Likelies/safeties for math-oriented majors

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My dc also took AP Calculus BC in 9th grade. He was very interested in math competitions and progressed up the AMC/AIME/USAMO ladder, achieving USAMO in junior year. MIT loves students who qualify for USAMO. Dc's GPA was not high enough for MIT, but he ended up at Carnegie Mellon, which was a perfect fit. He did well at the Putnam competitions (the CMU Putnam coach is also the coach for the US team that goes to the IMO), and now has a job he loves. I don't know if your child is the math competition type, but this was a path that worked well for my dc.

DP

Can I ask what job he does that he loves? Private sector or government?

At the time, private sector in a very well-known company doing data analysis. Now is working in another private sector company that is not as well-known, but a step up in both responsibilities and compensation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My dc also took AP Calculus BC in 9th grade. He was very interested in math competitions and progressed up the AMC/AIME/USAMO ladder, achieving USAMO in junior year. MIT loves students who qualify for USAMO. Dc's GPA was not high enough for MIT, but he ended up at Carnegie Mellon, which was a perfect fit. He did well at the Putnam competitions (the CMU Putnam coach is also the coach for the US team that goes to the IMO), and now has a job he loves. I don't know if your child is the math competition type, but this was a path that worked well for my dc.

DP

Can I ask what job he does that he loves? Private sector or government?

At the time, private sector in a very well-known company doing data analysis. Now is working in another private sector company that is not as well-known, but a step up in both responsibilities and compensation.

Thank you so much for coming back to respond. Trying to think of options for my math-loving DC. Not sure what to do with a Math degree other than teach.

[Anonymous]

Another safety to look at for an applied math/cs option is the Computational Modeling and Data Analytics major at Virginia Tech. It's a combination of statistics/applied math/computer science and is the undergraduate major in their Academy of Data Science. My math/stats loving son is a sophomore in the program and very happy with it.

In addition to the regular major coursework, they also offer an undergraduate research program where the students work as consultants on all kinds of data projects for professors and grad students across the university.

https://data.science.vt.edu/programs/cmda.html
https://www.databridge.dev/about

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My dc also took AP Calculus BC in 9th grade. He was very interested in math competitions and progressed up the AMC/AIME/USAMO ladder, achieving USAMO in junior year. MIT loves students who qualify for USAMO. Dc's GPA was not high enough for MIT, but he ended up at Carnegie Mellon, which was a perfect fit. He did well at the Putnam competitions (the CMU Putnam coach is also the coach for the US team that goes to the IMO), and now has a job he loves. I don't know if your child is the math competition type, but this was a path that worked well for my dc.

DP

Can I ask what job he does that he loves? Private sector or government?

At the time, private sector in a very well-known company doing data analysis. Now is working in another private sector company that is not as well-known, but a step up in both responsibilities and compensation.

Thank you so much for coming back to respond. Trying to think of options for my math-loving DC. Not sure what to do with a Math degree other than teach.

Actuarial work is a possibility. So is finance. Quants are in high demand at hedge funds.

Your dc may also find that while they like math and they are good at it, they will study other subjects/topics in college and change focus. Many math majors minor in comp sci or economics, and end up getting jobs in business and finance. They use their math, logic, and coding skills to create algorithms that predict the correct time to purchase or sell commodities, and in what amounts. Other math people are more interested in mathematical applications to science, and publish technical papers. Still others specialize in statistics.

Is there a particular aspect of math your dc really likes? Number theory, combinatorics, geometry, statistics? Perhaps, when visiting colleges, your dc could email a professor in the math department for an informational.interview that would take place after the main tour. Then your.dc could get a sense of the math specialties in which that college's math department excels, as well as a better idea of what career opportunities are available. I wish your dc all the best!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid had a similar trajectory through high school. He wanted a smaller school and landed at St. Olaf. He absolutely loved it there. Similarly, his focus changed from pure math to more applied. He double majored in math and a hard science, did research in that science department, had great mentors, summer internship opportunities. But he came in with a ton of computer science knowledge already. Never wanted to major in it, just wanted to apply it to harder questions. So I'm not sure about their CS department? Might be worth a look. I think it would be a true safety that would offer really good merit aid. And a huge number of students there study abroad, which could broaden his options, course-wise, if he's worried about that.

Awesome! Thanks so much for sharing your DC’s experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another safety to look at for an applied math/cs option is the Computational Modeling and Data Analytics major at Virginia Tech. It's a combination of statistics/applied math/computer science and is the undergraduate major in their Academy of Data Science. My math/stats loving son is a sophomore in the program and very happy with it.

In addition to the regular major coursework, they also offer an undergraduate research program where the students work as consultants on all kinds of data projects for professors and grad students across the university.

https://data.science.vt.edu/programs/cmda.html
https://www.databridge.dev/about

Nice, thank you for this!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another safety to look at for an applied math/cs option is the Computational Modeling and Data Analytics major at Virginia Tech. It's a combination of statistics/applied math/computer science and is the undergraduate major in their Academy of Data Science. My math/stats loving son is a sophomore in the program and very happy with it.

In addition to the regular major coursework, they also offer an undergraduate research program where the students work as consultants on all kinds of data projects for professors and grad students across the university.

https://data.science.vt.edu/programs/cmda.html
https://www.databridge.dev/about

Also, adding to this, I know DCUM says VT is not a safety for anyone because their admissions is so unpredictable and they seem to yield-protect high stats students. I think that definitely seems to happen in the engineering school but this CMDA major is in the College of Science, is a small, not-well-known major, that they want to grow and has a 73% acceptance rate so I think a high stats student with a strong math record can consider it a safety.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another safety to look at for an applied math/cs option is the Computational Modeling and Data Analytics major at Virginia Tech. It's a combination of statistics/applied math/computer science and is the undergraduate major in their Academy of Data Science. My math/stats loving son is a sophomore in the program and very happy with it.

In addition to the regular major coursework, they also offer an undergraduate research program where the students work as consultants on all kinds of data projects for professors and grad students across the university.

https://data.science.vt.edu/programs/cmda.html
https://www.databridge.dev/about

Also, adding to this, I know DCUM says VT is not a safety for anyone because their admissions is so unpredictable and they seem to yield-protect high stats students. I think that definitely seems to happen in the engineering school but this CMDA major is in the College of Science, is a small, not-well-known major, that they want to grow and has a 73% acceptance rate so I think a high stats student with a strong math record can consider it a safety.

Very helpful! Thank you.