Re: Yet another undergrad question
From: Allan Adler (ara_at_nestle.csail.mit.edu)
Date: 01/31/05
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Date: 31 Jan 2005 12:50:05 -0500
"Chem Major #5" <me@me.com> writes:
> I am currently majoring in chemistry, and I am sure that I want to go
> through with it, but I am having a hard time figuring out what I should do
> for a supporting theme (which could possibly wind up being a second major).
> Right now, biology for the biochemistry route looks good, but I am also
> tempted to try math. Math is a good subject for me - I finished my second
> semester of calculus with a 99 average, and I feel that I could succeed in
> upper level courses.
> So, my question is this - would I probably be happier and better
> employed (ok, being employed is my #1 goal) with a supporting biology
> background or with one in mathematics? I'm hoping to pursue graduate
> studies after my bachelor(s).
I think you need to be clear on your primary motivation. If it is to be
as well trained in your favorite subject as you can be, go the route
that will give you the education you want. If you are primarily motivated
by having a career and don't care that much what the work or content is,
that is a different matter.
If you want the knowledge, don't go to the place that assumes you only
want a foot in the door for a career. The school gets paid to process
you. It doesn't mean they care whether you really learn anything.
Also, give a lot of thought to what a career is. It often means moving
from one godforsaken place to another with the best you can hope for
being to stay in one of them for the rest of your life.
You aren't clear on whether you are thinking in terms of a master's
degree or a doctorate. That makes a big difference in terms of the
implications of having the degree and also in terms of what you
learn.
When I was a freshman being oriented, one very good piece of advice I was
given was that the job you are preparing for might not exist by the time
you graduate. It sounds like you have some versatility but maybe you need
more. One thing you didn't mention was what kinds of work experience you
have already had. Maybe you should give more thought to what kinds of jobs
you could get based on what you already have or will have when you graduate,
instead of assuming that the graduate work will make all the difference.
The math background you have doesn't seem to include any abstract mathematics.
There is a certain kind of sophistication required by it that you are unlikely
to have been exposed to in calculus. I don't think you are in a position to
conclude that you might like to go into math. I suggest that you go to the
library and look at some of the books mathematicians read and see what kind
of impression they make on you.
On the positive side, if you have taken some chemistry, you may have been
exposed to the notion of a symmetry group, hence at least gotten your
feet wet in group theory, even if not very abstractly. I know of some
mathematicians who got their BA's in chemistry and then decided to go
to grad school in math. Math departments are hard up for graduate
students and will take people with non-math backgrounds provided
that they are willing to take the necessary remedial courses. That's
no guarantee that they will let them leave with a master's or PhD,
but I know of at least one chemistry major who wound up with a PhD
in math.
Being happy is a whole other kettle of fish. It really does not depend
on the parameters of your career, although work related stress can make
one pretty miserable. I have a PhD in math and have been chronically
unemployed throughout my 30 year career and unemployed now. I've hated
practically every place I had to live where I had a job and developed a
fundamental distaste for the company of my fellow professionals. I never
earned more than $20,000/year from a university and that maximum was
assumed over 20 years ago. I certainly wish I was not facing the prospect
of winding up on the streets with no good ideas on how to prevent it,
but I do not regret for one moment having gotten a PhD in math and
having devoted most of my life since childhood to studying it. And
I can say without reservation that I am pretty happy, even though
I wish I didn't have some of the problems I have to deal with. Whatever
else may happen, I consider a day a success if I can get to a coffee shop
and study mathematics in peace for a few hours. In my case, there is a sharp
division between mathematics as a personal passion and mathematics as a vehicle
for my livelihood, since it is completely dysfunctional in the latter role.
There is plenty of room at the bottom in mathematics. There is a kind of
lumpenproletariat of mathematics that survives at universities precisely
because they are mediocre. Some people actually plan on finding their place
in it, expecting nothing more out of life and thinking of it strictly as
a business. They occupy jobs that real mathematicians might need, unpleasant
as the jobs might actually be. They might even do a certain chore called
"research" whose sole purpose is to help them obtain raises and promotions
and which even they are not interested in and for which they may be entirely
dependent on mathematicians of genuine ability who farm the work out to them.
At the other end of the spectrum, one finds the most spectacular mathematics
ever done at institutions which it is almost impossible to be good enough to
deserve a place in, and where you might not find out you aren't good enough
until you have already given your youth and life to it and can't change course.
So, when you ask the questions you are asking, these are the issues you
really have to sort out.
-- Allan Adler <ara@zurich.csail.mit.edu> * Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT CSAIL. My actions and * comments do not reflect in any way on MIT. Also, I am nowhere near Boston.
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