Student profiles

Degree: Bachelor of Science (Advanced Mathematics)/Commerce

I grew up with mathematics; having a dad as a mathematics professor and a mum as a tutor in the same field meant that the subject was inevitable for me. However, I chose to study mathematics at UNSW not because it runs in the family, but because through pursuing their passion and aspirations, my parents were able to show me how versatile and fascinating maths can be, and how it can be applied around us in subtle ways.

Being a female in STEM ended up being harder than I thought. Having been blissfully ignorant to gender differences in an all girls’ high school, adjusting suddenly to a male-dominated learning environment further fuelled my motivation to empower women in STEM. By undertaking President at UNSW Mathematics Society, I’m hoping I can encourage the females in my degree to fulfil their academic potential and to not be hindered by any societal expectations that may be thrown at them.

With the zealous professors and lecturers at UNSW, my experiences thus far have been both challenging and compelling. The highlights of my studies would definitely be discovering how the mathematics side of my degree merges with the finance aspect; learning how differential equations can be applied to derivative pricing, how the Taylor series plays a part in portfolio management, and how we can use probability to carry out scenario simulations.. there is so much more to learn!

I will soon be interning at Deutsche Bank in the global markets division and I’m hoping to begin my career as a trader upon graduation. The rest of the journey is still unclear but I’m beyond excited to see where the completion of this degree can take me.

Degree: Bachelor of Science (Advanced Mathematics)/Commerce - Honours in Pure Mathematics

I chose to study mathematics at UNSW because it has a wide range of applications and I was keen to learn more at a higher level in university. I also felt that studying mathematics could lead to diverse career paths, from research to the financial industry to climate science.

Studying mathematics at UNSW was a great experience - not only did I gain knowledge on broad areas of mathematics, I met people who share similar interests. Higher level courses were especially interesting, with a wider range of courses available. I was also able to pick and choose courses according to my own interests. Classes were smaller and became more interactive which allows ideas to be bounced around.

I am currently working as an Actuarial Analyst at Suncorp. Mathematical concepts that I learnt at university appear unexpectedly at work, and having a solid understanding of them from my time at UNSW is invaluable. Although not everything you learn in university will come in use directly at work, the ways I learnt to approach issues and how to tackle problems methodically are the most important skills I have gained.

Degree: Bachelor of Science (Advanced Mathematics) - Honours in Pure Mathematics

I never intended to study mathematics at university, but without a doubt, it was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I wanted to be on the frontier making breakthrough discoveries at the very forefront of modern science. I thought I had to be studying nanotechnology, biotechnology or computer science. I never dreamed of the myriad of possibilities that mathematics offers, both academically and in the outside world.

In my first few years of studying mathematics at UNSW the classes were huge. I enjoyed the company of not only potential mathematicians, but also potential physicists, engineers and computer scientists, among others. They all needed mathematics in the beginning. It didn’t take too long for me to realise that I didn’t just need to study mathematics; I wanted to. In later years, the classes shrunk and I developed a strong relationship with a small group of mathematically minded people.

The study of mathematics is so very diverse. A single problem can be challenging, inspiring, humbling, uplifting and fun; all at the same time. I majored in Pure Mathematics, but studied a few applied and statistical subjects as well. On the side, I filled my electives with computing subjects. I loved how interrelated it all was – how my study in one subject enriched my understanding of another.

I had the privilege to represent UNSW in the COMAP Mathematical Modelling Contest - twice. The contest is a four day intensive international competition where you are given a real world problem and work in teams to solve it. At the end of the four days you submit a report. It was a great opportunity to hone my skills not only at mathematical modelling, but also in writing up reports expressing mathematical conclusions. UNSW also offers vacation scholarships that are the perfect preparation for an Honours project.

I now work as an Actuarial Analyst at Taylor Fry Consulting Actuaries in Sydney CBD, and I am an Associate member of the Institute of Actuaries Australia. I’m excited to have found a niche of mathematically minded people in the workforce, as I did at UNSW. Perhaps later I’ll return to more academic pursuits. That’s one of the beauties of mathematics – you can do just about anything with it.

Degree: Bachelor of Science (Advanced Mathematics)/Commerce - Honours in Applied Mathematics

During high school, all of my fellow students knew what they wanted to do at university. I thought this would come naturally, however it got to the end of year 12 and I still had no idea. Math was my favourite subject at school, and had been my entire life, so I decided to study mathematics and combine it in a double degree with commerce. It is by far the best decision I have made to date! 

In the earlier years of my degree, I was exposed to a broad range of mathematical concepts, drawing on things only touched upon in high school. In the upper years, I was then able to choose which part of math really interested me and hone in on my skills by completing focused subjects in the area. The small classes and dedicated time with the academics meant that I was always able to achieve a deeper level of understanding, even with the trickier concepts. 

Completing my Honours in mathematics gave me the opportunity to really delve deep into a topic that I was passionate about. After reaching out to an industry contact, I was able to obtain a data set and choose my own Honours topic, 'Using Random Forests to predict loan default'. Throughout the thesis year, I received amazing support from my supervisor, who always had time to sit with me and nut out any tricky problems along the way. The logic and problem-solving skills I acquired throughout my degree gave me the ability to begin in whatever role I wanted after graduating, and I chose to begin as a Management Consultant at Ernst & Young. 

Degree: Bachelor of Science (Advanced Mathematics) - Honours in Pure Mathematics

My first reason for choosing to study mathematics at UNSW was because of the quality and diversity of the faculty, which is one of the largest and most respected in Australia. This has given me the opportunity to study mathematics at a very high level over a broad range of fields. Secondly, a mathematics degree at UNSW has given me a lot of flexibility with what I have wanted to study. This allowed me to extend myself with higher levels of mathematics, as well as to study courses outside of mathematics which I have found interesting.

