The Applied Mathematics Specializationof the Mathematics major enables students to concentrate their studies in applied mathematics. This page lists the program documents and other information about the specialization. For more information, please contact your advisor or the department chair.
Program Documents for the Applied Mathematics Specialization:
- Program Planner:
- The four-year Planner gives a suggested schedule plan for taking the courses in your major:
- Mathematics and Statistics Options
- Science requirements:
- For students declaring the specialization from Fall 2012 until present: Science Requirements.
However, following the list of requirements below will ensure that all graduation requirements are met.
Applied Mathematics Specialization Learning Goals
- Master theoretical foundations based on mathematical rigor through proofs
- Apply mathematical theory to model and solve problems dealing with physical, natural and societal problems
- Use technology to solve computational problems, including simulation and visualization of mathematical models
- Majors should be able to adapt to different technology platforms that are useful for mathematical computing
- Majors should be able to make mathematical conjectures and use technology to support or refute these conjectures
- Provide clear and effective written and oral communication to diverse audiences
- Necessitates being able to read mathematics and communicate mathematics to other mathematicians.
- Also requires communicating mathematical results to a non-mathematical audience
- Develop content knowledge in a related discipline
- Majors should be able to apply their mathematics knowledge to other sciences and engineering
- Majors should be able to recognize mathematical ideas embedded in other contexts
Requirements of the Mathematics Major/Applied Mathematics Specialization:
1. Courses in the Major (13 course units)
The course requirements for the major are below. In addition to these, there are graduation and retention grade requirements that must be met. Details can be found in the Undergraduate Bulletin and on the department website.
|MAT 099||Orientation for Math/Stat Majors||0|
|MAT 128||Calculus B||1|
|MAT 200||Proof Writing through Discrete Mathematics||1|
|MAT 229||Multivariable Calculus||1|
|MAT 205||Linear Algebra: Theory and Applications||1|
|MAT 310||Real Analysis||1|
|MAT 326||Differential Equations||1|
|MAT 498||Senior Capstone Course in Applied Mathematics (writing intensive)||1|
|Applied Mathematics Options (at least one 400-level course)
|Applied Mathematics/Mathematics/Statistics Options
(at least one must be a non-Applied Mathematics option)
Applied Mathematics/Mathematics/Statistics Options List
- MAT 301 Number Theory
- MAT 305 Absract Algebra
- MAT 315 Topics in Linear Algebra*
- MAT 316 Probability*
- MAT 317 Linear Programming*
- MAT 318 Mathematical Statistics
- MAT 320 Complex Analysis
- MAT 331 Numerical Methods*
- MAT 351 Geometry
- MAT 370 Topics in Mathematics*+
- MAT 391 Independent Study in Mathematics#
- MAT 392 Guided Study in Mathematics#
- MAT 393 Independent Research in Mathematics#
- MAT 403 Advanced Calculus
- MAT 405 Topology
- MAT 407 Projective Geometry
- MAT 440 Mathematical Logic
- MAT 451 Seminar in Algebra
- MAT 452 Seminar in Geometry and Topology
- MAT 453 Seminar in Analysis
- MAT 454 Seminar in Applied Mathematics*
- MAT 470 Topics in Mathematics*+
- MAT 492 Guided Study in Mathematics II#
- MAT 493 Independent Research in Mathematics II#
- MAT 494 Independent Study in Mathematics II#
- STA 303 Design of Experiments
- STA 304 Sampling and Nonparametric Statistics
- STA 305 Regression Analysis
- STA 306 Applied Multivariate Analysis
- STA 307 Data Mining and Predictive Modeling
- STA 314 Statistical Quality Control
- STA 318 Operations Research*
- STA 391 Independent Study in Statistics#
- STA 392 Guided Study in Statistics#
- STA 393 Independent Research in Statistics#
*Denotes an Applied Mathematics option.
+Denotes a topics course that may be an Applied Mathematics option depending on the topic. The department notifies the students each year which topics courses will qualify.
