SHOULD I BECOME A MATH MAJOR?

A math major is a good choice for students who want to keep their options open. There are lots of possible careers for which a a math major is a good starting point. Many of them are interesting careers that many people have not heard about when they start college. See the following links for more information on some of them:

    Examples of Exciting and Important Things People with Math Degrees Do

    What Kinds of Things Do Math Majors Do After They Graduate?

    Mathematical Sciences Career Information web site

    Career Profiles page of the Mathematical Association of America

If you like math but plan to go into some field that doesn't seem to involve math, a math major can still be a good choice. And sometimes students who choose a math major but have other career plans find that they can combine their math and other interest in a career or career path that they were not aware existed when they started college. For example, a pre-med math major may decide to enter a joint MD/ Master's of Public Health program, which will combine their math and medical interests. Or they might decide instead to go to graduate school in Public Health, Biostatistics, Biomathematics, or Bioinformatics to pursue a career that will combine their interests in math and medicine.

Other considerations to help decide whether or not a math major is a good choice for you:

If any of these fit you, then a math major is probably a good choice for you:	If any of these fit you, then maybe a math major may not be a good choice for you:
I like math. I like figuring things out. I like to think. I like a challenge. I like to know why things are true.	I want any easy major. I don't like having to figure things out. I don't care why something works, I just want to know how to do it. I hate proofs. I don't like to have to think.

Math classes in college will probably be different from math classes in high school. You will be expected to do more work outside class than in high school. This means that you probably need to learn math in different ways than you did in high school. Here is some advice (intended for freshmen at another university, but good advice here, too) on what to expect learning math in college to be like.