Considering a double major in math and engineering

[JyN]

I am currently a first year student at the university of regina in cananda. I am majoring in engineering right now, and i am honestly finding it fairly "easy" so far. By "easy" i mean that i am finding a lot of very difficult problems in the book, and i am constantly blown away by how complicated and challenging i think it can be. But the actual work i need to do for the classes is not to hard. I have an 85% average in my science based courses. Calc I, linear algebra, physics I, chemistry I, engineering design. And 90%+ on midterms in Stats I, calc II, Physics II. -The physics classes are algebra based.

I have lately taken a big interest in mathematics. I really want to learn more about the basis of mathematics. And, i want to explore pure math and proofs. I am also interested in the possibility of going on to grad school in engineering, but i don't want to get ahead of myself.

So my questions are Is there anyone here that has done a similar double major? If so what is it like, and can you offer up any advice? Should i even try a double major at all, and instead just try to take a couple extra math classes? (there is no minor option in math for engineers at my school).

I would likely try to take a lot of the math over the summer, so i have to choose between this and the co-op program, any thoughts on that decision?

Finally, i have booked an academic advising appointment for a few days from now, any advice for getting the most out of it?

EDIT: My organizational and time management skills are also very bad. I have been succeeding so far on my natural understanding of what we are learning i suppose. Although i certainly don't think i am exceptionally intelligent or anything like that at all.

 

[Leptos]

From what I've gathered from PF, if you wish to become an engineer, adding a second major in math, while it wouldn't hurt, would be unnecessary. That being said, if you really are interested in math, you can take courses that interest you, but you can do this without double majoring in math...

 

[micromass]

All math other than linear algebra, calculus and differential equations will be quite useless to an engineer. So if you want to take math classes because they are interesting, go ahead (I really recommend it!). But if you want to take math because it will help you in engineering, then don't

 

[clope023]

Take applied math courses as electives if you want to learn stuff that will be directly applied to your engineering classes.

I'm assuming calc 1-3, ordinary differential equations, and linear algebra are required; other good classes to take are: partial differential equations, Fourier analysis, numerical analysis, probability and statistics, complex analysis (if you're an electrical engineer) and discrete math (if you're a computer or electrical engineer); I've seen schools where engineers take real analysis as well but I don't see an engineer needing to go that in deph.

 

[flemmyd]

a friend of mine is applied math and has to take a few classes outside the department, so he took classical mechanics with the rest of us physics majors.

I asked him how physics and math classes compare and he said in the physics class, you are given the formula and just accept it on (semi) face value and go about doing problems that use it. in the math department, you would have to prove every step, but you typically don't use the formula you just derived for any "practical" means.

 

[Angry Citizen]

The consensus I got when I asked this same question is, some of the abstract courses are worthless (like modern algebra), but analysis and theoretical differential equations (ordinary and partial) can be very useful in providing a rock-solid foundation to an engineer's math skills. I guess it depends on what you want your engineering degree to deal with. I imagine the extra math would be very useful if you're doing theory work and run into something that is very abstract. All that mathematical training will allow you solve the problem while the more plug-and-chug engineers are scratching their noggin.