How to keep your grades up to A's and B's?

What are my options with an applied math BS?

• I am about to graduate with an applied math BS and it is starting to look like it's too late to apply to graduate schools that I really wanted this year. My grades are okay, my school isn't anything special and I know I want to keep doing math or atleast some logical thinking job so that grad school isn't crazy hard next year. What are my options right now? I live in the bay area so should I try for an internship with some tech company? I didn't do so hot in data structures because I HATED learning programming, but did well in upper level computer science classes (theory of computing, analysis of algorithms etc) because they were more math-y and had no programming. I guess I like making up algorithms on a whiteboard more than writing code for hours on an IDE. Do tech companies even want applied mathematicians? Or is there another direction I can go (please tell me there is!) ?I don't mind if I am poor, or even if I have to leave SF. I just want to live in a big city (in the US) and do something that involves some logical thinking/creative reasoning/problem solving so my brain does not atrophy. PLEASE HELP

• Answer:

  There are definitely tons of options for someone graduating with a BS in Applied Mathematics. Though your aversion to programming may block a few avenues. I'll mention jobs that will require some programming since those are the ones I'm most familiar with. It sounds like you hated programming in the context of a computer science class. Have you had a course in Numerical Analysis? How did you feel about that course? A lot of applied mathematics ends up on a computer these days, since analytical tools can only go so far in solving the problems we can write down. A good number of my fellow graduate students had jobs in the defense industry before deciding to go to graduate school. Companies like Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon hire a lot of applied mathematicians for applications in defense, from solving PDEs for modeling explosions to designing networks for communications between naval vessels. This would keep you sharp and has the added benefit of paying well (*way* more money than you'll be making in graduate school). Another option is working at one of the US's national labs. You can find a list of the national labs associated with the Department of Energy here, under 'Labs & Technology Centers': http://energy.gov/offices I worked at Oak Ridge National Lab during a summer internship before graduate school and really enjoyed the experience. Basically, for any civilian scientific problem you can think of, one of the national labs is working on it. And typically they need someone with a more mathematical background on board to supply their skills. There are also Department of Defense labs like the Naval Research Lab and the Army Research Lab that might be worth looking into. Tech companies definitely hire applied mathematicians. I have a friend who worked at a social networking company in San Francisco this past summer doing data mining on customer data. I don't really know the specifics about companies that might be hiring beyond the obvious ones like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, etc. Finally, you might check with your school's guidance /career department. They usually have a list of job openings submitted by alumni from your college / university. Hopefully this gives you some ideas of where to start looking. Good luck with your search!