What Is Mathematics?

BSc Mathematics: What are the job prospectives?

• A 3-year, or a 4-year. Specifically, the degree is not in applied mathematics, and the courses are (I'd say) pure mathematics courses. I'm not looking at a master's or a phd since I plan on applying for a medical faculty. But just incase, I want to know what sort of careers there are with a BSc Mathematics (though I plan to reapply again if I don't make it in). Having said that, if I choose to get a degree in mathematics, my studies will have been from branches of pure math. However, I have taken, am taking, and will be taking more natural science courses since it is required to be considered for the medical faculty I want to go to. You might ask why I'm choosing math (I'd ask why not), and I could ramble on a lot about it. But to make it short: I like its precision, how it's applied in everything, how it is used in science and how scientific research uses it, I like how it's used in finance, I like how practice makes perfect, I like how you can just sit down and go with the flow to try and solve a problem, I like how it is logical and makes you think, I like how it demands critical thinking, I like how it asks for clarity, I like its long history (like Zeno's paradoxes, Archimedes and the method of exhaustion and its relations to limit), how it is universal, need I say more? I actually spend lots of time on here answering math questions. Thanks.

• Answer:

  I can't think of any careers you could go into with only a BSc in mathematics, that you couldn't also go into with a number of other degrees. Math is far from unique in this respect. Outside of degrees that are prerequisites to professional certification in certain disciplines (like e.g. engineering or architecture, where in many places you *cannot* work without a degree in the field), there are very few bachelors degrees that have specific jobs tied to them. For example, even though many bachelors programs in education and accounting are vocationally oriented and have some kind of professional certification as part of the program, it is possible to get a teaching credential or practice as a CPA without a degree in education or accounting. It is the same with a BSc in math. Anything you do with that degree, you could also do with other degrees. This is true even if the job is very "mathy" or even has the job title "mathematician." This holds even at the graduate level. A good number of people employed as mathematics professors have degrees in other areas (e.g. statistics, physics, economics, computer science) and math PhDs who work in government or industry almost always work with other people in similar job titles who have different degrees. So the jobs you can get with a BSc are more shaped by the particular emphasis of your program and your personal abilities than anything else. It is common for people with math degrees who are also good at computer programming to get the sorts of programming-oriented jobs that maany people think of "computer science major" jobs. If you have a background in biology/chemistry/lab science, you may be able to work in the biotech industry or in some academic or government lab. If you have a statistical background or at least an interest in statistics you may be able to work for an insurance company. (Actuarial science is a largely a separate discipline from mathematics, but the most basic actuarial exam is a math test, and many people with bachelors degrees in math become actuaries.) If you like discussing math with people, teaching high school is an obvious choice. If you are interested in business you may be able to work in accounting or some other aspect of the finance side of things in the business world. (Although: you will have a lot of difficulty getting interviews unless you have a resume or certifications that support this kind of interest. Generally speaking, businesspeople are *extremely* prejudiced against people with non-business backgrounds, and they are far less inclined to believe that a math major is capable of doing anything useful than are people with science/technology backgrounds.)