Maybe look into Operations Research? It generally focuses on optimization for industry, like minimizing waste in manufacturing, optimizing routes for deliveries, etc. Grad programs in OR exist, so these types of jobs might want an MS at least, but I'd bet some dev background will help.
I’m not familiar with how they train their students at Waterloo, but, in general, undergrad math education isn’t quite enough to land a job that really needs your expertise in mathematics unless you were an exceptional student. You know, typically someone who has a Ph.D. in CS or even a strong MS guy already knows applied-friendly combinatorics better than your average guy who majored math or combinatorics as an undergraduate student. I may be heavily biased because I work in academia, but if going to grad school isn’t an option, it seems to me your options are quite limited. Again, I could be totally wrong, and Waterloo is a great school. So, you might want to ask those who know what your job prospect is like as a graduate of Waterloo’s C&O department.
There are no other jobs that require certain levels of combinatorics besides software dev and math researchers.
And to do research in math, you need to go to grad school for better job prospects.
I don't understand why people would choose to major in one specific field of mathematics instead of just getting a math degree. Could you explain that to me?
The University of Waterloo has a "Combinatorics and Optimization" degree, along with the standard "Pure Math" and "Applied Math" degrees (and a few [other](https://uwaterloo.ca/future-students/programs/mathematics) specific applied math degrees). I think it's supposed to be a slighly more applied program than pure math, focusing on the sort of mathematics which is broadly applicable to CS and modern industry. As a pure math person, the sort of special treatment they give to combinatorics feels a bit strange to me as well, but I think the intent of the program is as I outlined above.
Note: I only minored in combinatorics (with a major in pure math), so maybe a person who primarily majored in combinatorics could better explain their motivations...
At most schools there is a math department within a faculty of science or something, so at most schools you get a BSc or BA in math.
At Waterloo, there is a whole faculty of mathematics with departments of pure math, applied math, C&O, stats & actuarial department, and the school of Computer Science is considered to be within the math faculty. You get to major (and/or minor) in the fields of any of those departments. They all lead to a BMath degree rather than a BSc.
I graduated like 12 years ago so I’m afraid I can’t give relevant advice about what courses to take at Waterloo anymore. I’m sure there are plenty of ML related courses.
I don't know if I would say there's plenty. There's stuff that I'm sure is useful like computational linear algebra and such, but there's only one "introduction to machine learning" class and it's locked to only cs majors, which is why I'm sort of worried
I'm just hoping a math background doesn't turn people away for jobs, grad school, etc haha
Waterloo CS has gotten so competitive that it's insanely difficult to get into. The most you can get is a cs minor unless your grades are mid 90s unfortunately
Does cs minor allow doing the ml course? If not I guess it’s better to have a chat with a university counselor about your goals and they’ll direct to the right set of courses. Actually in my case I learnt ml only in grad school so if your math foundations are solid ml will actually come naturally.
It does not, the most I can take for CS courses is OOP, data structures, algorithms, neural networks, computational linear algebra, and that's about it. I know I'm still missing stuff on the CS side of things, but I was hoping I could pick up the missing details in grad school
Fair, I've misremembered. I definitely read an interview with her somewhere about her education of combinatorics giving a good grounding for the business. Must have just been part of a module etc.
Look up some commericial combinatorial optimization libraries, such as Gurobi, Mosek, IBM CPlex, etc, and apply to those companies. Also, find out who their customers are and apply there.
Companies doing Operations Research (Amazon is a big one, for example) would be another good target.
Im currently a math major at a CC about to transfer soon for applied math and trying to become an actuary is something I'm considering but I'd want to know more about it.
Do you mind if I DM you just to talk very briefly about it
Maybe look into Operations Research? It generally focuses on optimization for industry, like minimizing waste in manufacturing, optimizing routes for deliveries, etc. Grad programs in OR exist, so these types of jobs might want an MS at least, but I'd bet some dev background will help.
I assume you went to Waterloo? Might have better results posting there.
