6 ms·

I'm still amused/saddened by how little theoretical work you need to do at Stanford to get a statistics BS (they call it Mathematical & Computational Science).

by ktamura 10y ago

I'm still amused/saddened by how little theoretical work you need to do at Stanford to get a statistics BS (they call it Mathematical & Computational Science). I get it: you don't need a rigorous foundation of math to be useful as a workaday "data scientist". That said, university is probably the last time you get to indulge/immerse yourself in deep, rigorous, mathematical thinking. Not requiring students to take theoretical courses is such a pity. In hindsight, I am glad that I studied math at Stanford (also I ended up doing something completely different: marketing). It pushed me to think deeply and patiently about a problem at length and taught me how to mix intuition with analytic rigor. I believe it was Paul Graham who said that math was one of the better subjects to pursue in school because it's one of the most difficult. I kind of agree with pg on this one: I was nowhere near the top of my math classes, but whenever I took theoretical CS or stats classes, I found them shockingly easy and did well with much less effort.

HiroshiSan 10y ago
I'm currently doing my undergrad in math at a Canadian University, I'm interested in pursuing graduate school at Stanford in the future and would love to talk to you more about your experience and what they would expect, let me know if there's anyway I could contact you.
- imakecomments 10y ago
  Not him but in general you need tier 1 publications, recommendation letters, a strong statement of purpose (very clear idea of what you want to do research in) and faculty fit. GRE scores are generally used as a filter. They won't get you in, but they will keep you out.
  - cheetos 10y ago
    Forgive my ignorance, but how many undergrads have actually published a paper? I'm not saying it's impossible, but I was under the impression that this is something that happens once you get in to grad school, not before.
    - hkmurakami 10y ago
      I'd say a more pertinent stat would be "how many undergrads who want to pursue a PhD have published a paper". At least at my alma mater, there were many opportunities to partake in independent research during our Junior and Senior years working closely with a professor to work on an eventual paper.
    - metaphor 10y ago
      More than you might think, especially at tier 1 universities with funded undergraduate research opportunities[1]. You don't have to be first author to be published. [1] https://members.cur.org/members_online/members/directory_list.asp https://members.cur.org/members_online/members/directory_lis...
      - akhilcacharya 10y ago
        How helpful is just being named on the paper? I've been working on a project for a year that just had its submission, not sure if I should try for good grad schools though or just target industry (Big4+Unicorn) instead.
        metaphor 10y ago
        In the asymptotic words of someone else[1]: I don't see why you think it's such a great accomplishment -- all my friends have a Ph.D! A very relevant read FWIW. [1] https://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/dec/essay.phd.html https://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/dec/essay.phd.html
        akhilcacharya 10y ago
        Eh, I'm personally more interested in an MS first, then see if I'm better suited for industry or full time research.
        tehlike 10y ago
        Grad school, if your ultimate goal is not academia, will most likely be an irresponsible use of your time.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- jknz 10y ago
  From my experience most PhD students haven't published anything before grad school. To check whether this the case for your situation, you can browse websites of current Stanford students if your target discipline and check whether they published anything before their first year of graduate school.
- sjg007 10y ago
  Study something you love. Work hard. Get top grades.
utopcell 10y ago
As a Stanford EE PhD grad, I always found the ordering between Stanford Math PhDs and the rest of us to be total, with the possible exception of some CS theorists. I did find theory CS courses 'easy' as well, but I'm sure you'd consider straightforward some courses such as MATH230X that would be challenging for non-math majors.
radicality 10y ago
I'm curious, what led you to marketing (as opposed to some kind of engineering) after studying maths?
- ktamura 10y ago
  Once I realized that I was not going to be that good at math (I bailed on a Ph.D program a few months before I was supposed to start), I went into quant finance to make money. I was okay at it, but not great. From there, I somehow ended up in the software world (mostly, I'd say, because I learned to program as a quant trader, certainly not through my coursework). I ended up in marketing by chance: I am the 1st employee at the current startup and naturally evolved into that role because I am technical but not an engineer and like to write/say stuff. Marketing, especially product marketing, is one of the most under-rated and under-recognized role in the startup world, but in many B2B businesses, it's just as important (or so I'd like to believe) as engineering and sales.
coygui 10y ago
Have you tried/studied Graph Theory? That's one of the most difficult math classes in my life. I even wonder if it belongs to math...
- joatmon-snoo 10y ago
  It does (: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/GraphTheory.html http://mathworld.wolfram.com/GraphTheory.html
- acchow 10y ago
  Curious what you would consider as Math instead.
- ktamura 10y ago
  I did. As a matter of fact, I was this close to going to Rutgers to study combinatorics and graph theory for a Ph.D.

