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I'm in the second year of my Mathematics degree (4 Year) at UCL at the moment, and think the teaching is pretty good, as is the research, and the work is interesting, especially since I can now choose a heavy proportion of the course I want to study. In your first year you have no choice over what you study, as they want to give you a good grounding in the main aspects of Mathematics (Analysis, Algebra, Mechanics and Methods [Methods is ensuring that your basic skills are very good, such as integrating/differentiating, etc and they show you a lot more approaches to tackling problems which are useful for other courses, particularly mechanics]).

Yes, Mathmos have the highest starting salary of anyone who studies at UCL, and being a decent London university, you have good access to the City and financial firms, etc with regards to future employment. I think our department is ranked 6th in the country in the Times League tables (which I think is a fair representation), plus we're ranked higher than Oxford! The department itself looks a little run down, but you have most of lectures in other (much nicer!) buildings anyway. The staff are very approachable and are understanding with regards to if you have difficulty/need extra help. Anyhows, I hope that this gives you a fair representation of the Maths department. Hope that this helps! :smile:
Reply 2
pratikv
being a decent London university


just decent? :confused:
:smile:


Anyway, what's a "mathsmo"?

(non-native english speaker here!)
jb_sweden
just decent? :confused:
:smile:


Anyway, what's a "mathsmo"?

(non-native english speaker here!)


Ok, we're a very good University, and I'd probably say the next best multi-faculty institution after Oxbridge.

A 'mathsmo' is someone who studies Mathematics at University. :smile:
First up - if Maths is the highest paid starter, it's because you're all 4 year students. But I'm not even sure that's true... the medics tend to rinse all that stand before them for starting salary.
Reply 5
President_Ben
First up - if Maths is the highest paid starter, it's because you're all 4 year students. But I'm not even sure that's true... the medics tend to rinse all that stand before them for starting salary.


medics have quite a low starting salary in relation to what they will earn in the future (about 25k).
President_Ben
First up - if Maths is the highest paid starter, it's because you're all 4 year students. But I'm not even sure that's true... the medics tend to rinse all that stand before them for starting salary.


No, I don't think it is. Not that many people do the 4 year maths course (I think it's between 15% and 20%). Medics generally start at the £28,000 to £33,000 level (I should know - my brother just qualified from UCL), which would depend on if you were placed in London and a few other things, and that isn't that high. Also, when I applied 2 years ago, I received a pack from UCL with Maths problems and various other things in it, and it explicitly mentioned that the people who studied Maths at UCL had the highest starting salary out of anyone in the University, and I think they gave a figure as well, which was around the £40,000 mark (I'll check this when term starts), so from the information I've been supplied with I believe that it's true. I'd say that we'd probably be followed by the Economics students and the Medics.
I'll get the figures and check myself...
President_Ben
I'll get the figures and check myself...


Where are you going to get the figures from? I was just going to pop into the Maths department and see if they can give me a pack as I'm sure it still contains the same information, unless things have changed. Do you reckon there's a list of the average starting salaries for all of the main subjects at UCL?
pratikv
Where are you going to get the figures from?


"Only smarties have the answer" :wink:

Do you reckon there's a list of the average starting salaries for all of the main subjects at UCL?


There might be... but I doubt it.

And the highest starting salary for any UCL student is probably Economics, I'm pretty sure no other department has recently put out a graduate who earned over 100k in their first year :wink:
Reply 10
but dont we want to see who has the highest average starting salary?
President_Ben
"Only smarties have the answer" :wink:



There might be... but I doubt it.

And the highest starting salary for any UCL student is probably Economics, I'm pretty sure no other department has recently put out a graduate who earned over 100k in their first year :wink:


A single case proves nothing, but by all means is extraordinairily impressive! What did he do/sign up for? Which company is he working for?

One more thing Ben, I see you everywhere on these forums (well, London Unis, Econ and Careers), what do you plan on becoming? Also, did you do one of the summer internships with an investment bank or something in the financial sector as I'd be quite interested to find out? I need to do my applications in the next week or two and send them off, but am not sure what to do - I'm interested in several fields of the financial world, so might just apply for loads of them and hopefully get a couple of offers and pick one. Anyhows, I know this is off the topic, but I just wondered.
Something related to cosmetics so quite leftfield.

It's very hard to establish highest average start salary but I could try and find out... or find some first year to do the research for me... (only concern is that they'd mess it up :rolleyes: )

There won't be huge variation to be honest. You'll get a bigger variation within a department than between them.


I'm a second year so I haven't interned. But I've done 1st year Spring programmes with UBS and Deutsche Bank.

I plan on living a diverse, fruitful and stimulating life - and start that with a career in finance. The specifics aren't very interesting... check your PMs shortly...
so are you glad you studied maths at UCL, praktiv? What would you say are the disadvantages to studying maths at UCL, in regards to other universities (emphasising on teaching, course and reputation) or would you say you are perfectly happy?
futureaussiecto
so are you glad you studied maths at UCL, praktiv? What would you say are the disadvantages to studying maths at UCL, in regards to other universities (emphasising on teaching, course and reputation) or would you say you are perfectly happy?


