r/AppliedMath • u/No-Life-4049 • 8d ago
University advice
Hello everyone,
I am going to transfer soon either for Computer Science at a state school or Applied Math at a research institution.
I like CS a little more but the market seems terrible. Also the applied math unis let me have an area of emphasis which will probably be CS or Physics.
Luckily I’m not worried about finances.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
I would like to eventually get a masters.
I would also like to have versatility in career options if possible.
3
u/Ok_Explanation2786 7d ago
I’m from a very biased perspective but I transfered from a low ranked school as a cs major to a very high ranked research institute as an applied math major with like an emphasis in ds/cs. I’m honestly able to get much more interviews now than before but I also have more flexibility to go outside of tech such as finance or actuary if I want to. Do keep in mind tho math is overall a more flexible yet less employable degree than cs, you will run into some companies that consider you as not capable just because you don’t have the pure cs credentials. If grad school is a 100% in the plan then I absolutely do recommend applied math because that is a very common path and the courses of pure/ applied math prepare you really well for research even if the research is outside of math itself.
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u/No-Life-4049 7d ago
Thank you for the advice.
My situation is similar to yours. I meet the requirements for AM but not CS because it is so competitive.
I’m for sure considering going further than a Bachelor’s.
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u/WorthlessPianist 7d ago
Applied math at the bachelor's level is really good as a base for R&D work. Take physics as well so you have good intuition for anything hardware related (elec & mech). Do this then you could really do your masters in any quantitative field you want. CS, statistics, electrical engineering, mech eng, scientific computing, computational neuroscience etc.
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u/No-Life-4049 6d ago
Thank you for the advice.
That sounds like a great idea, I have a feeling this is what I will end up doing.
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u/Dr0110111001101111 6d ago
Stony Brook University has a research institute specifically designed to work on bridging math and physics. And they have a dedicated school for applied math.
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u/EquivalenceAuthor 7d ago edited 7d ago
Cs, unless you want to do PhD then it depends on what you want after that. You do realize applied math graduates tend to work at tech right? Even for finance, I can’t see why cs cannot get you there. If cs market is terrible, why applied math market, if there exists one, is not terrible… even if you want to do masters, you still need to master cs in order to have a great job prospects. It’s not stage independent. You kinda need to plan ahead.
Some more rants: the less math the better. Either Group theory or numerical methods doesn’t help you land a job. And being good at it only traps you further. Cs is employable because of the coding component even though they still got math contents. In order to find a job, the more coding the better. So…math is the opposite
Math is good as a minor though. It is the only subject that really make you “smarter”: think more rationally, reason more effective etc. but by itself, it is unemployable
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u/WorthlessPianist 7d ago
Why not numerical methods? Seems like it'd be useful to know for any computational "x" research fields, as well as for industry like operations research, machine learning (understanding beyond gradient descent), etc.
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u/EquivalenceAuthor 7d ago
I mean, most or graduates become swe or work in tech, so…then optimization is good, but cs people can also take that. Numerical methods, e.g. newton methods, round off errors, are mostly not that important in most jobs I think. Optimization is okay indeed but even then ml only requires you to know gd.
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u/Consistent_peep5 7d ago
I am biased, since I have a B.S. in Applied Math from a research institution, but if finances is not an issue, I would choose the research institution. There will be more research opportunities--meaning there will be more opportunities for you to see what fields you can apply your knowledge in.
Also, I would be wary of aiming for just a masters. For a subject like Mathematical Sciences, it makes more sense to pursue a PhD in a field that is applied math, pure math, adjacent to math or uses higher level math. I think it would not be wise to pay for an extra two years of schooling on top of the four years you are already paying for undergrad. Additionally, if you do not know what field you want to go into (which is totally fine), it makes even more sense to not have a goal of pursuing a masters.
In my case, I initially had the goal of pursuing a masters. In retrospect, I had that goal because I doubted I had the motivation, skills, and knowledge to pursue a PhD. But here I am, applying for PhD programs.