#Students cannot use independent study, guided study, or independent research courses to fulfill the 3 required Applied Mathematics options. Students can take at most one course unit of independent study, guided study, or independent research to fulfill the Applied Mathematics/Mathematics/Statistics options. This requires approval by the Applied Mathematics Committee. When taking an independent study, guided study, or independent research course, a student’s course load should not be more than 4.5 course units. Independent study, guided study, or independent research courses may not be taken in order to improve a grade, or to replace a course that a student failed to sign up for.
Note: 400-level Applied Mathematics options are currently being offered during the Spring semester.
2. Correlate Courses (3 units)
- Students must complete one of the following:
- CSC 220 and CSC 230; or (with prior permission) CSC 250/Accelerated Computer Science 1 and 2
- 2 course units of a lab science. Acceptable courses are PHY 201, PHY 202, CHE 201, CHE 202, BIO 185, and any upper-level BIO course that counts towards the Biology Liberal Arts (BIOA) major.
3. First Seminar Course (1 unit)
All students must take a first seminar course in their first year. If the First Seminar is in Category 1 or 2 of the Liberal Learning areas (see below), it will count towards that area’s requirements. The writing intensive First Seminar satisfies one of the writing requirement in (5).
4. Academic Writing Requirement (1 unit, possibly 0)
A student must either take WRI 102: Academic Writing or be exempted from it.
5. Additional Writing Experiences
In addition to the academic writing requirement in (4), students must take three writing intensive courses. One of these courses is the First Seminar listed above. The second writing requirement is satisfied with MAT 205. The third course is the senior capstone course MAT 498.
6. Second Language Requirement (0-3 units)
You must complete the language requirement at the 103 level or higher. Also, if you took four or more years of a language in high school and continue with this language and you are placed at the 101 level, then the 101 level course will NOT count towards the 32 units required for graduation.
7. Additional Liberal Learning Requirements (6 units, possibly 5)
The Liberal Learning system defines graduation requirements in a broad set of learning categories. As a Mathematics major with an Applied Mathematics Specialization, the Natural Science and Quantitative Reasoning Requirement is automatically met. The other requirements are listed below. Please note that it is possible for a course to fulfill a requirement in more than one category. For example, the course “The Evolution of Middle Eastern Women Writers” would satisfy the Gender requirement (Category 5), the Global Perspectives requirement (Category 4) as well as count as 1 unit towards the Category 1a requirement. However, a course can satisfy at most two of the requirements in Categories 3-6.
Liberal Learning Categories
- Arts and Humanities (3 units required)
- a. Literary, Visual and Performing Arts (at least 1 unit)
- b. World Views and Ways of Knowing (at least 1 unit)
- Social Sciences and History (3 units required)
- a. Behavioral, Social or Cultural Perspectives (at least 1 unit)
- b. Social Change in Historical Perspective (at least 1 unit)
- Race and Ethnicity (1 unit/program/experience required)
- Global Perspectives (1 unit/program/experience required
- Gender (1 unit/program/experience required)
- Community Engaged learning (1 unit/program/experience required)
Note: Categories 3, 4, 5 & 6 may be met through courses, programs, or other experiences.
Six courses must be taken to satisfy the requirements of Category 1 and 2 of the Liberal Learning requirements. If the First Seminar is chosen in these areas, only five other courses will need to be taken to satisfy these requirements.
8. Information Literacy
IDS 102 is a required online, non-credit course administered by the library staff. Students must meet this proficiency prior to graduation, but are encouraged to do so as early as possible.
9. Free Electives (5 or more course units, depending on other course choices)
These are courses that students can take without having to meet any requirements. You must take enough electives so that you meet the graduation requirement of 32 total units. You may opt to use these free electives to satisfy the requirements of a minor of your choice, or if you have plans for graduate school to take further upper level courses in the major.
Note: If course requirements such as WRI 102 or second language are waived through placement or other means, then electives should be substituted to meet the 32 course unit total.