[martin001]

What are the differences between these courses in imperial and what are the advantages of each course?

[ZDSmith]

Hi,

The different specialised mathematics courses at Imperial all slightly restrict the choice of modules you have in the later years. If possible, you should prpbably opt to do the basic math course, which gives you acceas to all choices and more freedom later on.

[dugdugdug]

(Original post by martin001)
What are the differences between these courses in imperial and what are the advantages of each course?

I assume you are still at school and therefore would have had very little, if any at all any, exposure to pure maths.

Proving 2^0.5 is irrational is an example of a pure maths problem in analysis / number theory.

Maths courses at top unis like Imperial should cover all or most of the following areas:

Pure, applied, mathematical physics, numerical (ie writing computational algorithms), stats and discrete.

At IC, there's also JMC (Joint maths and Computing, split 50/50 and maths with business.

In order to give one the greatest cover, there is very little choice in the first two years. It's only into the third or possibly fourth years that one gets to specialise.

You sound like you want to specialise in stats. IC degrees in general are very rigorous and stats is quite "pure" based, ie lots of proofs unlike A-Level where you're required to put numbers into formulae. This is understandable as IC's postgrad courses in mathematical finance is world renowned and a great number of its graduates go on to work as quants in investment banks.

For a more practical / applicable course in maths / stats, perhaps the LSE would be a more suitable choice. They also have a strong discrete maths department.