College - Majors and Career Ideas...

Vinen_sl said:

Which begs the question. Why go back to school? Unless you are failing working for a Government Contractor or the Government (99.99% of people who work these jobs are fails) there is really no reason to have a Masters degree. You MUST have one to actually get promoted past a certain point at some (maybe most?) Government related jobs.

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I've basically worked myself into a position at my job that would look for PhD or well-authored graduate degree holders, I feel like being hired for a similar job would be impossible. So for now I'll just sit tight, but if anything changes I might just take a few years off of work and go back to school and get a docterate.

Vinen_sl said:

Which begs the question. Why go back to school? Unless you are failing working for a Government Contractor or the Government (99.99% of people who work these jobs are fails) there is really no reason to have a Masters degree. You MUST have one to actually get promoted past a certain point at some (maybe most?) Government related jobs.

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Why do a graduate degree? Because what you learn in undergrad is not enough for the type of jobs that require a masters or a phd? Duh?

Anyway those in this thread who think calculus, as its taught in first year of college, is real math and that accounting is applied math or any nonsense like that. You are terribly wrong. Before deciding on a math degree, one should really take some basic theory courses. Either get into honors calc that teaches from Spivak or Apostol or breeze past the computational trash (usually calc1-3 and first semester of linear algebra) and do a proof course plus an abstract algebra course. Intro to abstract algebra courses are usually the easiest of the theoretical courses and are a small indication of what higher math is like.

Yeah any time I had to do the higher level / theory math it was a totally different world to the 'computational trash' like wormie says.

Tuco_sl said:

Yeah any time I had to do the higher level / theory math it was a totally different world to the 'computational trash' like wormie says.

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Just an aside. "Computational trash" is more a reference to how the subject of math is taught than a reference to the underlying math. I used to jerk it to numerical analysis at least twice a day and its "computational" so its not that i am putting down computational mathematics, its just that the way these topics are usually taught is a fucking crime.

Noodlemod_sl said:

You jerked it to numerical analysis?

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Twice a day. There is something sexy about building a theoretical model and then writing a computational approximation of it.

So wait, Cad isn't even a real lawyer? Are we talking like"carpenter who went to law school"or something?

Dyvim_sl said:

Dunno i really liked Linear Algebra but hated Numerical Analysis with a burning passion. That shit isnt even math imho and should rot in hell.

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Thats silly. You either took a class that was nothing but memorizing computational algorithms or you took a class that was only theory with zero attempts to model it. A fail numerical analysis class all around most likely.

Cad_sl said:

Not really, I worked 10 years then quit and went back to law school. I had fun in school too, it was great.

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What preceded the choice to go back to school?

wormie_sl said:

Thats silly. You either took a class that was nothing but memorizing computational algorithms or you took a class that was only theory with zero attempts to model it. A fail numerical analysis class all around most likely.

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You're making a lot of assumptions here, many things can impact why someone does or doesn't like their class.

I like linear algebra and use it every day, but my linear algebra class in college was a nightmare. The text we were using was some kind of alpha version of a text the college was producing. It was a ring-binder filled set of amateurly printed pages with many mathematical, typographical and grammatical errors. The last third of the book was also half-hand written, half typed. The professor was just okay and was one of those "I've been teaching the same undergrad classes for so long I've forgotten the ways the subject matter can be difficult to learn." teachers.

Linear algebra is my bread and butter now. I worked my ass off in that class and I don't remember a single thing from it. I had to relearn everything only 6 years after taking it.

Tuco_sl said:

You're making a lot of assumptions here, many things can impact why someone does or doesn't like their class.

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My assumption is based on him saying that it wasnt real math. To me that means one of two things:

1) Person is computationally minded and trained and the class was all theory with no applications
2) Person understands that math is more than a few algorithms and was expecting a theory class but instead had to memorize a few formulas and how to plug them into Matlab and nothing else.

There is plenty of "real" math in numerical analysis and to say that there is none is most likely due to it being taught really poorly.

The guy served 5 years in the military. There is very little chance that someone will think he has no experience outside of academia. He can do bachelors straight into masters no problem imo.

McCheese_sl said:

Regarding doing all your education up-front or working for a bit between degrees:

Personally, I found it a lot easier to go back to school after working for a few years. I think it's easy to get burned out on school, so taking a break between a bachelor's and a master's was a good idea. Working for a few years also lets you focus on where you want to take your education, which might change dramatically from what you thought after spending a few years working and gaining "on-the-ground" experience in your field.

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I know personally I was so tired of school that there would be no way I could've done a few more years after graduating.

On the other hand, I'm much less able to trick myself into believing the information I need to learn to pass a test isn't generally useless.