I'm planning my undergrad degree and would love to hear from people who studied Applied Mathematics and Statistics. I love using math to understand complex systems and am most interested in things like space, weather, oceans, history, culture, and languages. Since I obviously can't major in all of those, I'm considering majoring in Applied Mathematics and minoring in Statistics because it seems like a flexible foundation that could be applied to many different fields. Unfortunately whenever I search for career paths, I mostly find people who went into computer science/tech, finance, or medicine which is fine but I'm not interested in those fields at all. Has anyone here used an Applied Math/Stats background in scientific research or other interdisciplinary fields like the ones I'm interested in. If so, what's your profession? If you're in science, what field are you in? I'd like to know more about using applied math/stats in areas like atmospheric science, oceanography, astronomy, environmental science, archaeology, linguistics, history, geography, or the digital humanities. I'm trying to understand how broad the field really is and what kinds of careers people have actually built with this background. I'd love to hear about any less common paths that you've taken.

I’m not a consultant per se, but much of my work involves statistical consulting in one form or another. Customers often ask me about particular statistical approaches, and engineering teams may ask for advice on how best to quantify some impact. Frequently, they come to me with their own ad hoc quantitative methods already in mind.

When they explain these approaches, I understand the individual words they’re using, but the ideas are often arranged in a way that makes it hard for me to tell what they’re actually trying to accomplish, let alone of the approach is "good" or "bad". I usually have to ask many follow-up questions to uncover the real goal, and even then I’m sometimes left making educated guesses.

I imagine this gets easier with experience, but I’m wondering whether you have any techniques, frameworks, or perspectives for quickly gaining context when speaking with people who may not have much statistical experience.