> And, if regard the material on differential equations as essentially nonsense, then good luck getting NSF grants for research in the subject

Luckily, in this world, NSF grant writers are not typically undergraduate students, and there's plenty of money flowing towards ODE research (here are some examples: http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1600381&Hist... http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1408295&Hist... http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1318480&Hist... http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1505215&Hist... http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1418042&Hist... http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1346876&Hist...) and of course there is much more cash going into PDEs.