Georgetown as a Math Major

So I'm going to write 4 posts about my experience at Georgetown, through my eyes as a Math Major, Catholic, Ultimate player and human being. The last one will be difficult because I've actually been an alien masquerading as a human to see what this whole college deal is about, but I have confidence I can pull it off. So let's talk about math. If you don't want to read numbers or puns, I'd suggest leaving this page immediately.

Studying mathematics at Georgetown required me to solve many, many problems, but perhaps the most difficult problem I faced in my major was in explaining my major. I was asked what my major was over an estimated 250 times during my college career, and each time I truthfully responded. Perhaps 80% of the time I got a response similar to one of the following: "Oh wow that's impressive" or "Ah I hate math" or "I'm so bad at math. You must be so smart." I think that as far as majors go, Mathematics may be one of the more provocative ones. If I had told people I was majoring in Linguistics, people would be like, "oh that's cool" and move on, intent on not letting their ignorance in the subject show. Similarly, many random observers may have no opinions on Anthropology or International Health or African American Studies, and will politely nod and similarly move on. A major like English or History on the other hand, will almost certainly lead to further questioning. "Oh what are some of your favorite authors? What kind of writing do you do?" or "What regions are you studying? What time periods?" Very relatable majors are likewise very conversation friendly.

On the other hand, I strongly feel that math is an extremely conversation unfriendly major. Everybody has an opinion on math and knows what it is, even if they have no concept of higher level of math. However, a typical liberal artsy individual will have not contemplated math in the slightest for several years and will inevitably find it difficult to relate to. Oftentimes they will transfer this incomprehension to their understanding of me, as if my major says everything about me, and treat me as a foreign enigma. These always created very awkward scenarios which over the years I attempted to diffuse by either saying "It's actually really not too bad, there's so little work" or "Nah, it's as easy as pi" or "Math isn't hard. You're just dumb." Just kidding on the last one. Maybe the most offensive comment I ever received was "But Georgetown isn't well known for math!"

Besides the way other people view my major, I also took some classes and hung out with people of the same major. This was a whole new scenario. First though, I should in fact explain how I became a math major, and it has nothing to do with the fact that both Calculus and Calculator start with Cal, although I do love things that start with Cal. I actually gave this a lot of thought freshman year, after coming in tentatively as an econ major and almost immediately hating it. I took a long look at the list of possible majors and was shocked at the paucity of suitable studies. Alphabetically down the list it was like "American Musical Culture: no. American Studies: no. Arabic: no. Art History: no. Biochemistry: no.... English: ehhh maybe...Government: ehh too cliched....Mathematics: maybe...Sociology: no. Theater and Performing Arts: no.

So actually my decision came down to English and Math, which is almost as ridiculous as it looks. Yes from the viewpoint of an alum, I cannot see myself ever majoring in English. English majors simply see the world differently than I do, in an artistic meta-narrative where they search for the deep feelings to express in the most poetic ways imaginable. I just use the same big words they use to try to create a pretense of acute acuity.

But to me as a freshman, I was coming from a high school where there was definitely an emphasis on learning for the sake of learning. Our school didn't try to prepare anyone for a career right after high school - we never could learn anything substantive. I mean, Ancient Greek and Latin were 2 of the 3 languages offered. However, I do deem the knowledge that Roxbury Latin bestowed upon us as somewhat profound. When I went to college, I saw all these departments and classes that seemed to teach a very specific, superficial study. Nowadays, I would very much respect a class on Depictions of the United States within New Zealand Literature, but as a freshman I would have completely scoffed at that course (which is being offered next fall). Why would I want to study a random, specific viewpoint of someone else? A different chain of events would have led to different viewpoints and a different class. Essentially history is the study of what other people have done. Along with the social sciences, these studies are determined by the makeup of human society. On the other hand, math and the hard sciences were pure subjects (but I hate science, little known fact). Even if humanity never came into being, the derivative of e^x would be e^x. I saw math as the type of pure knowledge that one could only learn in college. Where does English fit into this? As a major where most classes involve reading what some other people have written, it really doesn't. But I've always loved writing and have always wanted to improve my writing, and majoring in becoming a better writing seemed quite noble to me.

But I knew I was better in math and that may have been ultimately what drew me into the major. The class had been my strength since I figured out fractions before everyone else in 3rd grade. I felt that in high school I had challenged myself but not playing to my strengths, devoting my efforts to the wrestling team, not the chess team. Now was a time to get a major GPA that'd be higher than my regular GPA.