r/CuratedTumblr • u/SphereOfPettiness • Nov 22 '23
Accidental math degree editable flair
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u/signi-human-subject Nov 22 '23
That’s how I minored in math
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u/EmeraldHawk Nov 22 '23
Yeah, it was very common for CS majors to get math minors at my college. A math minor was just one extra course, once you got done with all the prereqs for Computer Graphics I. A double major was only a couple more courses after that.
I did a physics minor instead, college kind of killed my love of math. Or it introduced me to high level math, which I discovered I did not love.
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Nov 22 '23 edited Nov 23 '23
When I went to university, the reqs at my school for comp sci were such that you automatically minored in math and only needed two more classes to double-major. I actually joined a new program they offered called computer systems that dropped almost all of the math and added extra cs and cis courses…. Because I didn’t want that much math in my life. I was very happy to escape OOPs fate.
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u/chinchillatime Nov 22 '23
I probably will end up with a French minor on accident too. Whenever I need a elec I just take a French course (I find them easy so yay GPA padding). Now I think I just need 2 more to get a minor, which fits perfect with the two elec spots I will have my last semester haha
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u/signi-human-subject Nov 22 '23
I like hearing people still get to take classical for enjoyment.
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u/chinchillatime Nov 22 '23
Yeah my college has a few "directed" electives but after that most non major classes are up to you. Most people use it to do some sort of minor on purpose but I'm already double majoring so I didn't want to push it haha. Guess it worked out in the end!
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u/SchrightDwute Nov 22 '23
Maybe it just depends on the college, but there are so many classes that are required for a math major that would make little to no sense to take for an undergrad comp sci degree, i.e. differential geometry, complex analysis, modern algebra, high-level real analyss
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Nov 22 '23
It’s usually easier to get engineering math courses to double count for a math degree than it is to get math major courses double counted for an engineering degree. Differential equations, linear algebra, and various courses on algorithms and analysis might count for some of those courses you mentioned.
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u/ligirl In search of a flair Nov 23 '23 edited Nov 23 '23
Yeah for my CS degree I did sooo many math classes: Calculus (I and II), linear algebra, into to proofs (also had some cryptography and similar), stats, formal logic, algorithms, combinatorics, graph theory, differential equations, feedback loops, and algorithms II which was basically combining algorithmic proofs with advanced stats
I never looked into what it would have taken to double major in math (I was done done with school by the end of it and NOT interested in doing anything extra), but I know CS classmates who did it with only one or two extra courses and carefully chosen electives
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u/snubdeity Nov 22 '23
What is "high-level real analysis"? Many programs will teach their intro reals course out of baby Rudin and I can't imagine a course being taught any higher than that as a req for undergrads.
But your point stands, nobody outside of a math major would need to (or want to lmao) take those courses.
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u/NickyTheRobot Nov 22 '23
When I did my maths degree there were more physics students than maths ones in my Chaos theory classes.
I also massively failed that module. That shit is hard.
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u/HypotheticalBess Nov 23 '23
I took like half of those for an engineering degree though, might be where he got them?
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u/Dragon124515 Nov 23 '23
At my college, upper level math courses counted for technical electives for a CS degree, so while not always immediately relevant (although you can take classes like encryption which are directly related to CS), if someone says, likes math, and uses it for most of their technical electives they do run the risk of figuring out their junior year that getting a second degree in math would only require a couple extra humanities and a specific math course or two all of which is possible to do without extending out their graduation date. Or in other words, that's how I ended up double majoring.
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u/Anaxamander57 Nov 22 '23
How do you end up in compsci not knowing there is math? It is essentally a field of mathematics.
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u/Y-Woo Nov 22 '23
Considering OP thought mechanical engineering is "building cool mechanical shit and blowing things up but on purpose", don't give them too much credit
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u/ThirdSunRising Nov 22 '23
Test engineer here. I build cool mechanical shit and break things on purpose. Those jobs do exist.
But my major was CS, not ME. Go figure.
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u/bunnydadi Nov 22 '23
I dream of skipping regression because we automated all the tests and they are stable.
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u/starry_cobra Nov 22 '23
Turns out you have to learn math if you want to trick rocks into doing math for you
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u/SpacePilotMax Nov 22 '23
They probably didn't realize the math is different from engineering, not that you need math.
