What's is like being a math major?

>>8433811
Comfy, everything is easy if you can read and reason diligently. Less work that makes you want to kill yourself than engineering but still mentally challenging. Lots of career opportunities if you network and reach out for internships. You could work in anything from software development, finance/banking, teaching, academics, study for actuarial tests, consulting in numerous fields, it goes on. Just don't be someone who only does classes and then wonders why their math degree didn't make them employable.

like learning semi-advanced math

Fun and easy. Just double major in something that can actually get you a job like CS or engineering. Or business/finance and style on the dumb frat kids

>>8433811
Not a math major, want to do Stat

Ehh, if i really think about it really deep, they are the smartest once they get at least an MD but with only a Bachelor's you still get lots of money and have way more job opportunities than anyone

But maybe that's a biased point of view, after all i think that everyone must excel at their best creative talent and their scientific/logical talent

In a few words: they are smart fucks that can do anything, anywhere, anytime

>>8433811
Basically spend all of your time not understanding anything and then you do good in your classes anyway and just always feel like a phony.

>>8433825
>easy
maybe if you take only baby courses

>>8433980
>just always feel like a phony.

this so hard jesus christ. got great grades and to my non-math friends it seems like im a fucking math encyclopedia and can explain alot, but relative to the math world it feels so fake.

>>8433811
Someone post that copy-pasta

>>8434076
this

I have impostor syndrome and crippling alcoholism as a result of being a math major. I'm double majoring in business and somehow blow people away in business classes, but I still feel incredibly dumb when I'm around actual mathematicians.

tl;dr, math makes you a depressed alcoholic

>>8434578
It's very common from what I can tell with mathematicians. Math is stupidly hard.

>>8433811

everyday you wake up and practice adding. Then it's time for 30 minutes subtraction. Then you are ready for a 15 minute power break. Take this time to drink a meme shake. Then it's time for multiplication tables.

>>8434055
>Taking engineering courses
>no intuitive understanding with what the fuck is going on in the problems anymore
>I'm just doing calculus and algebra and geometry and the solutions are right
>As and Bs on tests, completely fucking lost in lectures

Fucking kill me

ETERNAL DESPAIR

Go to lectures.
Read textbook.
Work out proofs at a steady pace.
You feel like you understand and are making huge progress.

A few weeks later.
Go to lectures; you don't understand shit and your eyes glaze over.
Go read textbook; spend hours trying to understand a single page.
Spend hours trying to figure out how to even start a proof.

Work hard, worried that the math department is going to find out that you're a shitter and dismiss you from the program even though you're three semesters away from graduating.

Spend day and night behind the chalkboard and textbook.
Have a eureka moment and feel euphoria.

Walk in to take tests feeling confident and walk out feeling like a shitter.

Feel like you're never going to get accepted to grad school, even if you meet all requirements and have a respectable GPA.

Even if you somehow fooled them the first time and got accepted, they're definitely going find out that you're a shitter after the first test.

>>8435597
>engineering

stop sucking cocks and it gets easier.

>>8435699
Hey man, don't be so hard on yourself

>>8433811
The biggest problem with this meme is that if you haven't completed a degree in both math and another field you have no reference as to relative difficulty.

I have met mathematicians who were brilliant in their field who got completely lost when their field was applied in a physics context. Most notably an Algebraist who was intimately familiar with Hilbert space but couldn't understand Dirac notation in Quantum Mechanics. He got the math part of it but was completely lost with regard to the physics.

So basically you need to step into both shoes before you complain that your field is more challenging than another. I would argue if you are finding math hard, find an easier discipline.

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>>8433811
>>8434076

>>8433811
You dont have ANY life besides uni, unless you want to finish alot later then what the regular time for your programme is.

>>8433811
Not as nice as being Clarence.

This thread is depressing. It seems a lot of mathematics students (at least those in the 4chan community) find their knowledge to be superficial because of the seemingly bottomless sea of information still beneath them. While this is true, I don't think one ever reaches the bottom; every question you ask and every answer you find seem to push you a unit deeper and then force the bottom ten units deeper. The point I want to make is this: there is hardly ever a real sea floor. Most of mathematics is far too expressive for there to be an end. The mathematician is a traveler with no real destination. For our field, we must truly embrace the idea that the journey outweighs the conclusion (a vacuous truth), and that fulfillment comes only when we appreciate how deep we are, and not how much further we have to go. Setting concrete goals will help. If you want to reach a fixed depth, you can. Your goal cannot be to "know mathematics," as this goal is not attainable by our finite and simple human minds. You are all on remarkable journeys, so please keep in mind how miraculous it is that we are all mere apes that have managed to produce and understand parts of such a vast ocean. Good luck to you all!

