I genuinely do enjoy talking about math and interacting with people at all levels of mathematics education. I also spend a lot of time stalking the internet. I join forums, discord servers, subreddits concerned with math and related fields. I talk with undergrads, graduate students, mathematicians and hobbyists.
Visitors often wander in to these spaces and ask a variation of one of these questions:
“Am I too old to start a math degree, grad school?”
“Am I good enough to be a math major?”
“Is it possible?”
On the whole, I’m a pretty boring person. But I feel like my personal history might be relevant to these people. If they ever manage to stumble upon this blog, that is.
First, I wasn’t someone who knew they wanted to be a mathematician from the day they were born. I did alright in math in school but was never a prodigy. When I got to college I went through a couple majors, none of them math.
I should say “When I got to college the first time”. College and I didn’t mix well at first. I could write a whole book about that but I’ll spare you. Eventually I dropped out and worked in the bar industry for several years.
I didn’t return to school until I was 27 or 28. And it still wasn’t with any particular field in mind. I was considering Chemistry of all things. But I basically had to start my bachelor’s from square one and had to take some math classes as pre-reqs for whatever degree I wanted.
Math hooked me, etc, etc. This isn’t about how great math is or why I was inspired to do math.
I just wanted to share the timeline. I was taking Calc 2 for the first time at 28. BS in math at 31. And managed to get accepted to a grad program after that. Now I’m 3 years into a PhD and feeling pretty solid about it all. Many of the others in the program are younger, but not by as much I would have thought. And there are people in the program significantly older than me as well.
Age doesn’t seem to be much of a factor, really.
I certainly wasn’t a child genius. I just plugged away at it and have gotten by so far.
I know there are more remarkable tales for inspiration. But if you’re a lost twenty-something wondering if you can hack it in math just follow me! You’ve got the time and you don’t need to be some wunderkind to hack it.
Improbably 