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“你可以用它做很多事情。 数学学位,” said Kate 霍尔顿 ’14, a project manager and survey analyst for SullivanLuallin Group.

That’s true for at least three 埃尔迈拉大学 Alumni, including 霍尔顿. She and Emily Hardy-Shephard, 15岁 and Michael 麦考密克 ’16 MS ’18 all majored in Mathematics, 然而,他们每个人都走上了截然不同的职业道路. 把他们联系在一起的纽带? Problem-solving skills they learned from studying math at 埃尔迈拉大学.

霍尔顿 took a pretty typical career route for people with 数学学位s. 她成了一名统计学家. She helps healthcare institutions conduct surveys to get insight into patient satisfaction and healthcare worker wellness. 她利用自己的数学技能来分析结果.

“But t在这里’s a ton of problem-solving and troubleshooting skills that I probably use more than the math,”她说。.

霍尔顿解释说,她的客户, 谁是研究人员, 会经常做自己的分析和复查工作吗. When she finds errors she has to do painstaking digging in a trial-and-error fashion to work out w在这里 things went wrong. 这项工作类似于完成同行评议, which 霍尔顿 learned how to do in the 埃尔迈拉大学 Obler 夏天 Research Program.

“我经常使用那段经历,”她说. “Our project wasn’t an official peer review but we spent the whole summer going through research, 试图复制结果, 寻找错误.”

麦考密克 veered a bit from typical Math-degree careers and went into the math-adjacent field of Computer Science. 他是卢尔德大学的首席信息官. 他开玩笑说:“我接受了高等教育,从未离开过.”

麦考密克’s role requires plenty of algebra and applied mathematics skills to be successful. 例如, he uses differential equations to determine the best return on investment when purchasing computer equipment for the campus. And he relies on metrics and data analysis to create reports for his key stakeholders. But 麦考密克 said the true value of his 数学学位 was that it “taught me how to think.”

“与数学, we learn that t在这里’s an infinite number of problems but a finite way to solve them,他说. “我们学会了如何以一种有条不紊、统一的方式处理问题.”

哈代-谢泼德经常附和这种观点. “My 数学学位 taught me about problem-solving and using an analytical approach to things,”她说。.

Hardy-Shephard is a Marketing Communications Supervisor with the Science and Technology division of Corning Incorporated. Her career is a less obvious fit for a Math major and is more typically associated with Communications, 英语, 和社会学学位.

“Having a more linear mindset helps with creating timelines and meeting deadlines, 哪些对沟通角色至关重要,”她说。.

她的数学背景在其他方面也派上了用场. Hardy-Shephard has tracked the Communication department’s metrics and helped to convey financial information to investors, 谁想用非常简单的术语来包装信息. Conveying such complex information in simple ways is never easy and requires a deep understanding of the information. Here again, she credits her 数学学位 with giving her the needed skills.

“在课堂上,我们被要求质疑2+3 = 5,”她说. “We were taught to understand why something works, not just that it works.”

霍尔顿, 麦考密克, and Hardy-Shephard all hope future students with an interest in mathematics will dive boldly into a 数学学位.

“Even if you love math but don’t know if you want to go into a math-heavy job, your ability to learn really difficult things is attractive to employers,霍尔顿说。.

“Math is foundational, so you can pivot to go nearly anyw在这里,” said Hardy-Shephard.

“机会是当你毕业的时候, your entry-level job will not be the same job as the one you will have when you retire, and the job you have when you retire probably doesn’t even exist today,麦考密克说. “这就是为什么做一个全面发展的人很重要.”

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