(Pro tip: replace instances of 'mathematics" with whatever field you like, and the perspective still probably holds.)

>>8436926

For me, the biggest problem is that I have no standard to compare to, so I try to overcompensate by making completely idiotic ones and try to achieve those (i.e. being as smart as von Neumann, or some other retarded variant), and once I'm obviously unable to, I just get a deep feeling of worthlessness.

And if I have standards at all is because, even though I hate to admit it, I'm just here for the ego boost it brings me, since I have zero self-respect and self-worth and depend on others to give it to me (read the section on von Neumann's intelectual capacity and what people thought of him on his wiki page and you'll get a sense of what I crave).

But then, I see that people respect me and it feels completely empty and meaningless, because deep down I know I'm just not what I seem.

Saddest thing is, even if I managed to earn international acclaim, it wouldn't actually change anything, so I have no drive, no reason to do anything, and I just want to exist until I die instead of being a cancer of any kind of mathematical community who diverts resources and attention from more worthy people.

>>8436975
I'm sorry anon, I hope you find a more centred motivation and mindset. I wish you the best of luck. You probably possess a lot of potential, but it's hard to see your own strengths when you compare yourself to a biological supercomputer.

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>>8436975
>I just want to exist until I die instead of being a cancer of any kind of mathematical community who diverts resources and attention from more worthy people.
can second this feeling

i've been wanting to drop out and give my supervisor his research funding back since i haven't done anything useful in the entire last year

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honestly, I picked pure mathematics because it was easy, I don't have essays or lab reports and I can spend most of my time jacking off on 4chan or playing games, and when I do have to do actual work it really amounts to solving fun cute little riddles, which is amusing.

a constant downward spiral of depression and degradation of self-worth

mathematicians are genetically predisposed to an overbearing sense of expectation, both of themselves and others

this manifests as crippling guilt or depression, often both

when a mathematician can't solve a problem, their first thought is more often than not "i'm such an idiot, why can't i solve this problem" rather than "this is a hard problem"

t. recovering mathematician

>>8433811
be more specific

When is a good time to start on research/internships? After which coarse would I be able to be qualified enough (mathematically speaking that is) to start applying?

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>>8437403
i did summer research projects after my 2nd and 3rd years of undergrad

>>8435699
Can confirm that every STEM field has this analogue.

btw, grad school is really just about wanting to do well and showing some excitement for it. Most people don't end up at hotshot universities with 10 publications a year in the best journals, but they still contribute to the field in meaningful ways. I remember feeling the same way about grad admissions, but really nobody is expecting you to show up there and be a """""genius""""".
tl;dr, you just have to want to do it and you are allowed to make of it what you want, nobody except for some assholes will judge you for it, and nobody likes them anyway.

>>8433811
Its nice since you get that 300k starting job but there is one thing that you get that nobody will say. WEPONIZED AUTISM

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Yo I'm pissed. 300k starting is a meme, show me a link or some proof mathematicians with a bachelor do get 300k. Wasnt able to find proof with google

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>>8435585
>>8437540

>Weaponized autism.
Lol
I find you in every thread, so sad you couldn't make the cut for Mathematics.

Haha mathematics is the top field. Every bit of knowledge falls down from us onto you. No one fails to realize this, there simply exist a great amount of people who feel inferior because they cant do math and cannot accept their inferiority.

The greatest economists? Mathematicians who pretty much started the field.

Before game theory what did you fags use? Elementary calculus?

Another invention of mathematicians. Before calculus? Fucking algebra right? Mathematicians invented it.

Don't get out of line, there is a huge difference between you and me because I am a Mathematician (and thus a perfect human being). I am also very humble and respect you in your ignorance.

So please respect me back, it's the very least you can do.

Right now I feel like God would feel when sinners go up to him and tell him that their sins weren't too bad.

