Math or Stats: Which Major Offers More Rigor and Career Opportunities?

[kramer733]

I'm not sure what to major in but stats is appealing to me more all of a sudden. Probably because I'm scared i can't get a job with a math degree. Which is harder though? Which one has more rigor? Which one will earn me more money?

 

[General_Sax]

Tough to say. You could somehow end up in the most rigorous difficult stats program in the known universe and using your knowledge of statistics make a bajillion dollars in the stock market.

Then again, you could find yourself in a program full of escaped alzheimer's patients and end up homeless.

 

[chiro]

I'm not sure what to major in but stats is appealing to me more all of a sudden. Probably because I'm scared i can't get a job with a math degree. Which is harder though? Which one has more rigor? Which one will earn me more money?

It depends on your mindset and your motivation. I'll give you my take on what I've learned (I'll be doing 3rd year math start of next year).

First of all as you probably know there are many different kinds of math and in these kinds there are many different specializations for each kind.

With statistics, its not so much important applying rigorous proofs but actually understanding the results and the correct interpretation. To do this you will have to understand the theory behind probability and statistics, but you will need to do it in an intuitive way.

Statistics covers a lot of ground. You will do probability and stats as a year long course and then go into deeper ground, each with a unique perspective. Things like designing experiments and markov modeling (A fancy way for saying "conditional probability modeling") are focused on completely different things and require different types of intellect.

Here is one thing that applies to all "applied" math degrees and especially careers: the interpretation and more importantly the logic behind arriving at that interpretation is the most important thing. In an applied scenario you start by being given a problem which tyou gather the appropriate information, mathematically analyze, and then present your interpretation with reason to a set of people who aren't necessarily mathematicians , themselves.

So if you're a statistician or an applied mathematician in industry, you're going to be analyst and more importantly a translator that translates math into meaning for business people.

With regards to being worried about employment I would say that there would most likely be more demand for applied scientists and theoretical ones. Whether or not you become a statistician or an applied mathematician: I would recommend you get exposure to both but be biased towards the subjects you think you would like to do in a career. So if you wanted to be a statistician, load up on stats courses, but do an applied math like say industrial math, or math in medicine, or an "applied math" or physics course that gets you to do both analysis AND presentation of results.

If you're set on working in industry or in academia doing consultancy work for other companies: it will be in your interest to do math courses that have that focus on interpretation and more importantly presentation to non-math oriented people.

 

[DrDu]

I have worked on the field of statistics and I think there are good chances that you will end up in pharmaceutical research if you decide for studying statistics.
Whereever you end up, I made the experience that enterprises are very worried that mathematicians or statisticians might not be able to communicate with other scientists, e.g. biologists who create the problems that call for a solution.

 

[kramer733]

I have worked on the field of statistics and I think there are good chances that you will end up in pharmaceutical research if you decide for studying statistics.
Whereever you end up, I made the experience that enterprises are very worried that mathematicians or statisticians might not be able to communicate with other scientists, e.g. biologists who create the problems that call for a solution.

I actually live in Ottawa ON. According to some weekly news magazine called
"THE ECONOMIST", Statistics Canada is the best statistical organization. So I think if i went to do a degree in statistics, i would end up there. To be honest, I'm not really entirely sure what they do there.

I've recently been told that a lot of people with social science degrees are the best at statistics. A friend of a friend told me he used markov chain as a social scientist (I have no idea what that means). It's weird cause i never knew social scientists were very math oriented people.

I have another question though. If a pure math major finished his degree, how hard would he find it to do markov chain? How hard would the statistics major find hilbert space?

I've also heard there's more rigor in the pure math degree (usually). Can anybody give any anecdotal evidence? (lol)

I have a friend who has a master's in electrical engineering and he said that statistics IS VERY IMPORTANT to electrical engineering. I've also thought about doing electrical engineering but would really like to do a math degree first and foremost (stats or pure math) Which major (math or stats) would have an easier time to transition to electrical engineering?

If I do the pure math degree, i would definitely be planning to do 4th year Fourier analysis and PDE/ODE. If I take the Stats route, i'll be doing markov chain stuff. (I Looked at the undergraduate calendar.)

