Choosing a maths degree

Lunalunah

What factors should I consider when choosing a maths degree course

Reply 1

boulderingislife

Original post by Lunalunah

What factors should I consider when choosing a maths degree course

Do you enjoy proving everything? Uni maths is all about proving theorems and stuff. Nothing like alevel maths.

Reply 2

Lancaster Student Ambassador

Official Rep

Original post by Lunalunah

What factors should I consider when choosing a maths degree course

Hi!

I am a third-year Maths student at Lancaster University and I thought I'd share how I picked my course. When choosing between courses I looked through the modules offered (this is usually easy to find on the university website!). I didn't enjoy the mechanics side of A-Levels so I preferred the courses that had small amounts or no mechanics involved. Have a think about what you enjoy at the moment (e.g. do you like stats or the mechanics side?). Bear in mind pure maths at A-Level is pretty different to pure maths at uni but will form a large part of whatever maths course you pick. Many maths courses are fairly similar and will mostly vary depending on how many modules are compulsory and how many you can pick so it is also important to consider the actual uni (location, city vs campus etc) to help narrow down your choices!

I hope this helps!
- Florence (Lancaster Student Ambassador) :smile:

Reply 3

EdNicholas

Original post by Lunalunah

What factors should I consider when choosing a maths degree course

Maths degrees vary from uni to uni. Some unis give you a lot more freedom with module choices than others. Some unis teach more content in a given time than others. Some unis focus on very rigourous proof-heavy maths and some are better for applied maths.

Reply 4

Lunalunah

Thank you EdNicholas. Do you have any experience of specific courses which you would recommend or can comment on?

Reply 5

EdNicholas

Original post by Lunalunah

Thank you EdNicholas. Do you have any experience of specific courses which you would recommend or can comment on?

Well I'm a first year studying joint honours maths and physics (hoping to switch to single honours maths after first year though) at Bristol so I can tell you about the teaching quality here and what I've heard from single honours maths people. If you're on single honours in first year you do a variety of maths: probability, stats, linear algebra, mathematical foundations, group theory, analysis, calculus and dynamics. In second year you do multivariable calculus, mathematical programming and four optional modules. When you get to the optional modules you're basically choosing which parts of maths you want to go down, whether it be applied maths, algebra, analysis, probability or statistics. In third year you do a project of your choice (you can choose between a smaller project or bigger project) and all optional modules. So basically the degree introduces you to a variety of maths and after the introductions you choose your path. I could not recommend maths at Bristol more as it's taught so well here (unlike physics which is taught awfully). The majority of lecturers are great, you get regular tutorials, the staff really do care about their students, you have freedom about which parts of maths you want to do, and a lot of really interesting problems are set.

Reply 6

Lunalunah

Thank you very much for sharing your experience. That’s really helpful as I’ll be visiting a Bristol open day in a few weeks and am still trying to make up my mind about going for a maths degree or maths with physics.

Reply 7

EdNicholas

Original post by Lunalunah

If you want to do single honours maths then definitely consider Bristol. If you want to pick joint maths and physics do not go to Bristol. Not only is the physics department bad at teaching but the joint honours is structured poorly. We don't get even an option to do group theory or metric spaces which are both big parts of maths important to high level mathematical physics. In third year we only have one physics option meaning we can only take one of computational physics or higher quantum mechanics (Both also very important to the intersection of maths and physics, and computational physics is required for most theoretical final year projects. Also we don't even get to do proper computational physics like straight physics students, we only do "intro to computational physics".) however solid state physics is mandatory in 3rd year even though it's completely irrelevant to the interests of most people doing maths and physics joint honours.

If you're into theoretical physics and want to go to Bristol it's probably better to do single honours maths as the maths department offer their own modules in mechanics, fluid dynamics, statistical mechanics, quantum mechanics and mathematical biology, and they're taught way way better by the maths department than the physics department. In addition there are plenty of final year maths projects in physics. Picking single maths also allows you to avoid labs (half of first year labs at Bristol were complete stress, misery and boredom - they're pointless as I never even understood half of them).