mathematics vs applied mathematics
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if you want to become a teacher, does it make a difference whether u study pure mathematics or applied maths in uni? and can anyone enlighten me how the major/minor thing work. as in, besides mathematics, can u take like engineering courses and major in maths? is there such a thing?
thanks.
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Originally posted by absol:
if you want to become a teacher, does it make a difference whether u study pure mathematics or applied maths in uni? and can anyone enlighten me how the major/minor thing work. as in, besides mathematics, can u take like engineering courses and major in maths? is there such a thing?
thanks.
Hi absol,
It does not make a difference. You may wish to have a look at the list provided here:
http://www.moe.edu.sg/careers/teach/applying/degree/
Do note that it is only a guideline.
As for your second question, I will have to apologise as I have no idea about engineering issues, so you will have to wait for someone more qualified to answer your question.
Cheers.
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If you take engineering, you major in engineering and not maths. Generally, engineering graduates will be accepted by MOE to teach Maths or Physics or even Chemistry if you do chemical engineering. While you're doing undergraduate studies in Engineering, you can take elective Maths modules (but limited to those offered for cross-faculty by the Maths department) on top of your core Engineering Maths modules. This will show up in your transcript (i.e. the list that shows all the modules you've taken) but not on your degree scroll. A minor is when your university has that particular scheme that says if you pass enough modules from another faculty (e.g. you are in engineering faculty but you take enough elective modules from business faculty, you may qualify for a business minor on top of your engineering major) and it shows up on your degree scroll if I recall correctly. In my time, there was no Maths minor for engineering students in NUS, and I doubt there will ever be locally. Not sure about overseas universities though.
If you're very sure that you want to go into teaching Maths only, you might probably be better off doing a Maths major, because most of the stuff you have to learn for an engineering degree (maybe 95%) will be irrelevant. Unless, of course, you like to study just for interest and to challenge yourself.
Opinion coming from an engineering graduate who is finding her Maths rusty
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Originally posted by JCMaths:
If you take engineering, you major in engineering and not maths. Generally, engineering graduates will be accepted by MOE to teach Maths or Physics or even Chemistry if you do chemical engineering. While you're doing undergraduate studies in Engineering, you can take elective Maths modules (but limited to those offered for cross-faculty by the Maths department) on top of your core Engineering Maths modules. This will show up in your transcript (i.e. the list that shows all the modules you've taken) but not on your degree scroll. A minor is when your university has that particular scheme that says if you pass enough modules from another faculty (e.g. you are in engineering faculty but you take enough elective modules from business faculty, you may qualify for a business minor on top of your engineering major) and it shows up on your degree scroll if I recall correctly. In my time, there was no Maths minor for engineering students in NUS, and I doubt there will ever be locally. Not sure about overseas universities though.
If you're very sure that you want to go into teaching Maths only, you might probably be better off doing a Maths major, because most of the stuff you have to learn for an engineering degree (maybe 95%) will be irrelevant. Unless, of course, you like to study just for interest and to challenge yourself.
Opinion coming from an engineering graduate who is finding her Maths rusty
Not sure about NUS but NTU does offer a minor in maths now since i've friends who are doing it now.
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Oops haha you're right. They do offer Maths minors. In NUS too, even during my days there.
http://www.eng.nus.edu.sg/ugrad/SP_minors.html
Guess I wasn't paying attention to the minors, as they translated to additional workload (i.e. need to take more modules than required to graduate). Sorry for the mis-information.
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Originally posted by JCMaths:
Oops haha you're right. They do offer Maths minors. In NUS too, even during my days there.
http://www.eng.nus.edu.sg/ugrad/SP_minors.html
Guess I wasn't paying attention to the minors, as they translated to additional workload (i.e. need to take more modules than required to graduate). Sorry for the mis-information.
I guess that would depend on the course, for my course, i have enough electives to take a minor and still not exceed my course workload so its common for my coursemates to consider minors.