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/sci/ - Science & Math

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7938392 No.7938392 [Reply] [Original]

For Cambridge, where you need perfect A levels to get in to any subject (except you do extra tests to get in to maths), I've read that if you do badly at maths, they make you switch to physics or CS.

Obviously most of the pure autists pick maths, and the fact that an autist picks physics instead of maths doesn't make him dumber. But does doing maths give you such intellectual anal devastation that other subjects become easier by comparison?

Also should I feel intellectually inferior to people who do maths (I do chemeng)? What about if they do applied maths and it's a few years after uni? Did they learn random **** that they won't care about after exams, or did they learn the secrets of the universe?

I mean there's a lecturer in my uni (mid tier) that did maths at oxford (got a first), got a maths phd somewhere else, and is doing engineering here. I just look at my own curriculum and think wtf can I do that he can't? What's the point of this chemeng ****?

In the end everything boils down to problem solving and stamp collecting, and it sure as hell would have been better to build the tools (maths degree) rather than collect the stamps.

>> No.7938399

>>7938392
Oh dear...

>But does doing maths give you such intellectual anal devastation that other subjects become easier by comparison?

No, it just makes you better at maths. Maybe pure math autists could succeed in other fields, maybe not. Some do, some do not. Studying maths just makes it easier to jump in maths-heavy fields like physics or engineering, but not chem or bio for example. The autists on this board telling you that maths is the end-all of degrees are just defending their degrees, just like anyone else. Don't take it too seriously.

>> No.7938410

>>7938399

Yeah but chem and bio never had any intellectual chops in the first place becasue they're stamp collecting havens for dumb people.

I'm not saying that a maths or physics degree also teach you chinese. I'm saying they give you tools that you would not gain from chemistry and bio and chemistry and bio would not give you many tools, if at all (not including mandatory maths courses)

>> No.7938424

>>7938410
>Yeah but chem and bio never had any intellectual chops in the first place becasue they're stamp collecting havens for dumb people.

Well, kudos for the effort, you had me until this statement. Now you can stop pretending you aren't a pure maths major praising your degree yet again. Why do you need to do that? Freshman? Highschool before maths degree? Either way, you should grow some balls and go say that in the face of senior lecturers in these subjects, and we'll see how seriously everyone in the academic world will take you. Or do you really think your fellow math PhDs view you favorably for praising pure maths?

>> No.7938493
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7938493

>>7938392
>But does doing maths give you such intellectual anal devastation that other subjects become easier by comparison?

It depends, I came to maths after spending over a year reading philosophy and literature 14 hours a day. I got into a habit of sitting at my desk all day every day apart from getting up to make coffee and maybe go for a walk.
Anyway, it gave me a serious study intensity that served me well when it came to studying maths. I only study maths about 4 hours a day and skip most lectures and have all As the past three years (at a top uni). We could say that literature causes absolute anal intellectual devastation, but in reality I think it is more traits of character and routine than anything else.

>>7938424
Just wrote a long response and then I see this