Hi everyone, I’m currently a Grade 10 IB student and I’ve been thinking a lot about what I might want to study in college. I’m mainly planning to apply to universities in the US, although I’m also considering universities in Hong Kong. My current grades are around 40/45 in the IB, and my interests are somewhere between mathematics, applied mathematics, computer programming, economics/finance, and the applications of math in business. At first, I was mostly looking at finance-related majors such as computational finance, financial mathematics, and quantitative finance because I may want to work at a large financial firm in the future. However, I’ve recently started to feel that specializing in finance too early might not be the best choice.
Right now, I’m more interested in majors such as Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Computational/Applied Mathematics, Mathematical Sciences, Operations Research, and Statistics. I like the idea of studying a lot of math first and then deciding later whether I want to apply it to finance, computer science, data science, economics, or something else. One concern I have, though, is that while I genuinely enjoy math, I don’t consider myself naturally gifted at it. I’m not the type of student who can immediately see the solution to a difficult competition problem, and sometimes I need quite a long time to fully understand something. Because of that, I’m not sure whether I would still enjoy math once it becomes much more abstract and difficult at the university level. I also currently don’t have any significant math competition achievements.
Instead of focusing entirely on competitions, I’m considering building a longer-term applied math project. I could start by learning probability, statistics, and Python, and then gradually explore things like mathematical modeling, optimization, Monte Carlo simulation, and portfolio risk modeling. I’d like these projects not only to help with college applications, but also to help me figure out whether I actually enjoy applied math enough to major in it.
Another important factor for me is the overall college environment. I want a university with a strong academic culture, but I don’t want to be surrounded by people who are constantly stressed or competing with one another. I’d still like to have time for clubs, sports, friends, and other interests instead of spending almost all of my time studying. The US schools I’m currently looking at include Brown, the University of Michigan, UW–Madison, Carnegie Mellon, UC Berkeley, UChicago, Cornell, and Princeton. In Hong Kong, I’m also considering CUHK, HKU, and HKUST. CMU originally stood out to me because of how strong it is across math, computer science, statistics, and finance, but I’m a little worried about the workload. Brown has also become very appealing to me because of its strong Applied Mathematics program and Open Curriculum. Michigan and UW–Madison interest me as well because they seem to combine strong academics with a more traditional and balanced college experience.
My main questions are:
For someone who likes math but isn’t sure they want to commit to pure or theoretical mathematics, is Applied Mathematics a good undergraduate major?
Would it be better to major more broadly in Math/Applied Math and add CS, Statistics, Economics, or Finance later, rather than choosing something like Financial Mathematics or Quantitative Finance from the beginning?
If someone genuinely enjoys math and is willing to work hard, but isn’t especially strong at competition math, is it still realistic to do well in a rigorous undergraduate math program?
Is IB more competitive than AP?
I’m still pretty early in high school, so I don’t want to lock myself into one career path yet. What I’m really looking for is an undergraduate environment where I can seriously explore mathematics without closing off too many other possibilities too early. I’d really appreciate any advice from current Math/Applied Math students, graduates, or anyone familiar with these universities.
Thank you so much for reading my text, I am really appreciate it!!!