Which one is right?

 

[nlsherrill]

I actually live in Ottawa ON. According to some weekly news magazine called
"THE ECONOMIST", Statistics Canada is the best statistical organization. So I think if i went to do a degree in statistics, i would end up there. To be honest, I'm not really entirely sure what they do there.

I've recently been told that a lot of people with social science degrees are the best at statistics. A friend of a friend told me he used markov chain as a social scientist (I have no idea what that means). It's weird cause i never knew social scientists were very math oriented people.

I have another question though. If a pure math major finished his degree, how hard would he find it to do markov chain? How hard would the statistics major find hilbert space?

I've also heard there's more rigor in the pure math degree (usually). Can anybody give any anecdotal evidence? (lol)

I have a friend who has a master's in electrical engineering and he said that statistics IS VERY IMPORTANT to electrical engineering. I've also thought about doing electrical engineering but would really like to do a math degree first and foremost (stats or pure math) Which major (math or stats) would have an easier time to transition to electrical engineering?

If I do the pure math degree, i would definitely be planning to do 4th year Fourier analysis and PDE/ODE. If I take the Stats route, i'll be doing markov chain stuff. (I Looked at the undergraduate calendar.)

Which one is right?

What does it matter to you if its harder or not? Are you worried more about what kind of job you want to get, or whether you can get some "ooo's and ahhh's" from lay people?

Heres my advice(and probably almost everyone else's on this forum), do what you actually want to do. Do you find math interesting? some people do. Do you find statistics interesting? most people I have talked to don't, and those that are studying statistics usually are for financial reasons, not intrinsic interest.

Also, I believe math would not be a very good preparation for further studies in EE. Physics would be the closest due to the amount of electromagnetism covered and use of electronics in the lab courses...there's a good amount of math in EE though. If you like math, find EE interesting, and are interested in job security, then EE would be a good choice(for someone who wants to major in something they have interests in).

 

[chiro]

I actually live in Ottawa ON. According to some weekly news magazine called
"THE ECONOMIST", Statistics Canada is the best statistical organization. So I think if i went to do a degree in statistics, i would end up there. To be honest, I'm not really entirely sure what they do there.

I've recently been told that a lot of people with social science degrees are the best at statistics. A friend of a friend told me he used markov chain as a social scientist (I have no idea what that means). It's weird cause i never knew social scientists were very math oriented people.

I have another question though. If a pure math major finished his degree, how hard would he find it to do markov chain? How hard would the statistics major find hilbert space?

I've also heard there's more rigor in the pure math degree (usually). Can anybody give any anecdotal evidence? (lol)

I have a friend who has a master's in electrical engineering and he said that statistics IS VERY IMPORTANT to electrical engineering. I've also thought about doing electrical engineering but would really like to do a math degree first and foremost (stats or pure math) Which major (math or stats) would have an easier time to transition to electrical engineering?

If I do the pure math degree, i would definitely be planning to do 4th year Fourier analysis and PDE/ODE. If I take the Stats route, i'll be doing markov chain stuff. (I Looked at the undergraduate calendar.)

Which one is right?

When people talk about markov chains and markov modeling they are simply describing systems in terms of conditional probabilities. You have the discrete types (markov chains) and you have the continuous version (markov processes).

With regards to pure mathematicians learning statistics, in some ways it might be easier since the stats is nowhere near as abstract as pure maths can get, but it requires a different kind of mindset. I'll go out on a limb based on what I've done and read that its probably going to be harder to learn pure math after statistics than learning statistics after pure math, but again I stress they are two different types of thinking.

If you understand the basics of probability and statistics well, all of the applications and variants of statistical theory will not come as a surprise to you.

With regard to social scientists being good at statistics, I would say one factor in this is that most social scientists must take a sequence in statistics for their major.

However with that said a psychologist will in most cases not have the background to be a statistician whether they are an actuary, bio-statistician, or a senior statistician: if you are going to do this, you need to really understand mathematics and statistics and the concepts deeply: statistics is really a field in itself.