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I'm a second year student in mathematics at the University of Ghent, Belgium. The University has a total of 60000 students and only 150 studying maths, looking at these numbers, u instantly notice that it's a very low percentage. I've never really understood why so few people study maths, which is probably the most important science in the world. Does anyone have a proper explanation for this? Plus, when I tell people that I study maths, they always seem to ask me: 'What is the point in doing that, become a teacher when you're older?' although I don't want to become a teacher. How should I try to explain this without going on for 15 minutes?

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    Isn't "I Love Maths" sufficient ? – Qwerty Dec 26 '16 at 09:15
  • (1) Mathematics is hard, (2) Read first reason again and again and again...And you don't need university mathematics to be a teacher: you do mathematics because you love it and, perhaps, also because you may try to do some academic career in it. – DonAntonio Dec 26 '16 at 09:15
  • I've tried doing the "I love Maths" thing, then I get the question "How can you ever love something like Maths?" –  Dec 26 '16 at 09:16
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    One possible way to respond to that last: "I love mathematics because of the same reason, basically, I love my wife and children: because ". Another possible response to that: change friends and/or people who ask you those things. Quick. – DonAntonio Dec 26 '16 at 09:18
  • @DonAntonio The "because" part is actually really good, might try that one in the future. Thanks. –  Dec 26 '16 at 09:18
  • @mathsfreak123: I'd like to humbly offer some collected quotations, perhaps some of them will catch your interest. – Zev Chonoles Dec 26 '16 at 09:23
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    "If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is." - John von Neumann. This one is simply amazing. –  Dec 26 '16 at 09:25
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    Well, how else would you be able to determine that $150$ out of $60000$ is "a very low percentage"? – barak manos Dec 26 '16 at 09:44
  • Here is a platform-dependent (or more precisely, country-dependent) answer: Tell them that if you're good enough, then you'll be making at least the same salary as a SW developer, but without getting your hands dirty with code written over several years by low-paid engineers of an out-sourcing company in India. Thus, by learning Math real hard, you can help yourself and avoid the task of maintaining a piece of code which belongs to the category of "When I wrote this, only God and I understood what I was doing Now, God only knows". – barak manos Dec 26 '16 at 10:28
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    @barakmanos That response is simply awesome. –  Dec 26 '16 at 10:35
  • Which one of them? – barak manos Dec 26 '16 at 10:36
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    "I'll be making at least the same salary as a SW developper.' –  Dec 26 '16 at 10:37
  • Try googling "careers in mathematics". – awkward Dec 26 '16 at 12:55

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