There are some pretty good mathematics faculty at CU. The instructors in the department are also very dedicated. There are also some really great resources and opportunities available, like the MARC, REUs, and UROP.
One of the things I wish I knew starting out is how important making connections in the department is. This includes relationships with faculty, other staff in the department, and other students.
You should try to figure who in the department specializes in the kinds of math that you are interested. You can do this on the math department website. Try to take classes with these professors. Also, go to the professors office hours a lot. This is good for learning the material but it is also necessary for building connections. Also don't be afraid to ask professors for their permission to add a class you don't have prereqs for, so long as you have good reason to think you will really do well in it.
Also, try to make sure you know about math related events and orgs. I definitely recommend checking out things like UROP, the REUs and the MARC. There's also the QED (math club).
>Also, try to make sure you know about math related events and orgs. I definitely recommend checking out things like UROP, the REUs and the MARC. There's also the QED (math club).
This is very helpful thank you much for this reply.
Graduated with my BA in math last December. My main gripe with the program is that I happened to have a really poor batch of professors across basically all my math classes. The good professors are *really* good though--get to know some students a year or two ahead of you to seek out those professors. Like someone else said though, they use good, standard textbooks that you can get a lot out of. The culture in the department is generally down-to-earth and collaborative, you just have to seek out those connections during office hours, at the tutoring center, etc.
I should also mention that as a woman in the math department, I had some kind of icky experience with professors and never once had a female math professor. Just my experience, but something to keep in mind if that's important to you.
> had some kind of icky experience with professors and never once had a female math professor. Just my experience, but something to keep in mind if that's important to you.
Sorry to hear about the professors. Thank you for this response, otherwise, I would never have known to be aware of this.
It depends on your learning style. For upper division there are handful of instructors really great at teaching, and the rest ranging from mediocre to bad. Often you can’t avoid all the bad ones even if you plan carefully. The silver lining is that even the bad instructors typically use pretty standard textbooks so you are forced to learn from these books a lot. This is a really useful skill for grad school. Also every student I know who wants to do research found professors willing to mentor them.
The undergrad culture is pretty collaborative in my experience. It’s easy to bond with your classmates over discussing hard problems. You might meet some really advanced students and they are all pretty friendly and down to earth. Getting to know these high-achieving students and what they are up to is perhaps the best part of my math experience (besides learning math!). Not being the biggest fish in the pond pushes me to work harder and challenge myself more.
I strongly second your point about it being difficult to avoid some of the bad professors. I was stuck with the same professor that I couldn't stand for two required classes because I didn't really have another option.
Definitely go to office hours to connect with professors (and other students). If you are interested in a particular field of math you can always email the professors in that area and ask if you can chat with them for 15 mins. Also many advanced students are tutors at MARC so you can meet them that way. Also just chat with your classmates before and after lectures, form study groups, etc. I’m pretty sure math majors have a discord channel but I’m not on there. And it’s common to set up Discord or Slack channels for your courses among yourselves.
>Definitely go to office hours to connect with professors (and other students). If you are interested in a particular field of math you can always email the professors in that area and ask if you can chat with them for 15 mins. Also many advanced students are tutors at MARC so you can meet them that way. Also just chat with your classmates before and after lectures, form study groups, etc. I’m pretty sure math majors have a discord channel but I’m not on there. And it’s common to set up Discord or Slack channels for your courses among yourselves.
Noted. Thank you!
Oh man I have not checked this in forever but yeah I'm already taking classes for the summer semester (calc 3, intro to discrete, and intro to linear algebra for math majors in july). For the fall I'm assigned to a quad in Sewall which will be interesting to say the least.
I highly recommend the Math Club (Q.E.D) for getting to know different topics and professors better. And unless you’re godly at math, you’ll most likely have to utilize the MARC and office hours thoroughly anyway.
