M.A./M.S. Requirements

A. COURSE REQUIREMENTS

MA Degree: 30 units of approved graduate credit, including up to 6 units of thesis credit; 9 to 12 units must be in courses from departments other than Mathematics. At least one year-long course sequence in mathematics which is not dual-numbered must be included.

MA Degree (Teaching Option): 30 units of approved graduate credit, including up to 6 units of thesis credit; 9 to 12 units should be outside the Department of Mathematics or from the following list of graduate mathematics courses: Math 504, 530, and 596E (Topics in Mathematics for Secondary Teachers – contents will vary, the course may be repeated). At least 12 units of mathematics should not be from that list, and should include a year long course sequence which is not dual-numbered. Each candidate's course of study should be established in consultation with a member of the Mathematics Education Committee. Please consult the Mathematics Education Research website.

MS Degree: 30 units of approved graduate credit, including up to 6 units of thesis credit; 6 units must be in courses from departments other than Mathematics. At least 18 units of courses that are not dual-numbered are required, including a year long course sequence in mathematics.

The Department, in close cooperation with the Program in Applied Mathematics and the College of Science, has developed a flexible new Professional Master of Science degree, which will be tailored to individual candidates' needs and can be interdisciplinary in nature. The degree program is first available Fall semester 2000.

B. PROGRAM OF STUDY

Each student must present a coherent collection of courses in which the work outside of Mathematics is related to part of the studies in Mathematics. There are many such possibilities, including: algebra, and computer science or discrete methods in operations research; probability, and statistics or reliability/quality control; numerical mathematics, and computer science or computational science; mathematical foundations and history, and education; analysis, and physics or optics; etc.

C. THESIS

A Master's thesis is required for which students may receive up to 6 units of graduate credit. PhD candidates may substitute successful completion of the Comprehensive Examination for the Master's thesis.

D. EXAMINATIONS

Successful performance on two examinations is required of all MA and MS recipients.

1. A Computer Programming Examination in one of the languages C, Pascal, or Fortran. At the discretion of the Graduate Committee this examination may be waived for students who have independently demonstrated extensive programming skills in at least one of the above languages. Copies of recent examinations are available in the Graduate Office.
2. Either a Final Oral Examination which covers work presented for the Master's Degree and defense of thesis, or the Comprehensive Oral Examination for the PhD degree.