Kelvin Wong
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What he does:
- Kelvin is a graduate student in the Economics PhD program at the University of Minnesota. As a graduate student, he is required to have a strong mathematics background.
Kelvin's background:
- Kelvin received a Bachelor of Science in Economics and a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics, from the University of Washington, August 2009.
- Economics at the graduate level requires knowing how to solve proofs using real analysis and calculus.
- Kelvin came to college knowing he wanted to be an Economics major. He originally was pursuing the Bachelor of Arts, which meant having to take two fewer math classes. At that time, he hated math. But he did well in math all through high school calculus, but he stopped understanding the material at that point. Then he took Math 124 his first quarter at UW and got one of the lowest grades he would earn in four years of college. So he was glad to be done with math forever, or so he thought.
- Sometime during his sophomore year, he thought about becoming a Economics professor. After talking with an advisor in the Economics department, he found out that he would need to take a lot more math. And so he decided to take three math classes the following quarter. He expected to fail, but to his surprise he did well and decided he really did like math afterall. After that, he added math as a second major knowing how well it would prepare him for graduate school in Economics. Now he can't decide which discipline he likes better.
Advice for students:
- Don't give up if you get low grades. He found math to be very fascinating after working hard and immersing himself in the discipline. The more math classes you take, the more you find the ideas and concepts start to connect, which makes the material more exciting and relevant.