YOU DO NOT QUESTION GOD

YOU DO NOT QUESTION MATHEMATICIANS

Because we are God

>>8437500
What courses had you completed by then?

>>8437672
by 2nd year: linear algebra, calculus 1-3, stats/probability, rings + fields, ODEs, real analysis

by 3rd year add on group theory, complex analaysis, combinatorics, cryptography, morse theory, coxeter groups, galois theory

>>8437665
>mathematicians invented calculus
Last time I checked Newton was a physicist. Just admit it, you guys just play around with numbers and wait around until someone takes your work and actually makes it useful.

>>8437751
>What is a polymath
>Muh Principia Mathematica
>Muh Leibniz

Apply yourself.

>>8437751
Assigning titles is for small minds.

Whatever your assigned title is it all boils down to math.

Thanks for playing.

>>8437766
>>Muh Principia Mathematica
a book on natural philosophy.
haven't you read it?

>>8437785
As a great person once said:

>Philosophy is just math without rigor for low intelligence rich kids who have nothing better to do so go fuck yourself.

I'm about to finish my applied math B.S.

I have great marks, and a great job opportunity already, but it wasn't worth it.

If I had it to do over, I would have never attended college, instead self-learning everything.

At my school I have had to spend TWO YEARS just finishing my general requirement courses (non-STEM courses)

If I had actually been allowed to focus exclusively on my chosen subject, I could have finished in four semesters. Then it would have been worth it.

Instead, I spent almost half the time writing essays for fucking humanities courses.

TLDR; don't go to college

>>8437798
It's only not worth it if you don't care about employability, job security, increased quality of life, etc.

>>8437795
Natural philosophy is an old name for science, moron.

>>8437812
>employability, job security, increased quality of life, etc.

It's true, but right now I feel like I've wasted my best years, so I can't look forward to the future very well. I just feel myself careening ever closer to the abyss.

>when a mathematician can't solve a problem, their first thought is more often than not "i'm such an idiot, why can't i solve this problem" rather than "this is a hard problem"

It's both reassuring and scary to see other math students that feel like impostors and are depressed.

>>8433980
This is one of the most accurate posts I've ever read on /sci/

>>8437798

oh boo hoo u had to take an english class the world is soooo unfair

kill yourself my man

>>8437863
Some of us don't appreciate being ripped-off for $30-50k to collect merit badges on our way to learn what we actually went to school for. I don't see english majors having to take calc or physics classes. Do you?

>>8437863
>an english class
more like sixteen english/history/philosophy-type classes

>the world is soooo unfair
I never said this, only that my B.S. took about twice as long as it should have

>kys
clever, did you come up with that all on your own?

>>8437869
>$30-50k
Well I didn't pay anything close to that, but still

>I don't see english majors having to take calc or physics classes.
REKT

This is exactly what I mean. STEM students aren't allowed to focus exclusively on STEM, but humanities students are allowed to focus exclusively on humanities. It's a scam.

>>8437863
>>8437869
yeah, I guess when mommy and daddy pay for everything then you don't have to worry as much about wasting time.

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>>8437882

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>>8437955

>>8433980
This. It feels like I'm barely keeping my head above water in the kids pool, yet I get decent grades.

>>8433811
I do maths in the UK, at Cambridge.
Essentially imagine about a 50 hour working week where you still find time for fun, hence there's an 8 week term of minimal sleep.

>>8437798
Should have gone to uni in the UK, would have been cheaper and there's no general requirement shit here, you just do your subject.

>>8438043
so I've heard

>>8438047
Most degrees are three years because of it.
Though some universities make people do a year long (paid) work placement between their second and third years.

>>8433811
Feels like I'm not actually qualified to do anything and thus have constant anxiety over what I'll do when I graduate.

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>>8433980
>>8434055
>>8435597

This is defs me af desu

>>8436926
Amen.

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>>8433973
you sound pretty dumb.

no way you are more employable than a engineer

>>8433980
This. It's actually called "Imposter Syndrome" and its well documented among math majors.

>>8438166
>You sound dumb

Are you lost kid? Head on back to /b/ now please

>>8436926
>as this goal is not attainable by our finite and simple human minds
Speak for yourself, brainlet.

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>>8439091
Hail to you wizards, I'm jelly.