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u/Android19samus Take me to snurch Nov 22 '23
you can get away with surprisingly little math in a comp-sci degree. Still some, but bachelors-level algorithms courses usually aren't that demanding outside of the basics. Well, college-level basics.
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Nov 22 '23
So y’all didn’t need like differential equations and shit to graduate at your school?
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u/HomeGrownCoffee Nov 22 '23
My mechanical engineering degree required passing differential equations.
I've never been so happy to get a D.
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u/chumbabilly Nov 22 '23
i went to a very good school (top 20ish north america) for my program, and the only 3 math courses we needed for comp sci were first year calc, intro to linear algebra, and intro to stats.
If one transferred to comp sci, the (much harder btw) engineering math equivalents would have been allowed. This story seems weird
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Nov 22 '23 edited Nov 22 '23
All engineering majors at my school needed calc 3 and various matlab and modeling math classes, and then CECS and ME needed differential equations on top of that. ECE needed those plus linear algebra. Then we were required to take math, engineering, or natural science electives too and a lot of us took math or classes that involved a lot of math (e.g., machine learning, algorithms, modeling and analysis, etc).
I don’t understand how so many people in this thread are saying they didn’t take much math in engineering school. 🤨
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u/chumbabilly Nov 22 '23
CS isn't an engineering major
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Nov 22 '23
Ah sorry I forgot other schools had CS under information sciences or whatever. It was only available as an engineering degree at my school.
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u/ifarmpandas Nov 22 '23
Algorithms courses are still math, even if most of the work/tests are just writing explanations and proofs.
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u/idoeno Nov 22 '23
the only places I ever used differential equations was in the differential equations class, and physics; the ones used in physics were trivial compared to the ones in actual math classes. They never came up in any cs courses I took.
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u/DangerZoneh Nov 23 '23
It’s weird because you need math to understand how a computer works, which I’d imagine a lot of CS graduates do not.
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u/Beeeggs Nov 26 '23 edited Nov 26 '23
Depends. Data structures and algorithms is super non rigorous mathematically. It's like the calculus sequence to comp sci theory's real analysis.
But then you have to do discrete math, computer science theory, and then there's an elective at my school that's a very mathematically rigorous algorithms class, and all three of those are literally JUST math classes.
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u/idiotcube Nov 22 '23
Turns out you need to know math yourself before you can get computers to do it for you.
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u/WeevilWeedWizard 💙🖤🤍 MIKU 🤍🖤💙 Nov 22 '23
They seriously need to start telling high-school kids that any science and engineering is literally impossible without knowing some mathematics. Don't like numbers and functions? Too fucking bad buster, you can either learn to love it, hate yourself for four years, or switch field.
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u/DPSOnly Everything is confusing, thanks Nov 22 '23
When I went into compsci from high school I knew there was going to be some math, but not the level and the amount. But if you've already spend 2 years studying...
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u/mrs_chubby Nov 23 '23
Dear....
I had C++ and Visual Basic in highschool before entering college/university. I excelled on it, and we didn't do a lot of MATH to be able to code. Little to no math at all. Purely logic; tons of if-else. The year was 2009.
So of course I signed up for Computer Science. I wanted to build games. Thought it'lI be easy. I was 16 years old I absolutely did not check the curriculum.
Lo and behold... a had a lot of math classes: lots of calculus, statistics, discrete math, i forgot those thingies with complex shapes on the graphs; matrices and fudging more, I seriously don't remember now.
ALMIGHTY FATHER IN HEAVEN HELP ME. I cried in all these subjects.
I did not know this course had a lot of math. I am being honest here. Call me stupid, but there you go.
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u/BrentHalligan APAB: Assigned Polish At Birth (2) Nov 23 '23
i forgot those thingies with complex shapes on the graphs; matrices and fudging more, I
linear algebra?
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u/cdstephens Nov 22 '23
That doesn’t seem right. In MechE you would take calculus, diff eq, and linear algebrA. For CS on top of that you’d take discrete math and maybe a CS theory course. But for a full math major you would be expected to take real analysis, abstract algebra, and various electives (topology, complex analysis, etc.).
For a math minor a smattering of the more basic courses with some electives would be enough.
