an undergrad touch it because one fuckup could set hundreds of people back.

As I said before in this thread, my girlfriend is a math major here, and she has a generally positive feeling about it. I'd urge you to take up a minor like CS, though; that's what she's doing.

In terms of amenities, the recreation center is really nice, as is the music building. There are a lot of free recitals since we also have a music school, and damn some of that stuff sounds heavenly. We get some big names to perform or speak at Emens sometimes and tickets are usually free for students.

In terms of bars, you've got a few. There's Be Here Now, which is also a music venue and they also have karaoke on Wednesdays. The Chug is more of your party bar; dollar pitcher nights and arcade machines/pool tables. Brothers is the higher class one that takes forever to get a drink, but is fun to go out to.

Lots of stores really close to campus for whatever you need, and off-campus housing prices aren't bad; they'll save you a ton of money.

Shuttle services run all throughout the day, and are really nice.

I don't know what else to say about the university, but feel free to ask me any questions.

>I try not to apply stereotypes to individuals, but as a group, foreign students seem to have a good foundation of techniques but not much intuition.
RIP my french math degree (graduating next year), didn't want that intuition anyway

If you like CS and are not intellectually disabled go math. You can take a few CS classes to pump up your GPA. Math gives you more rigorous foundations and then you can afford to only take CS classes you're actually interested in and skip all CS bullshit. I've been to two different universities, and at both places math majors mildly interested in computers absolutely wrecked CS majors in all CS classes.
You're right about expanding your horizons, it's important to keep an open mind because chances are you will change your mind a lot in 4 years. I went to uni thinking I'd eventually do computer security and that calculus is gay, had ups and downs, unexpectedly loved probability and functional analysis and now I'm thinking I might go for math PhD after all.

Not that guy, but I'd be very interested in hearing your anecdotal experiences of CS people being blown out of the water by Math majors.

1st uni
>Data structures and software verification class
>Top students are math majors
>Average math major has better grades than average CS major
>Friend nerds about various Knuth shit he's read and becomes prof protégé (prof is a half insane Coq main dev)
>All CS majors can talk about is video games, anime conventions and games of throne
>Friend is now in a top CS grad school and nearly everyone there has a math major background

>OOP class
>Math majors turn in best code, get best grades, even though CS majors are supposed to have had more coding classes.
>Apparently uni knows this, hence why it's a 2nd year class for math students, but 3rd year for CS.

>C class
>Super hardcore CS prof who specifically made the class for math students so he could go hard
>C for CS majors is the dumbed down version

1/2

>mfw we did all that except real anal/abs algebra in EE
tell me there's more to a maths degree than that?

2nd uni
>Java class
>I've fucked with Clojure for 2 weeks but apparently that makes me the JVM expert and prof asks me when he's not sure (he's a Java project manager in government)
>CS students bow before my wizardry after prof comments on me being "hardcore" for using vim on debian instead of NetBeans on Windows
>Get best grade
>Math girl next to me spends half of lab time playing candy crush and generally doing fuck all
>She gets 2nd best grade

>Automata theory class
>She and I are waaaaay above the other students
>One day prof (head of CS department) tells me after a lecture he could get funding and be my thesis advisor if I'm interested after graduation
>Only one CS major gets a passing grade

>One math major was a CS major in freshman year
>Tells me one of the students managed to write [math]-1\times -1 = -1[/math] and all the students were brain fucking dead
>Math profs had to re-teach half of high school math
>Had to get head of CS department signature to approve transfer to math department
>Prof spends half an hour practically begging him not to leave, he's apparently very desperate because of math department brain draining CS freshmen

>In a casual conversation math prof tells us head of CS department unofficially asked him to "fix" CS majors grades because too many were failing math classes and it's unfair not to take their weaker math background into consideration when grading them.

you mean you didn't do any math at all then. real analysis and algebra are introductory math classes. also complex calculus is NOT complex analysis, and your matrix methods class is NOT linear algebra for math

so you took a few more proofs in linalg and complex

if that's the difference then it's no wonder mathematicians are unemployable

>a few more proofs
???????
you need to understand the rational and jordan canonical forms well because you have to use them later on in other classes

saying complex analysis is complex calculus with "a few more proofs" is like saying real analysis is calculus with "a few more proofs". it's absolutely ridiculous and retarded.

3/10 - Pretty good bait, but needs a little more work in the future.

Stories about CS being inferior make me feel better on days when I'm down in the dumps.

I've taken real analysis you pleb and I know exactly what the difference is. Pretending it's difficult because it is rigorous is pathetic especially with intro courses that are full of babby trivial problems (that's any course based off of chaps 1-6 in rudin).

Honestly, I just kind of feel bad for them, and don't get me wrong there are definitely some good CS degree programs out there that are rigourous, but for the most part it is just sad. They act all high and mighty when they look down on the IT and Informatics crowd, but they can't look up and see the position they are sitting in is also quite low on the totem pole.

I just feel sorry for them honestly. I think that a lot of them are capable of more than what they do.

Derailing the thread with fake EE comments for the 5000th time tonight? I still don't get what is fun about doing the same troll thing over and over again when it is way more fun to come up with new ones? At least for me anyway.

>Derailing the thread with fake EE comments for the 5000th time tonight?
haha you wish, I literally am an EE

t's a bitter pill to swallow

Your comments about the topic are what I was calling fake and disingenuous not the fact that you are EE.

Glad I could provide you with entertainment.

Forgot to mention, math has the lowest attrition rate in STEM fields at our uni. More or less 60% of math freshmen will eventually graduate, which sounds low until you see physics and CS are closer to 30%, and biology is 20%. We're a small isolated uni and our profs are super scared of people thinking they teach inferior material as a consequence, so they'd rather fail more students than lower their expectations in general.
Apparently local highschoolers got the message: while the sum of physics/CS/math freshmen is very stable, the ratio varies year on year, and this year for the first time math is the largest major.

>>Math girl next to me spends half of lab time playing candy crush and generally doing fuck all

Did you guys end up dating?

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Nah, I heard she has a bf, and I legitimately don't know how to date (t. recovering autist).
I'm curious how it'd have worked out though. Sometimes we're so in tune it's weird, almost feels like mind reading.
Sorry to disappoint user.

best school to do mathematics in oregon? anyone?

Whatever the one in Eugene is called again, too lazy to look it up. Definitely heard good things about it though. Also great town in general, loved the atmosphere.

Pretty insane that other people attend Ball State, and visit Veeky Forums at the same time. Although, I'm opposed to falling for the mathematics meme even though a CIS degree is also in the STEM field, and is arguably just as vague. I did about shit myself though whenever opened my browser and saw this.

Why is it weird? I would assume there are some posters here from every college with 15k+ students at it?

What is your major in there user?

It's because, generally speaking, I'm associating Veeky Forums with all of antics and derivatives spawned from Veeky Forums, a long time ago. And have seen it grow, and become the website it still is today.

Don't take my last post the wrong way, I'm excited about it more than anything.

Computer Information Systems

the university i went to listed that a few years ago 2 people completed a bachelor of mathematics, and 67% of them passed

thats the kind of thing that should put you off

Why are you doing CIS instead of CS or Informatics? Doesn't CIS give you a lot less options, and no offense but isn't it more of a technician or vocational degree? If it isn't please inform me of what it consists of in your context I'm not familiar with the term 'CIS' as a degree.

excuse me but what is calc 3?

multivariable calculus

here we go...

Americans take 3 years worth of calculus and 2 of real analysis? For fucks sake, your country's education is such a joke

>3 years
Here we go again. 3 semesters. It can be knocked out in one calendar year.

oh okay.

multivariate calc is called calc 2 at my uni