Mathematical challenges take undergrad in a new direction | Hacker News Reader

Mathematical challenges take undergrad in a new direction

spectrum.mit.edu

29 pointsstmw12 comments

A double major in math and X is often a pretty strong combination. Graduate economics is really helped by math skills for example. Math alone is fine but you usually end up looking for another field to get a job so why not start with a double major? . I am biased because I got a double major in math and computer science though ;-)

I did graduate work in finance coming with a background in medicine completed years before. I learned quickly that that's what I should have done in college: a double major in math and x.

Math + liberal arts (literature of death). Once you learn embedded systems programming, it’s a killer combo!

Math + Philosophy I think is a great combo. My study of philosophy in college opened my eyes like nothing else I’ve ever learned since besides Daoism (though that might count as philosophy as well, I guess).

I'm only doing a Math major currently, but start my own projects and get involved in various CS organizations. I think not going along the traditional CS path has more bang-for-your-buck in the long term, since it shows drive to pick up things on the side (also the CS program here is notoriously difficult)

I don't mean to be sour here, but why is an undegrad switching majors news?

It's a magazine for donors.

This is why I love statistics. You can dabble with integrals and functions and all the fancy math tools and still end up with something useful to say about the real world.

Fwiw I think all of math has something useful to say about the real world, it's just that some of it takes decades or more for us to figure out what that is.

Like, the E8 Lie Group probably contains the secret to manmade wormholes, faster-than-light travel, and manipulating higher dimensional space, but we won't know it for hundreds of years. (or at least until we invent AGI). Something like that.

I used to think that statistics was “dirty” math in college, but now it’s my favorite. It’s so easy to ask interesting off the cuff questions. And when you actually have the tools to begin to work on these questions, it becomes exhilirating!

Hey, I don't identify with switching to a math major because I always found math the most challenging aspect of engineering. (I knew people who thought Math was a pretty easy undergrad major. I know I would have had better luck flapping my arms and flying than graduating with a math degree.)

But I did enter school interested in biomedical engineering--in part because my parents were both in life sciences in various ways. And I probably liked chemistry more than physics in high school. That more or less lasted through taking organic chemistry which I did not... umm, connect with.

If something is hard, it means it’s gonna make you better than something that is easy. A lot of classes in college were in compsci (I dropped out before I finished though), and in retrospect, it was a mistake. I was too interested and too good, and had already learned all the stuff on my own. Better to major in something that is hard and only mildly interesting. If it’s too boring, you’ll just flunk out, so mildly interesting is a good compromise.

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