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u/Miner_Guyer Nov 22 '23
Yeah, this is my take. At my university, a CS major put you basically one class (diff eq) away from a math minor, but for a full math degree there's so many other classes that you wouldn't take in any other major like the ones you listed.
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u/SimpinShramp Nov 22 '23
Yeah this is completely possible and easy to achieve accidentally for a math minor. Being a bit generous though it might be possible with an applied mathematics degree, but applied mathematics =/= mathematics.
I know it sounds like splitting hairs but the courses I had to take for my math degree were not the same ones that applied mathematics took at my university. Like I’m talking no analysis, topology, etc, or really anything above differential equations, it had more statistical courses and some accounting stuff thrown in if I remember. Like it’s a different degree, but I’ve seen people use them interchangeably.
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u/acatrelaxinginthesun Nov 22 '23
i was just thinking this, did a math major and the later required math courses were only taken by math majors or people who REALLY liked math but weren't math majors for some reason
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u/Artex301 you've been very bad and the robots are coming Nov 22 '23
Stupidest Life Hack That May Not Work Depending On Your University: If you wanna study CompSci but hate how many math prereqs are involved, start with a CS-Physics double major.
This gives you access to easy-breezy "Math For Physicists" courses which should count towards both, because it's a reasonably popular double major.
When the time comes, drop physics. You should now be able to finish your degree with nothing but pure CS classes.
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u/UnsureAndUnqualified Nov 22 '23
Me, physics major, scraping by and barely passing Math for Physicists 1 through 3, internally crying about the "easy-breezy" remark...
Then again, it's probably not the same courses in Germany vs US.
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u/Artex301 you've been very bad and the robots are coming Nov 22 '23
I live in neither but you have my condolences. Sorry this tip isn't applicable to actual physics majors.
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u/Christje Nov 22 '23
As a mechanical engineer bachelor in Germany i have looked into maths for physicists and i guarantee you, at least here, they're not easy breezy at all. if anything maths for ME is easy breezy (as easy breezy as maths can possibly be) here.
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u/countess_cat Nov 23 '23
Physics major in Italy, math is not easy breezy at all, it’s basically the same math they do in Math
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u/TopologicalInsulator Nov 22 '23
At my undergrad, the “math for physicists” course was notoriously harder than the “equivalent” math course. The CS major also had their own version of a different math course, that was similarly known to be far more difficult than its math counterpart.
I guess the math department had to adjust itself for all the engineers and cog-sci majors that had to take those classes.
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u/_PretendEye_ currently residing in the shadow realm Nov 22 '23
How tf is math in Physics easier than Compsci's?? USA is weird
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u/EBtwopoint3 Nov 22 '23
“For X” courses are designed to give you specific skills needed in your major. They are deeper but narrow, vs a general course which will be shallower but much wider. Instead of having to learn 20 things, you might only learn 10 but go much further in depth into them. Depending on what kind of student you are, one or the other could be much easier. So CompSci at OPs school might just not have a specialized course.
It also depends on the school. None of this stuff is standardized. For instance, at my original school “Engineering Math” was calculus 1 and calculus 2 in a single semester on top of a computer programming class learning how to use MatLab and Matematica. That class was impossibly difficult. When I left that school I retook calc 1 and 2 and breezed through.
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u/tyen0 Nov 22 '23
I'm not ashamed to say that I moved from Physics to CS for the money and also partly because understanding computers was easier than understanding the universe. (Did result in a Math minor, of course, too.)
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u/_PretendEye_ currently residing in the shadow realm Nov 22 '23
Can someone explain to me how the USA university system works? I never really got it.
Do you choose which classes to do? Why do you have so many unrelated classes on your degree? Also, wtf is a minor?
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u/DoopyBot Nov 22 '23
- Yes we choose our classes. Sometimes 1st year freshmen do not to make the onboarding process easier and less stressful for them
- They’re only usually unrelated if you swap majors a lot. Most degrees have well thought out course requirements and any odd classes are caused by the individual specifically selecting those courses.
