any mathmaticians in the house? dont worry..not math problem

no worry everyone, I wont bog you guys(esp Albert) w/ story problems.....

but I do want some advice:

I am currently a math major, ready to graduate next year w/ a bachelor of Science, and the way I see it, I will have 2 or so free spaces where I can take any classes I want. Since my goal is to go to grad school, I might as welll take math classes.


So my concern is what to take. I mean, my main goal is to go to grad school and eventually get a Ph.D(so I can teach college level math), and I just dont know if there are actually classes that people reccomend to take besides the required courses.

I know that all schools are different, but I'm gonna assume that the math circullum is somewhat the same for all schools...right? I"m assuming all undergrads need to take calculus, linear algebra, abstract algerbra, analysis, discrete maths and all that stuff.....

and then there are other stuff, such as probability, graph theory, regression, convexity, etc etc which are not required to get a bacholers.

For what I want to do w/ my life, do you guys here have any reccomendations on what type of math I need to take, or is it all based on my interest?


do we have any prof's or advisors here??

p.s, I know that I should ask my advisor, but he is currently out of town.....I will ask him when I get the chance, but I Just want to get some information first.

thanx

 

Here is just a quick thought.

Since your main goal is to remain in the academic arena and to teach math, probably anything you pick will be just fine. So, pick something that you are interested in learning more about.

If you were to leave the academic arena, and to try to seek employment in, say, the government or private sectors, I would suggest probability and statistics. Skills in these areas are always useful for things such as policy development.

 

As seems to already be suggested, I would recommend taking probability.

Whether you decide to become a teacher or not, it will be a good idea to have skills in that area. If your a teacher, you basically already have everything you need or are working at it, so go teach. But if you decide to do something other than teaching, but in the field of math, I would probably look into being a statistician.

General info: http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos045.htm

But I would definately recommend consulting your advisor about anything.

 

partial quote from semidevil

"I might as welll take math classes."

Are you some kind of machocist?

 

Unless there is anything that you feel you need that is related to your plans (math major, grad school or teaching) I would suggest you find classes that you find interesting and aren't related to your major. During your under grad is really the only time you will get to just take classes in all those other subjects that interest you.

And fortunately, math is a good major to explore your interests like this because it's easy to have much of the major accomplished in high school before you even get to college...


For instance, I'm taking Soviet Studies this semseter. It has nothing with my major (Mechanical Engineering) and doesn't clear any flags and on paper is a "useless elective," but I'm taking it because I saw it and thought I would be interesting--and am glad I'm taking it.