After W&M
Majoring in mathematics prepares students for jobs. The types of jobs available for mathematics majors are varied - and the variability increases every day. The three main mathematics professional societies are the American Mathematical Society (AMS), the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) . These sites can help give you a sense of the opportunities available to mathematicians.
Another important resource is the College's Career Center. Students sometimes wait until their senior years to contact the Career Center, and that is probably a mistake.
The outlook for mathematics majors in business, industry, and government has been strong for many years. Mathematics majors who plan to enter business or government positions immediately after their bachelor 's degrees would do well to link their mathematics studies with related course work in science, computer science, economics, or business.
There is a perennial shortage of high school mathematics teachers with strong mathematics backgrounds, and high school teaching is an employment option for mathematics students. State certification normally requires a fixed set of courses taken in the School of Education as well as a mathematics major. It is possible to earn an M.A.Ed. in Secondary Mathematics Education with one year of post-undergraduate study. There are additional scholarship opportunities available to students who commit to teaching secondary mathematics.
Graduate study in professional schools has always been an option for mathematics majors. For further information about medicine and other professional programs, students should consult the College's pre-professional advisors. Medical schools, Law schools, and MBA programs welcome students with strong quantitative backgrounds, and some draw a majority of their students from undergraduate programs in science, engineering, and mathematics.
Recent years have seen a marked increase in the number of mathematics majors who pursue graduate study in disciplines such as engineering, economics, or other sciences. Students contemplating these options must carefully plan their undergraduate programs to make sure that they complete the required basic courses in the other field to make it clear to graduate admissions officers that they have a reasonable chance of success in that other field.
Study of the mathematical sciences in graduate school is an excellent option for some students. A master 's degree in computational operations research, statistics, applied mathematics, or computer science is a strong employment credential. In many cases, students can obtain financial aid during such study through tuition waivers, graduate assistantships, and fellowships. A listing of such fellowship possibilities is published annually by the American Mathematical Society. In other cases, a student decides on graduate study after a year or two of employment, and in such cases, the student's employer may have programs to offset the cost of graduate study considered relevant to the employer's needs.
Finally, some of our mathematics majors decide to pursue doctoral study in mathematics. A doctoral program usually takes five or six years of additional study, including the completion of original mathematical research in the form of a dissertation. Students interested in pursuing this route are recommended to take as many upper-level and proof-based mathematics as they can to prepare them for the rigors of graduate study, and writing an Honors Thesis can be a good introduction to mathematical research. In the past, the goal of mathematics doctoral study was to produce academic mathematicians, but that is changing as industry and government discover that they have problems that we can help solve. As a result, a number of students decide to pursue doctoral study after a year or two of employment. One thing that we can assure prospective doctoral students is that very few students pay for their doctoral study in mathematics. Fellowships and assistantships are normally available to support such study.