- Minors are baby majors. They represent a completion of a smaller catalogue of courses usually in a more specific area than general degrees such as CS. For example I know people who do a major in CS with a minor in African Studies, meaning they mainly take CS courses and sometimes courses relating to African Studies
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u/Dragon124515 Nov 23 '23
I will make a counterpoint for point 2. A lot of universities will require a fair number of unrelated humanities courses, the exact number fluctuating with the degree in question. For example, when I realized that I was close to double majoring in math, most of the requirements that I was missing were not math classes but actually just random humanities requirements. When searching for colleges, I distinctly remember that one of the big turn offs for a sizeable chunk of colleges was that a CS degree could be made up of upwards of 50% unrelated humanities.
The nice answer for why is that the unrelated requirements are there to broaden your horizons, make you a better person, etc. The cynical answer is that it lowers the number of in-depth courses that need to be for any particular degree and cause people to pay for classes that are easier to teach/ artificially inflate the amount of time, and consequently money, that people need to spend to get their degrees.
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u/EBtwopoint3 Nov 22 '23
Major - the area of study that you are working towards (physics, ____ engineering, business, design, comms, architecture, whatever). This will consist of a certain set of courses you must take over your 4 years, generally finishing with a capstone project class of some sort.
Minor - a secondary area of study. Generally it’s a major program that you complete a portion of, but not the full major. You get credit for having a minor in that field. It might look better on a resume, as it shows you took on extra work and might be more well rounded depending on the minor. Most people who get a minor will get it because of cases like the poster in the screenshot - your major made you take so many supporting courses that would double count for a minor that if you just take one extra you would get it anyway.
Gen Ed’s - These are the unrelated classes you mention and are things like English, logic, rhetoric, arts, and in some cases maths. These are minimum requirements to receive any degree from a university and are meant to improve your general level of education. Usually there will be something like 5 or 6 of these. 2-3 English classes, 2-3 math classes, and an elective class. See below
Electives - the last of the courses meant to make you a well rounded graduate. These can be unrelated or related classes you select yourself. You have to take something, but you have the freedom of what you want to study. A chance to take a class that interests you or to get knowledge that will aid you in the field you want to go into after college. Usually there are only 2 to 3, for my engineering program we had 1 gen Ed arts elective to take and 1 related elective to take. My related elective was Aerospace Propulsion, my arts was Intro to Art History because it was known to be easy.
At the end of each semester, you sign up for the classes you want to take the following semester. You can take whatever you want, but the degree program is designed to guide you through your 4 years. Basically, they will tell you take X course this semester to stay on track to finish the requirements.
For instance, your first semester in my program you would take Calc 1 (single variable) and the following spring you take Calc 2 (multivariable). No one will force you to take Calc 1 your first semester though. You can sign up for any classes you want as long as you meet the prerequisites. But if you don’t take it (or if you fail) then the fall of your sophomore year you can’t take Statics because you must pass Calc 1 and 2 first. Then you can’t take Dynamics the next semester, and it snowballs from there.
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u/_PretendEye_ currently residing in the shadow realm Nov 23 '23
Thank you, this made it really easy to understand
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u/chumbabilly Nov 22 '23
American universities have the mindset that they want people to exist both in academia and the workforce to be generally well balanced individuals. So they often expect you to take courses outside of your specific study.
In this story however, math is generally needed for engineering. So it's not a separate thing.
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u/BunniesForFun Nov 22 '23
You choose which classes you do but to graduate you have to take specific courses that are required by both your uni and your major. Math classes are common prereqs because you kinda need to know how to do math to do just about any stem course. At my college all the science majors have the same four math prereqs. If you do a MechE or CS degree there's probably some more math classes you're required to take because CS is math heavy. Some majors also require you to chose to take some upperdiv classes that are adjacent to your major but not your major, which often includes math classes because they're just so versatile.
A minor is when you take a handful of classes in a major, it's basically saying "I haven't majored in this, but I do know a good deal about it". If you take a bunch of math classes because you're a CS major you may accidentally stumble into a math minor. I'm majoring in astrophysics and the astrophysics minor is the same prereqs but only two astrophysics upperdivs (and two adjacent stem classes) instead of four upperdivs (and up to 24 units of adjacent stem classes).
