Undergraduate
Mathematics is a fascinating subject that offers a plethora of captivating intellectual challenges as well as valuable opportunities. It fosters powerful analytic skills and mental agility, and it opens up a wealth of career options.
You can be a mathematics major, whether having it as your sole major or one of two majors. The connections between mathematics and technical fields such as physics, economics, engineering, computer science and biology present natural pairings that enrich both areas of study. A second major can also be an unrelated field. If it fits your constraints better, you can be a math minor.
Whichever path best fits your plans and goals, you are welcome in our department. We invite and encourage you to discuss your academic and career goals with our advisors, who can help you plan a program of study in mathematics that best matches your interests.
As a mathematics major or minor, you can choose from a wide selection of courses, including abstract algebra, real and complex analysis, topology, logic, set theory, combinatorics, number theory, differential equations, differential geometry, numerical analysis, financial mathematics and mathematical modeling. Advanced undergraduates may choose to extend the range of options by taking independent studies and graduate classes.
Programs
Concentrations
To offer you more options, the undergraduate mathematics major has three concentrations: pure, applied and interdisciplinary. The three concentrations differ in their emphasis, but all are designed to give you a solid background in the theory and practice of modern mathematics. In each concentration, you can choose either a Bachelor of Science (BS), which requires 45 credit hours of approved coursework, or a Bachelor of Arts (BA), which requires 39 credit hours.
Those who may want to pursue graduate study in mathematics would be best served by the more theoretical focus in the pure and applied concentrations, and by the greater coursework in the BS option. The interdisciplinary concentration is intended primarily for those who wish to enter the job market immediately after graduation; it provides preparation for careers as mathematicians in government and industrial settings where mathematical modeling and computation play a large role. In each concentration, the BA option makes it easier to complete the required courses in a second major or to pursue several minors.
Award-Winning Instruction
Students learn from professors like 2023 Writing in the Discipline Award Winner for Best Assignment Design Professor Joseph Bonin (pictured at center). Professor Bonin accepted his award from President Mark S. Wrighton (left) and Vice President for Academic Affairs Christopher Alan Bracey.
