>>11871724It’s like this OP:
You can get a BS, and get a job in industry or teaching that doesn’t involve doing any actual math ever
You can get a MS, and get a job in industry or teaching CC that doesn’t involve doing any actual math ever
You can get a PhD and get a job in industry, spend a few years doing actual math in school and then never do actual math again.
Or, you can get a PhD, get a job in academia and spend your career doing actual math.
It’s true that the majority of math PhDs end up in jobs where they never do actual math again; however, 100% of the people (maybe 99.9% if you count weirdos like Perelman) who actually do math, are math PhDs who work in academia. And as a math major the only way to get to do math in your career is with a PhD.
Also being an actuary is ungodly boring and teaching high school kids math is just lol so unless you want one of those shitty jobs you need grad school.
>>11871796The research assistant part doesn’t apply for math, the “heavy lifting” is done by computers there’s basically no use for lab bitches in math, as a result even most PhDs aren’t involved in any research until their second year of grad school.
The demand for TAs being way higher than professorships is definitely the case, I’d guess it’s even more so in math as there are so many majors that require calc. That said it’s not too hard to land a teaching post at a shitty college with a PhD, you’ll just never do any actual math.
