Mathematician vs applied mathematician

1. Sep 28, 2008

offtheleft

whats the main differences and which one one would help get into grad school? im looking into pure math and quite possibly physics as well.

2. Sep 28, 2008

PieceOfPi

(Pure) Mathematician- Stresses more on the theoretical and abstract aspects of mathematics. Deals more with theorems and their proofs than computations. (Usually, when you say "mathematician", you usually mean this type)

Applied Mathematician- Stresses more on the applications of mathematics to some other fields. Deals more with computations and algorithms than theorems and proofs.

Note that these are very simplified distinctions between those two professions. As for grad school, I think pure math would be good if you're thinking of going to grad school in math, and applied math would be good if you're thinking of going to physics (but again, that's probably not the case all the time).

3. Sep 28, 2008

qspeechc

PieceOfPi outlined the main differences. If you want to do physics in grad school, applied maths would be a better route to go. You must have pure maths if you want to do pure maths in grad school. Applied mathematicians-- if they study the right fields-- can get high paying jobs in industry, banks etc. As far as I know, pure mathematicians don't get paid that much.

Pure maths is like real analysis. Applied maths is like numerical analysis (assuming you know those fields).