Criminal Minds on Encryption and 'Advanced Harvard Math'

If you've ever taken higher Calculus or Linear Algebra, a NSA drone will be visiting you shortly with your job offer/severance package.

[sophiefrancis]

I was half expecting Reid to say “I was going to take that course but Harvard never appealed to me.”

[justinc]

Hotch being a boss at the end "no i wont hold, tell him he has 20 minutes to meet me" is awesome.

[CarolinaSilva-rdys]

A quick facts section about Math 55. It covers about 3-4 full years of coursework in 1 year between 55a and 55b. The students get an average of 60+ hours of homework per week. They have two midterms and a take-home final for each semester. The class is so hard it usually goes from 70 students to 10 in a few weeks. So no, this isn’t your high school AP Calc class.

[s.nifrum]

I feel like when Reid was in high school he would’ve been that one kid who picked the most advanced stuff he could find because he was looking for a challenge and was then disappointed when nothing changed

[aabbas]

Dude that "No I won't hold!"....
I miss this daddy of the team

[noname-wrri]

Hotch: "No I won't hold, tell him he has 20 minutes to meet me."
The person that took the call, just trying to do their job: *TnT*

[Frostfire]

I wonder if they offered the teacher of the Math 55 class a job in the NSA as well?

[JustSomeLunaticW.OAMustache]

I know that. Im at Math55.

Oh im sorry, I forgot to put the -
Math -55

[s.nifrum]

Who here expected someone in the room to assume that Reid went to Harvard only to next hear him say “hell no, too easy”

[lucastrash]

As a person with a mathematics degree once I heard “advance calculus” i got horrible flashbacks and that combined with linear algebra. Those people have a death wish. In my entire career Advance Calc is the one class i have hated the most.

[MegaVyruss]

for anyone wondering the season is 10 the episode is 21 title is Mr scratch

[rshharrison]

This always makes me smile. I don't see how an intro analysis course, even with linear algebra, immediately helps with cryptography, or warrants employment.

[stevemyopinion]

so reid how did you get out of working for the NSA you told them that you would work for the FBI, I mean he does have a phd in math,

[robinabernathy]

Reid could have gotten his own spinoff show and it would have been a hit.

[andreponniah]

So what happens if someone takes the Math55 course, learns everything from it, but consistently fails on his tests on purpose? Would that guy get recruited, or get put on a watchlist, or something?

[nunyabusiness]

Cryptography requires more than calculus and linear algebra, you also need discrete math, and if you're code breaking you need a few other things. As a person who took (and passed) a fair amount of math ( Calculus I, Calc II, Differential Equations, Calc III, Linear Algebra, Random Variables, and Calc IV (advanced multivariate and vector calculus)), I can tell you that it only gives you elements of what you need, it's not a straight road map.
BTW my wife with the degree in French Literature is the family breadwinner since high tech was so unstable, companies kept going under one after another.

[pantomath]

Yeah, and the funny thing is that Harvard had to create two other Math classes (Math 23 and 25) as more laid-back versions of 55, because too many students were dropping the course because of the accelerated coursework.

[dmr]

Uh, Harvard absolutely is known for its math program. They’ve got one of the best math programs in the world. The top 6 math programs in the country are generally accepted to be Princeton, MIT, Harvard, Chicago, Stanford, and Berkeley. Also, it’s complete nonsense that the kids who take Math 55 get poached by the NSA. Most of them go into academia or else some hedge fund pays them $800, 000 a year. Also, those aren’t the first year Harvard math major classes. The options are actually Math 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 25, and 55. Also the course name for Math 55 is Studies in Algebra and Group Theory for the first semester and Studies in Real and Complex Analysis for the second.

Sorry, I know that’s nitpicky. I’m a math major at Chicago and we have a similar class called Honors Analysis (Math 207-9) thats suicidally difficult and takes 40-60 hours a week. The math community isn’t that large so I figured I might as well.

[abigailrosenquist]

When hitch says no I won’t hold you know shit is about to go down

[medeaworbs]

Me with dyskalkolia: "WHAT?!"