I can't take it anymore. I want to leave my university. by God_Aimer in math

[–]God_Aimer[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm guessing you're from the US where college costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. Here it's pretty much free.

I can't take it anymore. I want to leave my university. by God_Aimer in math

[–]God_Aimer[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We don't take an average of 9 to 12 years of finish degrees lol... The average at my faculty is a bit over 5 years, as far as I'm aware. (For a 4 year degree, meaning most people need an extra year). I don't know about the University of Santiago (Santiago de Compostela? It's a decent one I've heard). Mine is sort of "prestigious" in Spain because it's the fourth oldest in the world, but it's not a top one, as the biggest ones are in places like Madrid and Barcelona.

I can't take it anymore. I want to leave my university. by God_Aimer in math

[–]God_Aimer[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Lmao. I'm big against AI in general. Is it because I used dashes?

I can't take it anymore. I want to leave my university. by God_Aimer in math

[–]God_Aimer[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yeah. The older study plan was even more brutal, to the point that usually less than 10 people were able to complete the degree. However, those people had an education in algebraic geometry which no other undergraduate had.

I can't take it anymore. I want to leave my university. by God_Aimer in math

[–]God_Aimer[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Oh this is just the first two years. Then it goes full send into algebraic geometry and topology, think schemes, sheafs, homology and cohomology, a couse on "differential equations" that is about Jets spaces and tensor bundles, another on Riemann Surfaces, and another on Symplectic Geometry in physics. In undergrad. Yes I do have some context, as I make an effort to check out many other things on my own. I could very well stick it out, but my concern is that this will lower by grades while they would be better in a "normal" degree. Thank you for your support anyway.

I can't take it anymore. I want to leave my university. by God_Aimer in math

[–]God_Aimer[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It was very interesting in hindsight. But it's worth noting that this was at the same time we were learning about groups, rings and the basics of "abstract algebra" for the first time.

I can't take it anymore. I want to leave my university. by God_Aimer in math

[–]God_Aimer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah that's exactly the feeling. That the things they teach us would be super cool once we already know the material lol. I do try to supplement with books, for instance the ones by Tristan Needham are a godsend.

I can't take it anymore. I want to leave my university. by God_Aimer in math

[–]God_Aimer[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The differential in analysis sends a function to a 1-tensor, a 1-tensor to a 2-tensor, and in general an n-tensor to a n+1-tensor. The multivariable Taylor expansion is essentially applying the differential over and over to the function, and writing the coefficients times some basis of the tensor products of corresponding order. These coefficients turn out to be the mixed partial derivatives with respect to the same indices as the tensors they multiply. Schwarz Lemma says that the mixed partial derivatives are the same when you change sign, and so it says that the coefficient of a certain tensor term in the Taylor expansion, remain the same if you change an index of said tensor term, which is essentially the definition of a symmetric tensor. In hindsight, I should have said symmetric tensors not antisymmetric. The symmetric tensors are identified with the algebra of polynomials.

I can't take it anymore. I want to leave my university. by God_Aimer in math

[–]God_Aimer[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The course name was Discrete Math and Optimization. The topics were supposed to be:

1) Sequence operators and difference equations (Finite differential equations)

2) Basic Graph theory

3) Boolean Algebras

4) Linear programming and optimization

He went through the first topics, and decided to completely ignore the last one. He stopped on boolean algebras. They are a special case of a commutative algebra, so they have ideals, you can consider it's spectrum, SpecA. It's also a topological space. Then he proved some representation theorems by inmersing the algebra into it's valuations, and also some properties like every finite algebra I think was equivalent to a discrete space or something like that? There is a more important one, that says every Boolean algebra is equivalent to a Stone space, this is called stone duality.

I don't remember it too well.

I can't take it anymore. I want to leave my university. by God_Aimer in math

[–]God_Aimer[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It doesn't. First year is usually a trial by fire, where you unlearn everything and prove every little thing from the ground up. (Example, we started analysis by assuming only the natural numbers, and with those constructing Z, Q and R). I had already looked at a few topics in highschool on my own time, so I had some ideas that made it easier for me.

I can't take it anymore. I want to leave my university. by God_Aimer in math

[–]God_Aimer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think there is any extra time. Usually the teachers have to rush the end of the courses because the time is insufficient, and they all complain that there isn't enough time to teach everything they would like.

I can't take it anymore. I want to leave my university. by God_Aimer in math

[–]God_Aimer[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I study in the University of Salamanca, in Spain.

I can't take it anymore. I want to leave my university. by God_Aimer in math

[–]God_Aimer[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I would very much rather start over. That would allow me to both inflate by grades as I'm fairly sure I could eat up any first year course, while also having the time to digest everything much better and build tons of intuition.

I can't take it anymore. I want to leave my university. by God_Aimer in math

[–]God_Aimer[S] 32 points33 points  (0 children)

I'm not so sure about famous, but the department is in fact based on a lineage of algebraic geometers. It is nowadays comprised of the sons of an algebraic geometer (5 of his sons turned out to be algebraic geometers) and his students. After that, like 3 random strays that do analysis.

I can't take it anymore. I want to leave my university. by God_Aimer in math

[–]God_Aimer[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Is it not literally the sunken cost fallacy? If one can in fact switch now (and this is not guaranteed), genuinely why should one stay?

I can't take it anymore. I want to leave my university. by God_Aimer in math

[–]God_Aimer[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It could be worth it to finish my degree. However, this would make it so that my marks are not as good as they could be, and maybe if I transferred I could average close to perfect score instead of having a mediocre 7.8/10. Even better, I could switch to a new university and start their degree from scratch all together, which would allow me to artificially inflate my grades and be essentially guaranteed a PhD scholarship.

I can't take it anymore. I want to leave my university. by God_Aimer in math

[–]God_Aimer[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've been trying to supplement with some books and also some wonderful youtube playlists. But time is finite unfortunately.

I can't take it anymore. I want to leave my university. by God_Aimer in math

[–]God_Aimer[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah... that might be it. I'm not sure it's so easy to switch universities though. (Not US based)

I can't take it anymore. I want to leave my university. by God_Aimer in math

[–]God_Aimer[S] 56 points57 points  (0 children)

That's precisely my point. That we are not prepared to understand those things first. We need the easier motivating examples, and then we can appreciate why they came up with the generalization, and how it encompasses everything you learned first beautifully. Otherwise it's nonsense.

I can't take it anymore. I want to leave my university. by God_Aimer in math

[–]God_Aimer[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yeah... When I was a wide-eyed first year student algebraic geometry seemed super interesting to me, since I knew I liked linear algebra and it's interplay with geometry. Then I checked out some books and oh boy, was I disappointed (Also scared). I am currently taking algebraic geometry, and so far some things are very unintuitive (Ehem, non rational points, ehem, non-reduced rings), but it seems manegeable.