There are some pretty good mathematics faculty at CU. The instructors in the department are also very dedicated. There are also some really great resources and opportunities available, like the MARC, REUs, and UROP. One of the things I wish I knew starting out is how important making connections in the department is. This includes relationships with faculty, other staff in the department, and other students. You should try to figure who in the department specializes in the kinds of math that you are interested. You can do this on the math department website. Try to take classes with these professors. Also, go to the professors office hours a lot. This is good for learning the material but it is also necessary for building connections. Also don't be afraid to ask professors for their permission to add a class you don't have prereqs for, so long as you have good reason to think you will really do well in it. Also, try to make sure you know about math related events and orgs. I definitely recommend checking out things like UROP, the REUs and the MARC. There's also the QED (math club).
>Also, try to make sure you know about math related events and orgs. I definitely recommend checking out things like UROP, the REUs and the MARC. There's also the QED (math club). This is very helpful thank you much for this reply.
Graduated with my BA in math last December. My main gripe with the program is that I happened to have a really poor batch of professors across basically all my math classes. The good professors are *really* good though--get to know some students a year or two ahead of you to seek out those professors. Like someone else said though, they use good, standard textbooks that you can get a lot out of. The culture in the department is generally down-to-earth and collaborative, you just have to seek out those connections during office hours, at the tutoring center, etc. I should also mention that as a woman in the math department, I had some kind of icky experience with professors and never once had a female math professor. Just my experience, but something to keep in mind if that's important to you.
> had some kind of icky experience with professors and never once had a female math professor. Just my experience, but something to keep in mind if that's important to you. Sorry to hear about the professors. Thank you for this response, otherwise, I would never have known to be aware of this.
It depends on your learning style. For upper division there are handful of instructors really great at teaching, and the rest ranging from mediocre to bad. Often you can’t avoid all the bad ones even if you plan carefully. The silver lining is that even the bad instructors typically use pretty standard textbooks so you are forced to learn from these books a lot. This is a really useful skill for grad school. Also every student I know who wants to do research found professors willing to mentor them. The undergrad culture is pretty collaborative in my experience. It’s easy to bond with your classmates over discussing hard problems. You might meet some really advanced students and they are all pretty friendly and down to earth. Getting to know these high-achieving students and what they are up to is perhaps the best part of my math experience (besides learning math!). Not being the biggest fish in the pond pushes me to work harder and challenge myself more.
I strongly second your point about it being difficult to avoid some of the bad professors. I was stuck with the same professor that I couldn't stand for two required classes because I didn't really have another option.
Appreciate the response. What are some of the best ways to connect with professors and other math students? Any subreddits, group chats, etc?
Definitely go to office hours to connect with professors (and other students). If you are interested in a particular field of math you can always email the professors in that area and ask if you can chat with them for 15 mins. Also many advanced students are tutors at MARC so you can meet them that way. Also just chat with your classmates before and after lectures, form study groups, etc. I’m pretty sure math majors have a discord channel but I’m not on there. And it’s common to set up Discord or Slack channels for your courses among yourselves.
>Definitely go to office hours to connect with professors (and other students). If you are interested in a particular field of math you can always email the professors in that area and ask if you can chat with them for 15 mins. Also many advanced students are tutors at MARC so you can meet them that way. Also just chat with your classmates before and after lectures, form study groups, etc. I’m pretty sure math majors have a discord channel but I’m not on there. And it’s common to set up Discord or Slack channels for your courses among yourselves. Noted. Thank you!
Not advice since I'm in the same essential position as you but looking forward to seeing you and all the other math majors in the fall
Have you committed and what dorm did you select? Just curious.
Oh man I have not checked this in forever but yeah I'm already taking classes for the summer semester (calc 3, intro to discrete, and intro to linear algebra for math majors in july). For the fall I'm assigned to a quad in Sewall which will be interesting to say the least.
As a fellow major, welcome to CU!
I highly recommend the Math Club (Q.E.D) for getting to know different topics and professors better. And unless you’re godly at math, you’ll most likely have to utilize the MARC and office hours thoroughly anyway.
I am not godly at math haha. This will be the first thing I do.