I am glad to be studying Maths at UCL, as the course is very good and gives you a good ground in the basics/main areas (as I mentioned in my first post), and you get to live at the very heart of the city, as opposed to somewhere a bit further out such as South Kensington (Imperial), so you have plenty of opportunity for a fulfilling life outside of your studies, which is something I couldn't imagine myself having to such an extent if I'd have gone to IC. Our Maths department has a good reputation and is on the way up, but we're not nearly at the level of Cambridge (which has a truly extraordinary reputation and a very good/unique course). And if I had the choice to go somewhere purely on academics then I would have preferred to study at Cambridge, however I've come to realise that there's more to Uni than just working my arse off. When I applied my backup was Bristol, which has an excellent Maths department as well - probably better than UCL's, but I really just wanted to live in a diverse, vibrant city, so decided to come here.

During your first 1.5 years you have to do compulsory courses, but after that you have a much greater freedom, for example this term I'm doing modules such as Linear Programming & Optimisation, Probability & Statistics and Financial Computing, however these were just some of the courses that took my fancy out of a dozen or more I could pick from. It's nice to be able to follow your own interests after you've been grounded in the most important/fundamental Mathematics. So, on reflection I'd say that I'm very happy to be at UCL - my lecturers are generally speaking very good (they give us good notes, answer our questions well, are very supportive and understanding, etc), the course it to my liking and I love living and studying where I do. Anyhows, I hope this answers your questions. :smile:
pratikv, see you at the 8am lecture tomorrow morning :wink:

Bear in mind, something like Financial Computing is very cool. You get taught finance and some computing (funnily enough) in a course that is sponsored by Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank (how nice of them :smile:)
pratikv
I am glad to be studying Maths at UCL, as the course is very good and gives you a good ground in the basics/main areas (as I mentioned in my first post), and you get to live at the very heart of the city, as opposed to somewhere a bit further out such as South Kensington (Imperial), so you have plenty of opportunity for a fulfilling life outside of your studies, which is something I couldn't imagine myself having to such an extent if I'd have gone to IC. Our Maths department has a good reputation and is on the way up, but we're not nearly at the level of Cambridge (which has a truly extraordinary reputation and a very good/unique course). And if I had the choice to go somewhere purely on academics then I would have preferred to study at Cambridge, however I've come to realise that there's more to Uni than just working my arse off. When I applied my backup was Bristol, which has an excellent Maths department as well - probably better than UCL's, but I really just wanted to live in a diverse, vibrant city, so decided to come here.

During your first 1.5 years you have to do compulsory courses, but after that you have a much greater freedom, for example this term I'm doing modules such as Linear Programming & Optimisation, Probability & Statistics and Financial Computing, however these were just some of the courses that took my fancy out of a dozen or more I could pick from. It's nice to be able to follow your own interests after you've been grounded in the most important/fundamental Mathematics. So, on reflection I'd say that I'm very happy to be at UCL - my lecturers are generally speaking very good (they give us good notes, answer our questions well, are very supportive and understanding, etc), the course it to my liking and I love living and studying where I do. Anyhows, I hope this answers your questions. :smile:


and just to check- you reckon the average starting salary is £40k for the ucl mathmos?

i am deciding between warwick and ucl for maths, any suggestions?

im not going into academia, maybe not even finance but civil service- maths is just a favourite subject.
futureaussiecto
and just to check- you reckon the average starting salary is £40k for the ucl mathmos?

i am deciding between warwick and ucl for maths, any suggestions?

im not going into academia, maybe not even finance but civil service- maths is just a favourite subject.


That figure stays in my brain from the 'welcome pack' I was issued with by the Maths department - I think it was somewhere around there. I'm back at Uni now, so will try and check in the next couple/few days if I remember and get back to you.

Warwick has an excellent Mathematics department, better than UCL's, however you should think of other things such as do you want to go to a campus university (Warwick) or do you want to be based in a city? Some people like the campus university thing, but I didn't think it was for me, plus with Warwick, the closest town is Coventry and I really wouldn't want to spend 3 years of my life going out there! :wink: :p:
futureaussiecto
and just to check- you reckon the average starting salary is £40k for the ucl mathmos?

i am deciding between warwick and ucl for maths, any suggestions?

im not going into academia, maybe not even finance but civil service- maths is just a favourite subject.


No way is it 40k... I haven't had time to check, but it ain't 40k. I think 40k was the highest start (which isn't that stunning given that almost every IBer gets that :wink:)

Pick the place you'll like. Visit them both. They're so different...
President_Ben
pratikv, see you at the 8am lecture tomorrow morning :wink:

Bear in mind, something like Financial Computing is very cool. You get taught finance and some computing (funnily enough) in a course that is sponsored by Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank (how nice of them :smile:)


You're doing it too? I can't believe that we have 8am lectures 3 days a week - it's disgraceful! Do you know what room it's in? I'm quite interested to learn something about the financial world as I don't know that much about it. What do you look like anyway so I can recognise you? I'm an Indian guy, probably wearing a grey beanie because I've been too lazy to get my hair cut! :smile: