Two side points –

I’m one of the overpopulation of lawyers and I agree that there are too many of us (I’m surprised and excited when someone isn’t a lawyer;))

There’s a great discussion in Outliers about why Americans lag in math. One of the key reasons was because we let the kids off in the summer. My kids are officially doing math and science camp in the summer – aptitude be damned!

A daughter of a friend of mine got a very good grade on SAT as well. In Cornell she try to take a math course that was taken by math majors (the class was taught by a Russian professor). She just couldn’t do it. She had all the prerequisites, just couldn’t solve the problems they had to do on an exam. BTW — she is a published fiction writer now, her first published short story won O’ Henry award, her first book won a bunch of awards too. So clearly, her talents lie elsewhere.

Incidentally, one thing I noticed when I was a TA is that how many Americans even CS majors haven’t learned the concept of proof at school. When I was TAing a compiler design class, one homework problem was to prove the equivalency of two grammars. Quite a few guys showed how it works in two cases and thought it was a proof. I actually quite enjoyed crossing it out and writing “this is not a proof”. Back in Russia when I went to school, we learned the concept of proof in 6th grade… First thing at our geometry class – this is the definition of a theorem, this is a definition of an axiom ad this is the difference. Some of the geometry problems they had on math competitions – I’d bet the vast majority of people with excellent SAT wouldn’t have been able to do it. Yet, they didn’t require any specific knowledge beyond some basic geometry, only the ability to think in a certain way.

If your main problem is that you are surrounded by business folks, than you should be able to compete with them nicely by having both MBA and technical skills. If, on the other hand, you’d prefer to be surrounded by skilled technical people you could try to get a job with a technology company like Google, or Microsoft or IBM, in R&D. Than your managers could be guys with PhDs not MBAs. At least this is the case where I work. The managers are mostly PhDs up to the director of Research.

I would second Master Po in that not everyone has aptitude for math. In my school, in college, and when I was a TA in grad school, I met quite a few people who just couldn’t get it. I remember sitting down with a friend and trying to explain to her the first chapter of the probability theory text book, and she just couldn’t grasp it (and I am actually not bad at explaining). She then failed mid term. Very hard-working woman too.

A lot depends on a given university and even a given professor. In some places and with some professors it’s easier. E.g. if you get a professor that gives you problems similar to those explained in class, most people can pass. But I’ve had professors who had problems that required actual thinking and creativity. Type of problems where if you blindly followed the same algorithm described in text book, you’d be doing it until the end of exam. But if you just look and think a little, the solution would be very simple. I like Master Po music analogy.

But I agree. A great many people take the easy way out and don’t try.

Michael,
I don’t know if I would rush to get an MBA at your age. From what I have seen, you will likely move into management as your career progresses if you choose to and your employer is fairly large. You might wait till then to get the MBA and focus on something like project management, which is likely what you will be doing. Don’t know if I would give up a paying job right now to go back to school, but If you got canned it would be a good time to think about going back anyway. By the time you finished, the job market will likely be on the way back up. Good luck.

But math is as much an art as a science. Like with art you either have it or you don’t. Sure you can teach someone how to paint, sculpt, play a musical instrument etc but there’s a big difference between that and someone who can truly make great wonders with the medium.

I too am in IT. For me designing a program is easy. I see it in my head and just write the code down. But for others, they see it as nearly magical when I program even the simplest thing.

Each person has certain talents and a pension for math isn’t always it. I agree it is *crucial* be learn as much as you can but not everyone is going to be a walking calculator.

I hope you don’t mind me chiming in here, but let me answer your query with this, go for it. Financial institutions have LARGE IT software teams and an MBA with software development skills would do extremely well. If you pick up your certs in project management as well (good way to learn budget mapping, and improve networking skills – imho)….

One last note, make sure you understand that you will probably need to refresh your skills, and will likely take a pay cut when you come back into the market.

Peace.
Rick Beagle