Quote:
Originally Posted by Zanth
One of my good friends from highschool did apple math and really tried to get me to pursue it as well. I went for biochemical engineering instead and then later moved to a double major in this and genetics.
He actually had an easier load than most engineers, likely because of the lack of labs, but then he doubled up and did apple math and engineering physics. That was the end of him. I didn't really see much of him for the next 4 years. Took him 6 to complete and he was easily putting in 40 hours of just class/lab time, then it was another 80-100 for the homework. He's making a good living now though, so it was all worth it.
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Yea, i'm a double major in cse and ams. AMS alone i agree is an easy major in a requirement sense (at my university: stony brook). Yet, the kinds of clsases you take dictates the amount of work, the major is definatley geared around eco and engineering guys who want a good background in alot of "useful" math things i guess... (I think in my case in generally was a waste of time, e.g i hate and dont care about statistics stuff, why take 3 courses in it?).
On the other hand, it forced me to into crytopgraphy stuff, and helped me tune my my interestest towards this specialization (yea an undergrad one heh) in info assurance. This wasn't a necessity, but knowing the kinds of math like graph theory, abstract algebra really helped me alot in those kinds of respects.
As far as a career in applied math, yea i know actuaries can make a great salary, i just cannot see myself in that. It seems very boring. I'm more of an "engineering" type, i want to build and design information systems that are secure. That's my goal.
P.S: The stigma about math being so hard is heavily involved (I feel) in the lack of proper math teaching towards childern and teen agers in elementary and high school. From the ground up, it's taught in an awkward, secular, and pretty much cookie cutter way. You plug these lil thingies in, and out comes an answer... That's not real math.
Real math is a thinking and strategy pattern that you need to build off of axioms you are given. You move towards a conclusion based on the facts you have. No, it's not like writing an essay, you use symbols, postulates, corrollaries, and things in general that are known somehow to show something. Yea math at even an undergrad level can start to turn into something a bit more abstract... yet what does it have to do with
elementary algebra? They should focus more on how to look at problems, and i think at a very young age should teach childeren what proofs are and how to write them atleast in words. Though i might offend alot of people here by saying this, calculus is really one of the easiest and most trivial types of math there is (not talking about analysis stuff here). Anyone can do it if they have basic abilities in thinking... All of the equations given to you, you memorize and apply a new set of rules which is pretty basic, then you are given well behaved and solvable functions for each of these basic rules. Newton made this stuff to be easy, he wanted a geometrical approach to solve his physics problems, and well it's alot easier to do these things when the ideas of how areas of known shapes work.
If math wasn't taught in such a "practical" way to kids, if they weren't simply trying to make them pass tests like the sat I and II, there wouldn't be so many people in america that can't do trival math like calculus. If you disagree with my comments, just observe how other countries don't seem to have such a problem with teaching kids calculus even in elementary school. ALot of foreign students i know learned calculus atleast in their early teens.
