Cardiff University

Need help from Cardiff people, specifically the mathematicians!

K..W.Studd

Hey everyone, now I know this must be one of the most frequent and equally the most irritating question you get asked but I could really do with some advice.

I am in the process of choosing my universities and I am choosing out of Sheffield, Bath and Cardiff, for a Mathematics degree. I really don’t know how to decide, I have visited all 3 universities but I liked them all. I did get a good feel for Cardiff but I had a couple of issues.

One was the library, they showed us one which looked a little small but I think (am hoping) that was just the Mathematics library. How is the Cardiff library generally seen?

My other, more major, concern was what it is like for maths. I personally don’t like to take notice of league tables but it isn’t usually very high for maths. Can any maths students tell me how they feel their maths degree is going to be valued? For example do recruiters come to Cardiff for Maths grads? Also what do the maths students usually go onto do from Cardiff, would many go into finance, is it possible to go into the city with a Maths degree from Cardiff or do those employers generally (unfairly) stick the Oxford and Cambridge people?

Anyway, sorry for such a demanding set of questions, any advice regarding any of it would be extremely useful, thanks alot! Also if there are any of you studying maths, would you mind if I gave you a PM for some more useful info. Thanks alot,

Joe

Reply 1

ses7dcs

Hiya fella

My ball and chain (girlfriend) is doing Maths here.

To clear a few things up, what you saw was just the Maths library. There are about 8 libraries here, they're all great.

Apparently most maths students do go into either business or teaching. City jobs (investment banking, trading, accounts) will all love people with a strong Maths degree. More so than someone with a straight Business degree. Economics is a little different though. The university is in the Russell Group (top 18 Uni's in the country) and therefore regularly gets recruiters giving talks/open evenings and so on. Dont listen to all this nonsense about having to go to Oxbridge to get into a good City job. Work hard at Cardiff, get a 1st and you'll fly.

My girlfriend says the course is challenging, she did A Level Maths and Further Maths, some of the stuff she has done before, some is new. But prospects are good.

If you fancied getting a better insight, come to cardiff for a day and sit in on a lecture. You might not understand whats going on, but you'll get a feel for teching methods, class sizes etc.. It really isnt a problem, they dont register peoples names for lectures. I go to her maths lectures a lot (I do economics, my maths is ok, but not good enough) and the lectures have 50+ people so you wouldnt get caught out. Do it. I did and it really helped me decide between Bristol and Cardiff.

Peace out, my fingers hurt after typing so much.

Cardiff University

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Reply 2

K..W.Studd

I dont suppose she frequents the student room by any chance does she mate? I could do with asking her a few questions.

What's you general thoughts about the Cardiff uni then? As in is it on the up do you think, or maybe going down?