What reasons are you studying pure math?
How far along are you in major?
What is your favorite sub-field of math?
Post-graduation plans?
Feel free to answer what you're doing with a math degree if you already graduated, since not everyone on this board is 18.
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there's no pure math in europe. You just go to autism day center for that
>What reasons are you studying pure math?
Personal interest in mathematics and a general disatisfaction with everything else.
Personal interest because I care deeply about the results of mathematics and about how those results are obtained.
Disatisfaction with other degrees because I simply cannot care enough. I cannot care enough about physics or chemistry (subjects I was also good at back in hs), I cannot care enough about engineering, I cannot care enough about anything else to study it for 4 years.
It all just seems too boring. Too trivial. It doesn't intrigue me, not like mathematics does. And whatever problems this could bring to my professional career I don't really care because I already have that "problem" sorted out.
>How far along are you in major?
I'm a sophomore.
>What is your favorite sub-field of math?
Algebra. In my freshman year I studied all the 3 main topics of math (analysis, algebra and geometry) very deeply (but not deep enough) and what I found is that analysis is trivial and boring, geometry can get too complex while at the same time lacking in substance (making it boring) but Algebra is just perfect. It is just right there in the middle. It is at the midpoint of difficulty and at the midpoint of meaning. I am definitely looking forward for my Junior year where we finally have 3 classes of just pure algebra.
>Post-graduation plans?
I am already decided in the fact that I will get a masters degree in mathematics. However, I will only also get that masters in pure mathematics if I get outstanding results all throughout my undergrad career. If I don't turn out to be a genius then I am considering many applied mathematics degrees that are very worthwhile.
Degrees that focus on mathematical finance/actuarial mathematics and degrees that focus on applied research for industry look very very juicy.
That said, if I don't turn out to be a genius, I intend to work in technology as I am already in that anyways.
What are you even talking about that's just plainly false
If the UK can be considered 'europe' then there of course is the Mathematical Tripos which is the most rigorous pure math undergrad anywhere maths.cam.ac.uk
Pure math also changes the way you think, mainly giving you skills in abstraction which obviously has other benefits in other fields like computer science you could quite easily jump into a theory of computation PhD or attempt to solve things like Max Cut with pure math.
>tfw PHD in math
>tfw any job I want, 300k starting
>most rigorous pure math anywhere
i just looked at the papers and they're a cakewalk compared to what i had to deal with. the only difference is more options for undergrad courses; i'd have to sit in on graduate courses for something like algebriac topology or geometry, they didn't offer them at the undergrad level. i went to a public state university btw
why does UK have to feel superior about this stuff?
>analysis is trivial and boring
>this school is easy
>they do grad level in undergrad but I didn't
ok
This is the fourth year exam, it consists of 36 different exams maths.cam.ac.uk
Tell us about how cakewalk it is again
Geometry is the one true math. Everything is geometry.
i am saying that they get a watered down version of the grad course; i say this having actually looked at the exams and compared it to hw and exams from the grad course
i will look at that link now
Hi guys, dont know if this is the right place to ask it but what is the difference between applied mathematics and 'pure' mathematics at university?
The Tripos is an insane test of endurance more than it is anything else, you are expected to have mastered like 30+ subjects of undergrad/masters level by fourth year enough to sit through a 2 hour dissertation reciting on command your knowledge of undergrad subjects and writing nonstop exams while also participating in rowing and shit. It's like the Delta Force of math degrees and a lot end up being wooed to Wall Street as millionaire quants or go on to the Turing institute for a PhD
I did my undergrad in pure math and I'm currently a grad student in applied math at a decent university.
From my point of view, Applied vs. Fundamental mathematics is a somewhat artificial distinction. Applied mathematicians tend to be more often concerned with real world applications, but sometimes they don't care and only do theoretical applied math, in the same way that there's practical fundamental math, which makes the Applied vs. Fundamental divide pretty much orthogonal to Practical Methodological Theoretical spectrum.
Eg:
>Applied
Probability
Statistics
PDE and numerical analysis
Optimization and Control
Signal
>Fundamental
Algebra
Analysis
Geometry
All the above fields simultaneously have actual applications and a very abstract theory. The same can be said of any field that lies at the intersection of two of the previous fields.
In conclusion to answer your question I'd say it depends on the university, but at most places if you take an applied math track you may be closer to industry as in you will be expected to get your hands dirty with numerical code at some point. Or you can take applied math classes as part of your fundamental math track like I did, just do what's fun to you.
Thanks for your answer. I'm currently in my first bachelor year of Electrical Engineering but I am thinking of switching to another study because I am not doing so well at the moment (had a rough start). I really like mathematics, we had tons of it in the past 4-5 months. So I am thinking of switching to CS or applied mathematics in the same faculty where I am now studying. I can also do CS as an undergrad and take a minor in mathematics to pursue a graduate degree in Applied Mathematics to keep it a bit less theoretical.
This is very true. Mathematicians working on quantum field theory are asking and answering questions physicists generally don't care about.
If it makes you feel any better, my first two years were in mechanical engineering until I burned out depressed, which helped me realize I didn't like mechanics and fundamentally wasn't excited about my field of study. Not going to blog about my life (lol who cares) but it took me a while (honestly like 4 years of soul searching and 3 unis) after that to "get it" and be passionate about my subject.
Side note: in every single CS class I've taken (including programming), in every uni, the best student was always a math major and on average math majors had better grades in CS than CS majors. Make of that what you will.
dude what the fuck is this? are you supposed to do all of this as an exam at the end of your studies or what ?
Hmm. Nice that you found something you liked. I am going to look further into maths. There is also something called econometrics, mathematics with applications in the economic world. It is really similar to applied mathematics here in the Netherlands. Also an option. Thanks for your response
I picked up a math major just for funsies. I was a CS major, then picked up a math minor, and finished the major because it was only a few more classes. (They allowed me to double count classes btwn two majors but not major and minor.)
I really enjoyed algebra. I found the proofs more interesting than analysis proofs. And I really did it all just to study crypto, which is a lot of group theory. Crypto proofs are interesting because you have to take into account who knows what and when.
Now I'm a PhD student in CSE. The math was helpful in developing my thinking and making the admissions committee think I'm smart, but I'm not doing any proofs now. Definitely worth it. Everyone doing math should do another major or minor in my opinion.
Doing something similar. Math undergrad, worked a bit. Going back to school for either ECE or CS (PhD).
How many proofs you think you could pull out of a hat now after not doing it for a while?
I could probably do the stuff from my intro to algebra class, but that's about it haha. I'm trying to get back into it. I'm planning on working through an intro topo book and Jech's set theory.
Also may try and integrate Cryptanalysis into my PhD, since I have to pick a computational specialization.
>What reasons are you studying pure math?
I think it's beautiful
>How far along are you in major?
Jr. Year
>What is your favorite sub-field of math?
Number Theory/ Graph Theory... I haven't taken analysis yet sadly, but I think I might actually like it more than algebra.
>Post-graduation plans?
PhD/ Graduate school or NSA (seriously)
>junior with no analysis
fuck man wtf
Doing a maths and physics double major.
I love analysis
1st year fag
>American education
Even in CS we have analysis here in first semester