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Searching for Mathmagicland... Grad Life
By Anonymous Hero
Posted Thu Feb 02, 2006 at 06:45:01 AM PDT

I'm a 26-year-old supervisor in the social work field, and I'm searching for a path to Mathmagicland.

I taught math to classmates in middle school, excelled at Calculus in high school, lost my way in college (where I earned a B.S. in Business Administration), but still managed to score a 760 on the Quantitative Reasoning and a 790 on the Analytical portion after not taking any math courses since my first semester in college. I never truly gave up math -- since graduating in 2001, I've assisted friends with debt management, worked on logic puzzles, and worked on math problems in old textbooks (for fun!!!). Last fall, I helped a friend study on the LSAT and became addicted to the analytical games section. I also began writing and submitting logic puzzles to puzzle magazines. I would like to pursue a graduate degree in pure mathematics, but I'm worried that I'm way behind my age group, and I don't quite know where to begin. I've bought some books to "reteach" myself calculus, and I intend to advance from there.

Do people become mathematicians this late in the game? Can someone offer any advice?

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Searching for Mathmagicland... | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 hidden)
[new] Start with a CC perhaps? (5.00 / 1) (#1)
by halewis on Sat Feb 18, 2006 at 09:10:29 AM PDT

I've been thinking about this question, and it seems to me that one place to start would be with community college. I'm suggesting this mostly out of financial considerations -- it sounds like you already have a BS or BA, but I know a lot of 2-year schools offer upper level mathematics classes, so that you could go at least half-way towards a mathematics degree [in terms of math classes] by trying out a couple classes at a time. This would also give you a chance to see if you tend to like the pure math classes, or maybe you particularly like applications or statistics, and you might be able to work your job around it. You could also try this just for a semester, and then if it turns out that it's exactly what you're looking for you could jump into it full-time.

Our school offers a math degree for people who already have their bachelor's, but I think it's just for certification [post-baccalaureate certification, or PBC] -- people take the math classes that they need but didn't take as undergraduates, and also education classes so that they end up cerfied to teach middle and high school in New York. I think, though, that these PBC programs at one time were being phased out because all teachers have to get a Masters Degree within 5 years, so people get certified while doing their MA. I don't know of programs that pick up classes without the certification, but it ought to be able to be done on a course-by-course basis.

About your age -- 26 seems young to me! I don't think that should be a concern at all. Look at it this way -- while it's stardard to get a PhD in 6" or 7 years, I know people who took 12-13 years to do it, so they end up with a graduate degree at about the same time age-wise that you would! And as -- was it Dear Abby or Ann Landers? -- as one of those woman said once when someone wanted to go to Medical School, but it would take 8 years and they would be 45 when they finished with school, "And how old will you be in 8 years if you DON'T do it?"



[new] Not too late! (none / 0) (#2)
by Cotati on Wed Jul 19, 2006 at 08:35:57 PM PDT

I am young academically speaking, so I hope I qualify to be an honest member of YMN. Here I am in my 2nd year of a PhD program, while my actual physical age is ... 48 years. My intention is to work in academia when I complete my degree. (I may never see tenure, but so what.) So I dearly hope it is not too late to make the change! I am told that age discrimination does exist to some degree, but it is not nearly as bad as in industry (in the US) or as it is in academia in Europe.

My first life (career) was as a software developer in Silicon Valley. I was ready for a change, looking for the opportunity to exit, when the economic downturn hit my industry and company in 2002. I immediately enrolled at Cal State Univ. Hayward, full time, self-funded, and finished my master's degree in math in 2004. (I could have finished a half-year earlier, but chose to take more coursework.) I can't say that it's a plan I would recommend to anyone else, but so far so good for me.



[new] Geez, you're young! (none / 0) (#4)
by vizioneer on Thu Jul 20, 2006 at 08:06:55 AM PDT

Hi Hero, By all means, your gut and your heart are telling you to at least explore the option of becoming a mathematician. 26, is a fine age to start a graduate program, in fact that is about the average age of a new grad student in math. 25 is the average starting age, and 29 is the average age of a continuing grad student in math, and the average age of a new PhD is 33-34. So, by all means, age is not a concern for you. You already have interest, skills, and abilities and personal initiative that you've cultured. If you want to start a grad program, I'd recommend taking courses such as advanced calc, undergrad abstract algebra (or holding off for algebra if the program's grad level course is more of an introduction type course into algebra), a course that teaches proofs, etc. Basically, the pillars/core courses of a grad program usually are: algebra, analysis, topology, and complex analysis. If you haven't taken the prerequisite courses to these at the undergrad level you may want to find out 1) if you need to, 2) what the best way to go about building up that foundation would be. Sounds also like you'd be interested in math logic. After investing all the time of getting a PhD, you probably might want an actual job. It pays I think to temper your most fancied area of math with what's marketable- maybe some application of logic? It seems to me that math logicists are kind of few and far between, but who knows maybe this will pay off. Better to consult some professors beforehand and kind of plan out your course. Good luck.



Searching for Mathmagicland... | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 hidden)
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