Our Master's Program's main objective is to fully prepare students to pursue successful careers as professional mathematicians working in business, industry and education. Program requirements include a spectrum of mathematics classes, complemented by required courses taken outside the Department and targeted to the specific track chosen. These courses provide breadth of training and depth of knowledge in an area of specialization and they are complemented by various internship opportunities and teaching experiences for the students.
Students may also choose a Master's Degree with Thesis option, in which they have to write a Master's Thesis that will represent an original contribution to an area of knowledge. Such contribution may consist of new results in the area and/or a new perspective and exposition of important results in the field.
Different Tracks
We offer the following program tracks, but our setting is flexible enough to allow coherent combinations of these options so as to accommodate students' interests and the new career opportunities that are constantly created in today's dynamic job market.
- Traditional track
- Teaching track
- Applied professional tracks: In order to supply the increasing demand for mathematically skilled employees in industry and financial institutions our program offers various professional Master's tracks. The current options are:
Each track is implemented with a careful choice of coursework coordinated through our mentoring program. Please follow the links for each track to obtain the corresponding requirements. Follow the link to the Steps for the Master's degree to obtain detailed guidelines and timeline to successfully complete your degree. Specific points to be aware of are MS students are required to take a final oral exam which is administered during their final semester according to calendar deadlines posted at Office of Graduate and Professional Studies. Students must apply for graduation via the Howdy Portal within the first month of their final semester and must contact their Committee Chair at least 3 months before their desired exam date to agree upon the oral exam subject.
Prerequisites
In addition to undergraduate linear algebra and differential equations, we are typically looking for students with some exposure with abstract mathematical concepts; preferably a combination of algebra and analysis. For example, students with B or better in at least 3 classes out of our Math 409, 410, 415, 416, 437.
Bridge to the Ph.D. Program
For students who wish to continue on into the Ph.D. program after completion of their Master's, it is expected that they pass one Qualifying Examination before submitting a Letter of Intent to be considered for admission into the Ph.D. program upon graduating with their Master's.
If a Master's student wishes to be considered for admittance to the Ph.D. program without having to complete the Master's degree first, it is expected that they pass one Qualifying Examination before they submit a Petition to Change Programs at ogsdpss.tamu.edu.
**Please note that students who wish to move into the PhD program will also be required to meet the University's English Language Proficiency Certification standards. Detailed information about these standards and how to meet them can be found here: English Language Proficiency Certification for Teaching (scroll down to the section titled "English Language Proficiency Certification for Teaching")
Both the Letter of Intent and Petition to Change Programs will require two letters of recommendation to be emailed to the Graduate Associate Head (grad.director@math.tamu.edu) to support the student's request. Master's students should notify the Graduate Program Office immediately if they wish to be considered for the Ph.D. program. The majority of admittances to our Ph.D. program are granted for the fall semester and decisions on these admittances are made in early February.