The quality and flexibility of the degree has meant that I have had a diverse range of opportunities available to me as I near the completion of my degree. I personally considered options ranging from corporate careers in finance or management consulting to further postgraduate study in mathematics, before choosing a technical role in software engineering at Google.

Degree: Bachelor of Science (Mathematics)

I knew I wanted to study mathematics since I finished high school, as I performed best in mathematics in the HSC. Through studying a Bachelor of Science at UNSW with a mathematics major, I gained an appreciation of how interconnected mathematics was to science and engineering through the variety of electives on offer at UNSW, inside and outside of the School of Mathematics and Statistics.

You don’t fully grasp an understanding of how important mathematics is to the world until you study it at a university level, which gave me an understanding of the large variety of careers that mathematics leads to, including in areas you wouldn’t expect, such as biological research.

So far in my studies I have completed a combination of pure and applied mathematics and statistics subjects, together with electives in physics and computer science.

It was always my first choice to attend UNSW - mainly due to how well the School of Mathematics and Statistics is ranked, due to the quality of its research and teaching - but since I have started my studies I have found UNSW to be a very welcoming environment and this has reaffirmed my decision to study here.

In my experience, I have found the School of Mathematics and Statistics at UNSW to be an inclusive and welcoming environment with a very high quality of teaching, and a large variety of electives on offer that cover most areas of mathematics and statistics.

Degree: Bachelor of Science (Advanced Mathematics)/Computer Science

Ironically, despite maths being my best subject in high school, I initially had the mindset of “I will go do any other science because where would maths get me one day?”. Needless to say, that perspective on mathematics was just silly. One Open Day presentation later, and I kept dreaming about getting to that level where I could finally solve ∫−∞∞e−x2dx∫−∞∞e−x2dx.

And one day I received my offer for Advanced Maths, enrolled like a typical keen first year, and I was set on my way! Initially I did feel more challenged than I expected, probably from shock straight out of high school. And it happened again at the start of second year. But at the end of the day, I just happened to find so much of what I was learning fun!

There were many factors that kept me glued to my degree choice. Firstly, over time I came to appreciate greatly that mathematics is backed by logic. Ultimately, not only would there be correct answers/solutions/proofs, but they’d just make intuitive sense. Secondly, although I find myself currently very satisfied heading down a statistics pathway, I’m thankful about not being locked out of other areas. I was still able to undertake many Pure Mathematics courses that really evoked my interest - special shout-out for MATH5505 even if I don’t remember much!

Finally, the staff are amazing. I dare say UNSW is blessed to have many strong, keen, energetic, supportive and caring lecturers and support staff that do as much as they can for the students. The team genuinely gives their all to provide for a smooth, but extremely enjoyable, learning experience.

Whilst I’m still completely undecided on where I want to head after these years, the journey thus far has been an extremely rewarding one without doubt!

Degree: Bachelor of Science (Advanced Mathematics) - Honours in Pure Mathematics

One of my first memories of studying mathematics at UNSW was of my first year Algebra lecturer raving about the beauty of the formula eπi=-1. That incident was my first time witnessing such passion about a simple formula and I was both amazed and slightly alarmed at it. It soon became apparent that this passion for mathematics was an integral part of life at the School of Mathematics and Statistics at UNSW. In fact, after four years at the School, I see that this enthusiasm for mathematics certainly enriched my experiences as a student, not only because it was contagious, but also because it showed me that mathematics could be both fun and intriguing.

I completed a BSc (Advanced Mathematics) with a major in Pure Mathematics in 2010. One of my original motivations for choosing UNSW was the availability of this program, which allowed students to concentrate on a single major. However, the program was also structured so that students had enough flexibility to study in areas outside their major through elective subjects. During my four years, I took courses in areas as diverse as economics, arts and science. I also had the opportunity to dabble in areas of applied mathematics such as operations research and dynamical systems. These courses broadened my understanding of mathematics and gave a glimpse of how theory could be put into practice.

I enjoyed my four years as a student in the School of Mathematics and Statistics. My lecturers and tutors were always helpful and supportive. The small number of students in pure mathematics produced a tight-knit community to work within. The School also offered opportunities to participate in extra-curricular activities such as vacation research, funded by scholarships from UNSW and the Australian Mathematical Science Institute, inter-university competitions, and even a chance to play a role in encouraging women to pursue mathematics through the ‘Girls do the Math’ program run by the School.

Looking back, I can only conclude that my time as a student at the School of Mathematics and Statistics was both a valuable and memorable experience. 

Degree: Bachelor of Science (Advanced Mathematics) - Honours in Quantitative Risk and PhD 

About a decade ago, right after I completed my HSC in a small town on the mid-north coast of NSW, I chose to study mathematics at UNSW. My long, but interesting, journey at UNSW started from then.

The first stage of this journey was my undergraduate study, more precisely the Advanced Mathematics degree with a Quantitative Risk major. My passion for numbers led me to undertake a maths degree at university, and the reason that I chose UNSW is because of its good reputation in both teaching and research. Especially, this relatively new program, Quantitative Risk, attracted my attention. This program provides a very good path for people who are interested in the theory of risk and its application in quantitative finance and actuarial studies.

After I completed my bachelor's degree, I was on a fork of the road: to continue my study or to work in the industry. Eventually, I decided to undertake a research degree and again I chose UNSW. My journey at UNSW continued to the second stage. There are many reasons why I wanted to stay at UNSW, and perhaps, the most important one is the good teaching quality that I had experienced while I was taking my undergraduate study.

Now, I am at the third stage of my journey, working as a Research Associate in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at UNSW. One day, I may have to leave UNSW, but those learning and working experiences will definitely be a valuable asset for my future career and will also be an unforgettable memory of my life.