Friday, September 26, 2014

Math in the Media: Return on Investment in a Math Degree?

So I would up devoting my life to the study of Mathematics because I absolutely love the subject.  It is inherently beautiful, surprisingly counter-intuitive, and seems to exhibit a logical framework for all that is in a way that I find ever intriguing.

However..., the study of math at a high level is also quite lucrative!!

Here is an article from Bloomberg Business Week, from June:
Undergrad Business Majors Don't Get the Career Payback Math Majors Do
You must love this title from my perspective.  The article highlights a measure of the lifetime worth of different college majors in term of a return on investment of time and effort.  Some majors are harder than others, I am sure.  And why they decided to include math and computer science together is a mystery to me (perhaps that is how the business world sees us?  As the studiers of logic?

In any case, they make a good case for choosing math as a major while here in the Ivory Tower. Call that reason number..., what... 132 in the countably infinite number of reasons why someone can benefit from choosing math as a major?  (BTW, have you heard that over 80% of statistics are made up on the spot?)

Give it a read.  I will await your change-of-major form....  ;-)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would argue computer science is a branch of mathematics.

My job title may be "Software Engineer", but it feels more like mathematician. For example, I've done proofs with categories and functors (functional programing), analysed kernel functions (machine learning), and performed arithmetic over Galois polynomials (cryptography).

Richard Brown said...

You argue correctly. Brian. In fact, at least in my mind, the whole idea of a computer language being object-oriented seems to follow the structure a mathematician uses to organize his world: overloading operators, creating increasingly particular instances of more general classes, and such.

It is wonderful to see you have found such a fulfilling career to satisfy your mathematical needs.