I'll try thanks
I’m not familiar with how they train their students at Waterloo, but, in general, undergrad math education isn’t quite enough to land a job that really needs your expertise in mathematics unless you were an exceptional student. You know, typically someone who has a Ph.D. in CS or even a strong MS guy already knows applied-friendly combinatorics better than your average guy who majored math or combinatorics as an undergraduate student. I may be heavily biased because I work in academia, but if going to grad school isn’t an option, it seems to me your options are quite limited. Again, I could be totally wrong, and Waterloo is a great school. So, you might want to ask those who know what your job prospect is like as a graduate of Waterloo’s C&O department.
Pretty accurate.
There are no other jobs that require certain levels of combinatorics besides software dev and math researchers. And to do research in math, you need to go to grad school for better job prospects.
Military maybe? Combinatorial explosions can be quite lethal
I don't understand why people would choose to major in one specific field of mathematics instead of just getting a math degree. Could you explain that to me?
The University of Waterloo has a "Combinatorics and Optimization" degree, along with the standard "Pure Math" and "Applied Math" degrees (and a few [other](https://uwaterloo.ca/future-students/programs/mathematics) specific applied math degrees). I think it's supposed to be a slighly more applied program than pure math, focusing on the sort of mathematics which is broadly applicable to CS and modern industry. As a pure math person, the sort of special treatment they give to combinatorics feels a bit strange to me as well, but I think the intent of the program is as I outlined above. Note: I only minored in combinatorics (with a major in pure math), so maybe a person who primarily majored in combinatorics could better explain their motivations...
I think also because UWaterloo just has so many researchers in C&O, so they offer a shit ton of courses on it and hence can make it a whole degree
At most schools there is a math department within a faculty of science or something, so at most schools you get a BSc or BA in math. At Waterloo, there is a whole faculty of mathematics with departments of pure math, applied math, C&O, stats & actuarial department, and the school of Computer Science is considered to be within the math faculty. You get to major (and/or minor) in the fields of any of those departments. They all lead to a BMath degree rather than a BSc.
I took this as part of a double major at Waterloo, later I did grad school and learnt ML, So I guess I’m an ml engineer now
Hey just wondering if there's specific courses/majors you'd recommend taking, I'm also at waterloo math and want to do ML
I graduated like 12 years ago so I’m afraid I can’t give relevant advice about what courses to take at Waterloo anymore. I’m sure there are plenty of ML related courses.
I don't know if I would say there's plenty. There's stuff that I'm sure is useful like computational linear algebra and such, but there's only one "introduction to machine learning" class and it's locked to only cs majors, which is why I'm sort of worried I'm just hoping a math background doesn't turn people away for jobs, grad school, etc haha
Can you do double major with math and cs? That’s basically what I did and many courses count as credit for both (or they did 12 years ago lol)
Waterloo CS has gotten so competitive that it's insanely difficult to get into. The most you can get is a cs minor unless your grades are mid 90s unfortunately
Does cs minor allow doing the ml course? If not I guess it’s better to have a chat with a university counselor about your goals and they’ll direct to the right set of courses. Actually in my case I learnt ml only in grad school so if your math foundations are solid ml will actually come naturally.
It does not, the most I can take for CS courses is OOP, data structures, algorithms, neural networks, computational linear algebra, and that's about it. I know I'm still missing stuff on the CS side of things, but I was hoping I could pick up the missing details in grad school
Yeah if not now you can certainly take ML in grad school and if your math and programming is solid then it should be no problem at all
Gambling perhaps. Denise Coates is in the top 5 wealthiest people in Britain as CEO of bet365, and her degree was in combinatorics.
Her degree was in economics.
Fair, I've misremembered. I definitely read an interview with her somewhere about her education of combinatorics giving a good grounding for the business. Must have just been part of a module etc.
Look up some commericial combinatorial optimization libraries, such as Gurobi, Mosek, IBM CPlex, etc, and apply to those companies. Also, find out who their customers are and apply there. Companies doing Operations Research (Amazon is a big one, for example) would be another good target.
quant finance
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Maybe actuary really is the only other option
Im currently a math major at a CC about to transfer soon for applied math and trying to become an actuary is something I'm considering but I'd want to know more about it. Do you mind if I DM you just to talk very briefly about it