by ktamura 10y ago

HiroshiSan 10y ago

I'm currently doing my undergrad in math at a Canadian University, I'm interested in pursuing graduate school at Stanford in the future and would love to talk to you more about your experience and what they would expect, let me know if there's anyway I could contact you.

imakecomments 10y ago
Not him but in general you need tier 1 publications, recommendation letters, a strong statement of purpose (very clear idea of what you want to do research in) and faculty fit. GRE scores are generally used as a filter. They won't get you in, but they will keep you out.
- cheetos 10y ago
  Forgive my ignorance, but how many undergrads have actually published a paper? I'm not saying it's impossible, but I was under the impression that this is something that happens once you get in to grad school, not before.
  - hkmurakami 10y ago
    I'd say a more pertinent stat would be "how many undergrads who want to pursue a PhD have published a paper". At least at my alma mater, there were many opportunities to partake in independent research during our Junior and Senior years working closely with a professor to work on an eventual paper.
  - metaphor 10y ago
    More than you might think, especially at tier 1 universities with funded undergraduate research opportunities[1]. You don't have to be first author to be published. [1] https://members.cur.org/members_online/members/directory_list.asp https://members.cur.org/members_online/members/directory_lis...
    - akhilcacharya 10y ago
      How helpful is just being named on the paper? I've been working on a project for a year that just had its submission, not sure if I should try for good grad schools though or just target industry (Big4+Unicorn) instead.
      - metaphor 10y ago
        In the asymptotic words of someone else[1]: I don't see why you think it's such a great accomplishment -- all my friends have a Ph.D! A very relevant read FWIW. [1] https://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/dec/essay.phd.html https://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/dec/essay.phd.html
        akhilcacharya 10y ago
        Eh, I'm personally more interested in an MS first, then see if I'm better suited for industry or full time research.
      - tehlike 10y ago
        Grad school, if your ultimate goal is not academia, will most likely be an irresponsible use of your time.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
jknz 10y ago
From my experience most PhD students haven't published anything before grad school. To check whether this the case for your situation, you can browse websites of current Stanford students if your target discipline and check whether they published anything before their first year of graduate school.
sjg007 10y ago
Study something you love. Work hard. Get top grades.

utopcell 10y ago

As a Stanford EE PhD grad, I always found the ordering between Stanford Math PhDs and the rest of us to be total, with the possible exception of some CS theorists. I did find theory CS courses 'easy' as well, but I'm sure you'd consider straightforward some courses such as MATH230X that would be challenging for non-math majors.

radicality 10y ago

I'm curious, what led you to marketing (as opposed to some kind of engineering) after studying maths?

ktamura 10y ago
Once I realized that I was not going to be that good at math (I bailed on a Ph.D program a few months before I was supposed to start), I went into quant finance to make money. I was okay at it, but not great. From there, I somehow ended up in the software world (mostly, I'd say, because I learned to program as a quant trader, certainly not through my coursework). I ended up in marketing by chance: I am the 1st employee at the current startup and naturally evolved into that role because I am technical but not an engineer and like to write/say stuff. Marketing, especially product marketing, is one of the most under-rated and under-recognized role in the startup world, but in many B2B businesses, it's just as important (or so I'd like to believe) as engineering and sales.

coygui 10y ago

Have you tried/studied Graph Theory? That's one of the most difficult math classes in my life. I even wonder if it belongs to math...

joatmon-snoo 10y ago
It does (: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/GraphTheory.html http://mathworld.wolfram.com/GraphTheory.html
acchow 10y ago
Curious what you would consider as Math instead.
ktamura 10y ago
I did. As a matter of fact, I was this close to going to Rutgers to study combinatorics and graph theory for a Ph.D.