Maths degree useless?

a degree in maths is pretty ****ing useless. don't listen to the arithmeticians or whatever who try to tell you otherwise. do something with practical application and some social value, like accounting or economics. why would you study pure maths?

Is there evidence to show this?

The thing with pure mathematics is that you may discover things that have no practical use right now. But many maths discoveries that have been made go on later to find themselves to be useful in an unexpected way.

Without the discoveries made in pure mathematics literally none of our modern technologies would be possible.

this fellow's asking for advice, and he's concerned about ending up unemployed. saving humanity with a few equations that may or may not prosper in the long run isn't what he's looking for, so i was being practical.

that's quite debatable tbh

In my opinion attempting to go into the financial sector currently, is foolish. Don't get me wrong I loved studying economics, but the simple truth is that there aren't that many jobs out there what with the recession. Only the best candidates would be sure of a job- even then what's there to say there would be job security.


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this fellow's asking for advice, and he's concerned about ending up unemployed. saving humanity with a few equations that may or may not prosper in the long run isn't what he's looking for, so i was being practical.
that's quite debatable tbh

I'm going to apply to Uni this year and my degree choices is a nightmare.

I love Maths and wish to pursue it at degree level. But I get complaints from my family that I will not get a job besides being a teacher/lecturer, as the degree is useless and the uni's exaggerate about the job prospects for a Maths graduate.

If its actually true then should I study Accountancy or Economics?
Even though I would expect myself to do better in a Maths degree compared to an accountancy or economics degree, as i'd have more motivation.

P.S. I study double Maths and economics at A level.


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I'm going to apply to Uni this year and my degree choices is a nightmare.

I love Maths and wish to pursue it at degree level. But I get complaints from my family that I will not get a job besides being a teacher/lecturer, as the degree is useless and the uni's exaggerate about the job prospects for a Maths graduate.

If its actually true then should I study Accountancy or Economics?
Even though I would expect myself to do better in a Maths degree compared to an accountancy or economics degree, as i'd have more motivation.

P.S. I study double Maths and economics at A level.


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Your family is just so so wrong. The opportunity's for a maths graduate are endless, it is one of the best ways to prove your intelligence and problem solving capability to employers. Even starting at university there are tons of schemes run by the top banks to offer internships to physics and maths students and you are then fast-tracked into their graduate programmes with outrageous starting salaries of £50k plus. Obviously not everyone can manage to get onto these schemes, they are quite competitive, but finance is only one of a number of fields you can go into. Doing a more specialised graduate degree on top of a BA in maths is a great way to get into fields like actuarial science, computer programming, and many more.

Mathematics graduates are the second highest earners after graduates of medicine.

Ye I was very concerned on the unemployed part. Wasting years of education to be unemployed isn't a good thing to have... >.<



You nailed the part on the recession reason...
So what degree that's math-related is best suited for me and would be easier to get a job with if the recession continues for another 4-5 years?
Compared to the Maths if broad subjects dont stand out well >.>


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Pure mathematics encompasses geometry, algebra and calculus etc.

Geometry useful for building bridges, buildings almost anything. Good luck getting your bridge to stay up without some mathematics. Calculus used in physics, chemistry. Cleaning products, pharmaceuticals all developed by chemists guess what with the help of pure mathematics. Aircraft, cars all made better due to good understanding of pure mathematics. Without pure mathematics lets face it you wouldn't even be able to contact me right now.

I'm going to apply to Uni this year and my degree choices is a nightmare.

I love Maths and wish to pursue it at degree level. But I get complaints from my family that I will not get a job besides being a teacher/lecturer, as the degree is useless and the uni's exaggerate about the job prospects for a Maths graduate.

If its actually true then should I study Accountancy or Economics?
Even though I would expect myself to do better in a Maths degree compared to an accountancy or economics degree, as i'd have more motivation.

P.S. I study double Maths and economics at A level.


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Gonna have to do the cliche correlation =/= causation here. There are very few jobs in which a maths degree offers material advantages over engineering, CS or physics, for example, and those jobs that are highly paid tend to be city work or software development - not degree-specific.

I suspect the reason why maths grads earn the most is actually just because they are smarter on average than the other grads. No one cares about topology or whatever in the real world.

I'm going to apply to Uni this year and my degree choices is a nightmare.

I love Maths and wish to pursue it at degree level. But I get complaints from my family that I will not get a job besides being a teacher/lecturer, as the degree is useless and the uni's exaggerate about the job prospects for a Maths graduate.

If its actually true then should I study Accountancy or Economics?
Even though I would expect myself to do better in a Maths degree compared to an accountancy or economics degree, as i'd have more motivation.

P.S. I study double Maths and economics at A level.


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Whats wrong with being a teacher?

It's not glorious but it's certainly not bad.

Working hours are generally not that long 9-3, granted there can be alot to do outside of school. But my maths teacher told me he did little to none outside of school as he didn't need to and he got it all done in school hours. This can't be said for other subjects.

13 weeks paid holiday.

People say there are high amounts of stress because you're trying to get kids to pass, but there is high amount of stress in most jobs.

Start on usually around the 25-28k a year range. Often rises quickly, my teacher was on 35k after a couple of years work, now he is head of department and on 50k. This is in an average school too. Better schools will pay slightly higher.

The job security is pretty decent as is the pension.

I'd personally consider it myself after my degree.

This sounds a little misinformed

Starting salary is 21k

Working hours are generally 8am - 10pm (SOOOOO much work outside of school, your source was either lying or not a very good teacher)

Stress is high because you need to get those D/E kids to get a C grade, OFSTED inspections etc.

Plus, kids just stress you out by misbehaving.

I did a maths degree, then a PGCE, I dont regret doing it because now I know that its not for me, Im now a software developer. You can only be a teacher if you 100% know you want to and have enough experience within a school to make that decision.


On subject I would say that a maths degree is definitly one of the best degrees out there, for example when at interview for my job I was up against someone with a Computer Science Degree (Software developer job). I got the job over him with a combination of personality and having the weight of a highly respected, difficult degree behind me even though this other guy had a much mroe relevant qualification.

Maths degree carry a lot of clout with employers and are much more highly respected than most.