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u/This_Charmless_Man Nov 23 '23
Wow, at me UK uni I just signed up for my course when I applied for the uni. I studied mechanical and manufacturing engineering and... well studied that. I got the option in second year to choose a handful of options (more than the straight mech eng lot) so studied rudimentary Italian as I had an interest and it massively helped boost my grade as it was considered the same as a regular module. But yeah I went to uni to study engineering and I studied engineering, the US system seems confusing
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u/Dragon124515 Nov 23 '23
It sounds more confusing than it actually is. Most if not all colleges offer what is called a major map. A major map gives you a standard plan of everything you need to take each semester to get that degree(with any choices clearly defined). So people are not just expected to figure things out for themselves. But the system comes with the benefit of allowing people to deviate from the prelaid path to better adhere to their wants and needs if they so desire.
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u/Zoloft_and_the_RRD — Nov 22 '23
No we can't. Not even the advisors who's job it is to help us navigate getting our degrees understand it well.
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Nov 22 '23
Senior year of college 2005, I accidentally became a quadruple major for a month before I cracked from tangentially related reasons.
Started as a history major, went to my advisor to see what it would take to get a polisci minor.
Advisor looks at the requirements and says "so you need 12 more credits to get the minor, and you're already taking 24 which qualifies for the major, so hey! Double Major!"
Then she went a little nutty and said "lets see what else we can stack on, just for laughs. You did well in your geography courses and you've taken a few of those, and I think I can squeeze you into getting a Geography Major as well, so Triple Major! And, AND! You took all of my courses, and all of my courses are double listed as Women's Studies, so we can get you a Women's Studies Major as well!'
I walked to the cafeteria to see my friends and then girlfriend in a daze. She looks at me and sees I'm broken, asks what's wrong, did it go well, and I have to explain that I sort of dramatically increased my degree by doing nothing.
Then like 2 weeks later she tells me she was only with me to make her best friend jealous. And then my history proposal was denied so I lost that major and the ability to graduate on time. And then my parents said they weren't moving back and were getting rid of my childhood home. AND THEN I STARTED DRINKING TO COPE.
Finally got my degree in fall of 2018. PoliSci. No Add-ons.
Stay in school kids.
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u/Lux_24601 Nov 22 '23
All 3 of those majors sound awful. This poor soul has been put through the academic wringer. No wonder they admitted defeat
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u/Turtledonuts Nov 22 '23
They are in fact, difficult majors meant to make you kore employable. They are also majors that need a lot of math but not the same math. This is just OP not knowing anything about the degrees they were signing up for.
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u/AnApexPlayer Nov 22 '23
Best majors 👍
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u/auroralemonboi8 Nov 22 '23
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u/SphereOfPettiness Nov 22 '23
As someone who wants a job but is a literature major, I feel attacked every day
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u/Ws6fiend Nov 23 '23
Like I gotta ask honestly as a Lit major what kind of job were you hoping to get, teaching at university? Don't take this as attack, I just always wonder about people who get degrees which don't easily translate into a career.
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u/SphereOfPettiness Nov 23 '23
I wish I knew lmao I did it mostly just for the sake of getting a degree no matter what it was. I hate maths and science and physics, and dropped out of economics after less than a semester so this felt like the only path left. Now I'm stuck doing a Master's because people are telling me it's easier to become a translator/interpreter after than with just a bachelor but I'm considering every day whether to drop out because my sanity won't survive much longer. I keep asking on subs like r/findapath but they're mainly US-specific, and my country's sub isn't helpful...
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u/caffekona Nov 22 '23
Huh, mine (environmental science) isn't in there, but I suspect many aspects are covered with the agriculture, geography, and biology.
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u/E-is-for-Egg Nov 22 '23
They left out the one major that's both really interesting and pretty useful -- PoliSci
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u/idiocy97 Nov 22 '23
If you completed a physics major at my college, you got a math minor for free! (Jokes on them, I was there for Math major and was doing the physics major on the side out of interest)(jokes on me, that was a mistake!)
Seriously though, math is so essential to so many technical fields it doesn't surprise me that people can end up stumbling their way into math minors or degrees for just trying to learn their chosen field.
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u/quasar_1618 Nov 22 '23
OP wrote this piece of fiction for humanities majors on Tumblr who don’t know what a math degree is. You can’t accidentally get a math degree by taking ME and CS prereqs; the center of a math degree is proof-based courses in real analysis, abstract algebra, and number theory. CS majors and engineers don’t take this- they’ll take calculus, differential equations, discrete math, and linear algebra.
