Assessing the Mathematics Major at Saint Peter’s College

Appendix 5

Letter from an alumna in response to the survey

I recently received a survey in the mail from the St. Peter's College math dept.  It seemed very focused on teaching and so although I answered the questions, I really didn't think that they reflected my experience with the math department and how it has benefited me, so I thought that I would send you a quick note in addition to the survey.  I was a double major in Accounting and Math, but I chose to follow the accounting path for my career.  However, when I returned to school for my MBA, my math background was invaluable in understanding a lot of the finance concepts, especially in areas such as options, financial derivatives, and fixed income securities.  Especially helpful were differential calculus and statistics, which are essential to understanding the financial models.  In addition, just having a background in math helps a great deal in my job, where I work in a Strategic group as a financial analyst.  Although computers are used for most of the analysis, having a knowledge of the basic math concepts that are being applied gives me a deeper understanding and makes me a lot more effective in decision making and in explaining the results we get from a PC.

Just wanted to take a chance to let you know how valuable my math degree has been to me, even in a financial/accounting position.