Academic Bulletin 2024-2025
Mathematics Major
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 Return to: Areas of Study
Faculty: Carswell (Chair), He, J. Hollerman, Leech, Lo Bello, Lundberg, Weir, Werner
The Mathematics major is a program in the Mathematics and Natural Sciences Area of Study.
Mathematics Major Learning Outcomes
Students who successfully complete a major in Mathematics are expected to:
- Achieve mastery of a rich and diverse set of mathematical ideas, with particular emphasis on the ideas of algebra and analysis;
- Achieve an understanding of mathematical abstraction and the nature of mathematical proofs, including the ability to read and write proofs;
- Communicate mathematics both orally and in writing;
- Think analytically and creatively to create mathematical models of real world problems, analyze them, and interpret the analysis.
The Mathematics Major
The Mathematics major, consisting of 47 credits of Mathematics courses numbered above MATH 151 , leads to the Bachelor of Science degree. At graduation, Mathematics majors must have a GPA of at least 2.0 in the major. All Mathematics courses taken at Allegheny and numbered MATH 152 and above will be used to compute the mathematics GPA. For the purposes of graduation, and with the approval of the Department Chair, if a student completes more than the minimum number of credits required for the Mathematics major, then the GPA in Mathematics may be computed using all required Mathematics courses and selected Mathematics electives numbered above MATH 152 that satisfy all requirements for the Mathematics major. Only the most recent grade is considered for courses that have been repeated. Courses transferred to Allegheny will not be included in the departmental GPA. A maximum of 20 transfer credits may be counted toward the major; exceptions must be approved by the department chair
Mathematics majors are required to take any Mathematics course numbered higher than MATH 151 for a letter grade. Transfer students majoring in Mathematics must complete at least 28 semester credit hours of Mathematics coursework at Allegheny.
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Note:
FSMAT 201 may be counted toward the major in Mathematics.
Mathematics Majors are required to take any Mathematics course numbered higher than MATH 151 for a letter grade. Transfer students majoring in Mathematics must complete at least 28 semester credit hours of Mathematics coursework at Allegheny.
The student can prepare for several career areas in the mathematical sciences. Below is a list of the areas followed by courses recommended by the Mathematics Department in addition to the required courses for the major:
- Actuarial Mathematics: MATH 345 and MATH 346 , as well as coursework in Computer Science and mathematical economics.
- Applied Statistics: MATH 345 , MATH 346 , MATH 370 , and Computer Science courses in data structures, operating systems and computability.
- Computational and Applied Analysis: MATH 270 , MATH 280 , MATH 341 , MATH 440 , and PHYS 365 , as well as strong work in the physical sciences.
- Operations Research: MATH 345 , MATH 346 , MATH 370 , and MATH 440 , as well as some work in Computer Science, including the study of data structures.
- Pure Mathematics (recommended for those who plan to do graduate study): MATH 315 , MATH 330 , MATH 341 , MATH 350 , MATH 400 , MATH 425 and MATH 440 .
- Scientific Computing: MATH 270 , MATH 280 and PHYS 365 ; Computer Science courses in programming languages, data structures, parallel and vector processing, computer graphics, computer simulation and software design.
- Teaching (secondary): Students interested in pursuing teacher education in Mathematics should consult with the liaison to teacher education early in their academic careers to ascertain the current requirements for certification. Be aware that specific content requirements vary from year to year and by graduate school. Courses often required are MATH 151 , MATH 152 , MATH 205 , MATH 211 , MATH 220 , MATH 270 , MATH 280 , MATH 320 , MATH 325 , MATH 330 , MATH 345 , and MATH 350 . Courses in computer science also are often required.
Students in cooperative programs who want to major in Mathematics must complete a minimum of 43 semester credit hours of Mathematics courses numbered above MATH 151 (except 157, 158, 159, 160, 170, 210) and meet all the requirements for a major, as described above, except for MATH 620 . At least 32 of these 43 semester credit hours must be taken at Allegheny. Students in cooperative engineering programs are required to take MATH 270 and MATH 280 .
Each Mathematics major, whether concentrating in applied mathematics or not, should be familiar with applications of mathematics to at least one other field. For this reason, the Department of Mathematics strongly recommends that majors pursue a sequence of two or more courses in at least one of the following departments: Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Business and Economics, Geology, or Physics.
Normally, the Department of Mathematics will only award the honor citation in Mathematics to students who have completed at least one course from among MATH 400 , MATH 425 , and MATH 440 .
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