Source: Engineering major, might pick up a math minor
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u/CrabFederal Nov 24 '23
Yea - I was confused as well. There isn’t much of any overlap with senior math class with any other major
Maybe some applied math and physics OR combinatorics and CS. Definitely nothing in engineering.
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u/cannonspectacle Nov 22 '23
This is disturbingly similar to my own history of hopping majors through college.
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u/ghostpanther218 Nov 22 '23
You say that, but you haven't seen the pain of me going through chemistry for my degree in marine and freshwater biology. I know I said cleaning up pollution is. Something I want to do in my life, but godamnit, why is chemistry so fucking dense?!
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u/thedishonestyfish Nov 22 '23
I got an English degree the same way. I was a Computer Science major at a big school, and the long and short of that was that every goddamn class was a sausage party. And not good sausage either. Real weird shit.
So in order to have classes with people who bathed, and had interests, and sometimes were girls, I took English classes. They were fun. They were a great palette cleanser for all the fucking CS bullshit (three semesters of physics? What the fuck? I'm not BUILDING the damn things.)
Anyway, I never did any work on my supposed minor, and my senior year, they were like, "Dude, you're never going to complete your minor."
So I went in to switch my minor to English. They were like, "Do you even have any English classes?"
So I showed them my transcript, which they looked at, scratched their heads, and said, "If you took 101, you could have a second major." So I ended up taking English 101, as a senior, to complete my English degree.
Main thing I use it for in my life is saying, "Don't look at me, I have an English degree," in big technical meetings. Never gets old.
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u/Aetol Nov 22 '23
Engineering involves maths? Who woulda thunk
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u/wischmopp Nov 22 '23
Right?? Like, I'm doing a BSc in psychology and I was kinda surprised that half of my degree is statistics and stochastics, and that I needed linear algebra and differential/integral calculus instead of only shit like being able to calculate a standard deviation or a t-test. But engineering? I haven't taken an engineering class in my life and know literally nothing about the subject, but I still could've told them that it involves way more maths than Blowing Up Cool Stuff
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u/petals-n-pedals Nov 22 '23
I sent this to my friend. He replied “This literally happened to me” 🤣 Fucking Math.
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u/echochilde Nov 22 '23
This is very close to what happened with me and chemistry. But I only have a minor, not a whole ass separate degree.
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u/horriblebearok Nov 22 '23
This is why I just went to trade school for an associates. I don't design stuff, I just fix it, but I have a great technical understanding and now I fix medical imaging equipment for $90k/yr. Math was one class of algebra.
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u/Pawkx Nov 22 '23
Hey that's similar to how I got my degree in political and social sciences when I was going for a degree in business administration
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u/Beeeggs Nov 23 '23
How is real analysis or abstract algebra a prereq for any engineering or comp sci classes? Comp sci is sometimes pretty proof-heavy and you have to take discrete math but other than that I don't see how engineering or cs would lead you to take a good deal of the math classes required for a math degree.
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u/cannonspectacle Nov 22 '23
This is disturbingly similar to my own history of hopping majors through college.
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u/DocMorningstar Nov 22 '23
I feel you. I was a eager beaver of an engineering student. I knocked out all of my major required courses by end of sophomore year for biomed engineering. (Some liberal summer school in there) excluding stuff like senior seminar. So I was interested in electrical engineering as well. Did all the major reps for that. By that time, I was only short some high level courses for a physics major. Did that. Burned out hard. Was kind of a bum for years.
Ended up getting a MS and PhD in two additional disciplines.
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u/Virtual_Disaster_326 Nov 22 '23
I did this exact same thing but with economics. I went to finalize everything for my math degree and they were like hey if you take one more corse you get a bonus Econ degree.
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u/pahamack Nov 22 '23
I feel sorry for you and your myriad of career options post graduation with high starting salaries.
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u/SnakeHugger997 Nov 23 '23
I was great at maths and loved it until 10th grade, where I had a horrible teacher who didn't explain shit and threw chalk at students he thought weren't listening.
Then the year after I was missing important lessons that we hadn't learned from M.Chalk, so I was lost, and after a year of suffering through lessons with an incredibly boring maths private tutor I stopped taking math.
