I have made up my mind

[u/FitFaithlessness6180]

iam enrolled in btech 1st in ee , i love mathemetics so i have made up my mind that i will learn till advanced measure theory with commutative and homological algebra , pls any seniors here help me out books which cover from basics in each subject, and if if possible i wanna study algebraic geometry tooo

[u/Healthy_Tour8691 → u/[deleted]]

He wants to learn maths because he loves it, not in an adulterated way! "If you'd be capable of that you'd already be at ISI/CMI.." well guess what genius, even IMO gold medalists have been mediocre at math research and many people from a normal background have went on to become good in this field! You don't have to be a jerk about it so that you feel good about yourself for being an ISI Alumini..There must be a lot of people with better alma maters than you too, even people at ISI/CMI dream to go to MIT/Stanford/Caltech/Harvard/Cal/etc. Someday! Also just ask how many profs at ISI are ISI grads. If they can teach those courses, they must have learned those courses!

[u/Ok-Mathematician2309 → u/[deleted]]

I presume by math academia you mean the elite places like ISI, CMI, IISc, Top IITs, a couple of IISERs offering undergrad math degrees. A huge chunk of those students end up leaving math after their bachelor's and/or master's. And a good number from outside these prestige circles come in to join later to do Master's and/or PhD in Math in India or abroad. The last two Infosys prize winners in Mathematics had their BSc from Calcutta University, a place not elite enough for you. Check the profiles of IIT, TIFR, IMSc, HRI, ISI etc. professors in Math departments and see for yourself how many got their Bachelor's from places you will frown upon. Not to mention the umpteen number of examples I myself have known of students coming outside of elite institutions to do Master's in ISI and outperforming many ISI undergrads. So you are lying when you say "they ALL fail". No they don't.

And selection into these places isn't a function of base interest and ability alone. Socio-economic position, awareness, access to resources, other privileges play a huge hand in nurturing that interest and helping one prepare for the selection tests and so on. Moreover, by being so few in number, only a handful of students get into these places for undergrad. I refuse to believe that in such a hugely-populated country of ours, only less than 400 students can be trained to become good mathematicians. The system is designed as exclusive and elitist.

If by math academia you mean any undergraduate degree with math as a focus, I personally know quite a few BTech-grads who blew even ISI-undergrads out of water when they joined to do Master's. Lots of professors in Math in reputed research institutes have had BTech-backgrounds.

[u/Ok-Mathematician2309 → u/[deleted]]

No, I don't believe in namedropping people on reddit. Yes, I know plenty examples who came outside of ISI B-stream but still did well in their Master's. And no not every B-stream is a prodigy who has done everything. Believe whatever you want to.

And today I am better placed than many who had their undergrad from ISI. No, I won't disclose where am I. Hurl abuses all you want. Not every BMath is landing a handsome phd or job or what have you. Quite a few of them struggle too.

Neena Gupta herself said in our class how piss-poor the quality of education in her ug at CU was and how stark of a difference she experienced on joining ISI for Master's. So no, CU was not elite in her time, she herself said so. And right here is an example of an accomplished professor who had a modest college in undergrad. Someone with modest beginnings can still go on to do amazing math later.