Please help decide my future - (Cardiff, Bristol, Sheffield maths student required!)

K..W.Studd

OK, so recently I have been treating TSR as a second home, gaging (sp) peoples opinions on my degree choices. I have ot say most of the feedback has been positive and many tellnig me to go for maths even though I wasnt sure.

So now I am veering towards a maths degree rather than a Psychology one but I am still really REALLY worrying that its not my thing and that ill get found out when I get to uni, so this thread is really me asking any students at cardiff, Bristol or Sheffield, the unis I am looking at, how they felt at this stage.
Other maths students views are very much welcome though, because I am sure its similar across the board.

I hope you dont mind but I have a few questions,

Firstly, I was looking through some of the materials I have recieved from various universities and reading about the modules they say they will teach at uni and to be honest, its a bit scary because I have no idea what any of it means. Stuff such as analysis, basic number theory, group theory and linear algerbra, is that a problem or is that meant to be the case, as in we learn it all there?
Also most courses say they give you a choice of modules in the third year, but the choices are things I have honestly never heard of, such as Logic, Bayesian Moddelling A and Multivariate Analysis, can I assume that most dont know what these mean at this stage and you learn over your first two years enough to make a correct decision about what to take?

Ive heard maths opens up more career paths than Psychology, I was wondering if I could ask what these career paths are? I, at the moment have no idea about my career, I just know I want to get a good degree. SO could you name a few jobs that maths grads go into, for example what some of your friends are doing? Also, did you know what you were going to do when you started your degree or were you in a similar position to me?

Finally, I just wanted to ask you about the differences between A level and Uni maths. You see I enjoy the solving questions sort of work, where you can keep doing them until you get the hang of it, I get the impression its different at university and I wanted to ask what people mean by this. As in, how is it different, do they just set problems and expect you to be able to solve them. Or do they work you through examples before giving you a load of work to make sure you can do them? So basically, are there any similar topics at all, and if not, what is the sort of stuff it is about!

I am thinking of applying to Bristol, Cardiff, Sheffield and was going to ask if the people who did go there could give me a little information about the admissions procedure, as in is there an interview or is it purely UCAS form decided?

Now I have just read it and it is alot of questions so please only answer what you can be bothered to answer, I dont mind at all because I know you are all really busy so only reply if and when you have time, thanks so much for all your help, this is very important for me so any help is highly appriciated.

Thanks so much, Joe.

Reply 1

Leilah

There would definitely be at least one interview for you, from say, a uni like Bristol.

Reply 2

princess aurora

I had Cardiff as my insurance, there was an informal interview as part of an open day I'd been invited to but it was a bit of a joke really, more like a 5 min chat while the interviewer told me I was v clever then expained how his wife wanted to move to Bristol as that was where she worked. :s-smilie:

Reply 3

K..W.Studd

Any more on the actual course guys?

Reply 4

K..W.Studd

Guys please

EDIT: Basically, if anyone who has done a maths degree/is doing one at the moment could mention it here, or PM me it would be a real help.
If its rep you want you can have unlimited amounts from me, just need a bit of help!

Reply 5

Mard

Starting maths at Bristol in a couple of weeks...

You could try reading a maths book or two if you don't even have a basic idea on what number theory, group theory etc is. You aren't required to have any of that knowledge cos you will learn it all there but some background reading is very useful! It would give you some idea of what to expect at uni as well as enhancing your UCAS... you might find it totally uninteresting.

Bristol don't normally do interviews for maths, they just gave me an offer of AAB (inc. M + FM).

Maths is obv a very respected degree. Lots of unis like Bristol give you flexibility so you can do modules in physics, economics, chemistry etc etc in the 3rd year so you have a very wide range of career options. I don't yet know what I am going to do after uni.

Hope that helps.

Reply 6

andy5788

Just finished first year in Bristol and have written quite a detailed post describing the course before for the Bristol section, will find the link in a minute.

As for the city it's ****ing brilliant, I love it and don't regret my descision at all.

EDIT: http://thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?p=8735196#post8735196 - is the link.

Please help decide my future - (Cardiff, Bristol, Sheffield maths student required!)

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