zeeyang: I suggest you do not pick a degree in pure math beforehand. Most universities offer general degrees in mathematics, and you can easily choose to specialise in your later years. In fact I'd say that most degrees in pure mathematics give you an option of transferring to a general degree in mathematics or even applied ones.

kasutdidi: I'm doing a maths degree (postgrad), and many of my friends from undergrad have gone on, or are going into: Investment Banking and Finance, Actuary (yes, you don't need to be an actuarial science student to be one), Engineering in Industry, IT, etc, etc, so it's not exactly a degree that locks you into becoming a lecturer alone. You actually usually have more options than a student doing a 'popular' degree.

Would Further Mathematics help? Definitely, but you'll be redoing a lot of the same material in a different way. Undergrad-level maths is a bit different from what we're usually used to in school and in A-levels, in the sense that it emphasizes on rigour and proofs.

As for unis, most IPTAs would be good, NUS and NTU are pretty good too for the regional ones. For the UK (well, England), usually Imperial, Warwick, Oxford and Cambridge's maths programmes are the highly regarded ones, but I'd say that I've met people from Nottingham, Bristol, Liverpool and York and they're pretty good too. The Welsh universities are also quite good.

This post has been edited by bgeh: Mar 1 2011, 07:37 AM

Well that generally applies to all the different subjects I've listed above (engineering comes to mind too), that there will be a transition period and that the transition will involve a learning process. But the tradeoff is that you get a lot more flexibility than the specialised degree would get you.

I'd be inclined to disagree there, as general Mathematics courses allow a lot of flexibility to choose courses within the degree. A degree in Mathematics, without having done any statistical courses wouldn't get you close to being an actuary at all, and employers would easily filter those candidates out, but the option remains for those who are interested in general Mathematics but are thinking of becoming an actuary to take up statistics-related courses to see if they're really up for it, or whether they're better off doing other pursuits.

As for the engineering bit, I'd disagree, because what tends to happen is that the trainees are usually trained up for the job while doing it. They might lack the relevant knowledge, but it usually isn't hard for them to master the mathematics behind them, which speeds up the process considerably, and they get hands on experience all the time while working, so the skills gap usually isn't as big as thought after a year or so.

I'm just advertising this little known fact, because I think plenty of people don't take up the mathematics degree option thinking it closes down on many possible career paths, when in fact, with some work it expands horizons quite a bit.

This post has been edited by bgeh: Mar 2 2011, 08:36 AM

Oh no, I don't disagree with you on a general point. My premise lies in a single fundamental assumption: Most students do not know what they want to do after SPM/A levels/STPM, except having a vague idea of a field they may be interested in. The extra flexibility offered by a Mathematics degree is a very strong advantage here, but many do not realise that advantage as they think it's a 'dead end' degree - well at least that was the impression my friends and I had at the time. I'm not denying that the specialist subjects would've done more real life examples etc, etc, and have their own advantages, but these things can be learnt on the job too. You're definitely more prepared for a job if you do a specialist degree, but my observation here is that most people don't know what a job entails post-SPM, and making a choice towards flexibility may help things greatly.

I'm trying to sell that point, that you get increased flexibility with a Maths degree.

Again, I did not, in any way imply that Maths is the best degree to take over all others. I was trying to raise awareness that maths is a very flexible degree which does not lock down your choices of career. (You can see that with some of the responses here)

This post has been edited by bgeh: Mar 2 2011, 08:48 PM

There's the Fields Medal, and what pretty much everyone agrees right now is the best theoretical physicist alive today has one, but not a Nobel Prize (but I digress, because Nobel Prizes do not imply usefulness):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Witten

zeeyang: Chase your dreams. You'd be much happier you did, even without a certain career pathway at the end of your degree. I'm not 100% certain whether I'm going on to do a PhD, but I know I've got a lot of job choices in the 'real world'.

Send me a PM if you've got other questions.

This post has been edited by bgeh: Mar 23 2011, 08:50 AM