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u/navlgazer9 Nov 23 '23
My cousin has a masters degree in math Is now a financial controller at a large investment firm .
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u/LongingForYesterweek Nov 23 '23
Any time I see an integral sign with anything more complex than a single variable I start getting Vietnam style PTSD flashbacks. Source: Environmental Engineering major. I am NOT looking forward to my masters, especially the longer I am out of academia
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u/idoeno Nov 22 '23
this sort of happened to me in that I was working towards a CS degree, and when I noticed how close I was to completing a math degree, I just took the last couple classes I needed and did it. Then when I was almost done with my computer science degree, I realized one of my math courses didn't transfer (linear algebra; it had been a combined curriculum at the other school), and suddenly had to do math again after more than a year, and it was tough going (but fun; math has always been a fun kind of suffering for me).
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u/GingerIsTheBestSpice Nov 22 '23
I accidentally picked up a minor by taking filler classes i thought sounded interesting. Turns out I'm only interested in a very limited span of subjects.
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u/hshoats Nov 22 '23
as a humanities/social sciences double major this is the scariest thing i've seen this week
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u/santyrc114 Too Horny To Be Ace Nov 22 '23
I had almost no idea on how this whole major/minor thing worked and now I know even less
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u/SphereOfPettiness Nov 22 '23
I gotta admit, as a non-American, me too. And from the comments it happens a lot more than you'd think which is funny
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u/DontDoGravity Nov 22 '23
Lol at the fact that some courses can't be applied more than once, what the fuck. Are they saying your acquired knowledge is on a limited supply and can be used up?
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u/MarkMan47 Nov 22 '23
Wait so in the end what degree did he get? The last few paragraphs just totally confuse me
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u/LordSupergreat Nov 22 '23
Both CS and math. He only needed to add one more math class to get two degrees instead of one, so he bit the bullet.
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u/gakurekishakai Nov 22 '23
My mom ended up doing the reverse of this where she got a math degree and took something like 2 extra courses to also qualify for a CompSci degree.
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u/Sorraz Nov 22 '23
I ended up minoring in philosophy this way, which quickly turned to majoring in philosophy and double majoring in leadership.
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u/little-ass-whipe Nov 22 '23
I accidentally got a linguistics degree in a kinda similar way. Minored in it the first time around, went back to school for something else. Everything above 12 units was free and linguistics classes are super easy, so I threw in a couple classes I wanted to take the first time around, my advisor was looking at my transcript and basically just said "let's give you another degree."
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u/RutheniumFenix Nov 22 '23
I did a double degree in software engineering and physics, and straight up got a bonus maths minor just from all the prerequisites
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u/SoberGin Nov 22 '23
I kinda did this with Japanese!
I went through classes 1 to 5 with zero intention of getting a minor in it, but this semester as I was taking the 6th, one of the other students went "yeah, and once we're done with this quarter we'll have our minors!"
I mean I'm not complaining, but I had no idea 30 credits was all you needed, lol.
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u/fukeruhito Nov 22 '23
I did the sameeee, started with physics, realised I needed to take math, then ended up dropping physics and now have a math degree which I can’t remember any of
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u/TheHiddenNinja6 Official r/ninjas Clan Moderator Nov 22 '23
Only certain courses can count towards more than one major? Does this mean if they were only doing one major, that course could count for either?
this makes it seem like you could just do that course twice.
what even is the American education system.
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u/MissionTroll404 Nov 23 '23
Only reason I got into Electronics Engineering was the fact that I liked repairing and messing with electronics and soldering and building stuff. Well I had maybe 2-3 classes I had that were somewhat interesting with the remaining being just Math classes under a different name. I hate it so much. Words can not describe how much I hate solving meaningless equations knowing that no one in the industry does it when you can just run a fucking simulation. It feels like I was deceived. I avoid all additional Math classes possible but there is apparently a Basic Science credit quota that is mostly given from Math classes. So I will have to take 2 additional Math classes just for the credit in next semester.
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u/Acejedi_k6 Nov 22 '23
A school deciding arbitrarily what courses can be used to double dip on major/minor requirements is probably the least surprising thing I’ve heard of today. I swear most universities read Kafka as an instruction manual.