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Halcyon18

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About Halcyon18

  • Birthday 01/14/1996

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    Math

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  1. Statistics is the one branch of math I don't like. The only exposure I've had to it is self-studying the AP Stats exam and that alone was enough for me to know I didn't like stats. I like differential equations, though. I'm sure that is applicable to a lot of fields, right?
  2. I'm a sophomore math major hoping to get a PhD in math, but I don't know where to go from there. One thing I know for sure is that I want a job that involves making the world a better place. I hear so many math people talk about how they went into finance, which is NOT what I want to do because I want to help humanity, not big corporations. Are there any math-related jobs involving, say, medicine? And how rare/hard to get are they? Thank you in advance!
  3. I'm going back to school in a little less than a month. I've been trying to study ahead for a couple of my classes, but I can't seem to find any good resources for Advanced Linear Algebra. Could anyone please tell me what to expect? I'm really scared because I initially had trouble with introductory linear algebra (but I feel fairly good about it now). I'm also taking Real Analysis I, and I've read through some lecture notes and it doesn't seem so bad. Is Advanced Linear Algebra harder than Real Analysis I? Thank you in advance!
  4. Actually, statistics is the one branch of mathematics I DON'T like. I enjoy the intellectual challenges my math classes (mainly PDE's) have thrown at me, as painful as they may be. I feel like if I don't get a math PhD, I'll regret it; like something important would be missing in my life. Not because PhD's are respected or well-paid (from what I've heard, that's not true anyway), but because I'm passionate about math. Whether or not I can handle it is another thing. I've only recently taken a good look at myself and questioned if I'm actually capable of a math PhD, or even a math major. Up until PDE's, whenever I struggled in math, I made excuses, i.e. "I'm only a junior, it's okay if I can't quite get the hang of calculus yet!", or "I'm just a high-school senior, so the fact that I'm in multivar and LA already makes me a winner!" This past semester, I almost fell into the same trap again ("This class isn't even meant for first-years; I'm doing fine!"). I decided I need to stop making excuses and sugar-coating the truth. But, goodness gracious, the truth hurts!
  5. MathCat, first, congratulations on getting into a top program! Second, the upper-level class I took was Partial Differential Equations, so it wasn't super abstract stuff like what I'll be encountering next semester and beyond. I found the lectures to be easy to digest (I had an excellent professor), but the homework and exams were tough. I feel like they involved intellectual leaps that I usually could not make as easily as most of the other kids. Now that I think about it, I'm kind of scared that my own advisor doesn't think I'm capable of doing math. Halfway through the semester, she said I should drop the class because it's not meant for first-years. And near the end of the semester when I picked out classes, she recommended not overloading because she didn't want me to burn out, which I find a little strange because overloading is not uncommon at my school. :/ Maybe I'm just freaking myself out now, ha ha! As for other interests, I think physics, biology, philosophy, and computer science are interesting; and I REALLY like chemistry. But math tops them all.
  6. Wow, that's amazing! Congratulations on the improvement and getting into a top school. I'll see how things go next semester (I'll be taking two upper-levels then) and take it from there.
  7. Thank you all for the replies. I guess I just feel like I'm falling behind because I checked Facebook, and my former high-school classmates are now getting 3.7-4.0 GPA's. One kid was even sad that she got a 3.9 and not a 4.0. I don't understand. I did not work very hard in high school (except junior year) and still beat those kids easily. But I did work hard in college, especially this past semester, and got a 3.5 while they all got higher GPA's. Am I getting dumber?! And pascal_barbots_wager, I do work with my friends sometimes, I'm getting to know my professors, and I definitely plan on doing REU's next summer and the summer after that. Also, the class I struggled in IS an upper-level class, which is one of the reasons I'm scared.
  8. I just finished my first year of college and my GPA is pretty bad for someone who wants to go to grad school (3.5). My first semester was not difficult academically, but I had some social/emotional issues that I'm not going go into detail about. My second semester wouldn't have been hard if I hadn't decided to take PDE's. This was my first "upper-level" course and the class that made me question if I'm intelligent enough to pursue a math PhD. I worked my butt off for that class and ended up with a B+. But despite all the stress, I really enjoyed the class. I love math and I feel like I would regret it if I didn't pursue a PhD in it. But at the same time, if I had to work so hard to make it through one upper-level class, how could my stupid little brain survive grad school?
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