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The M.A. is designed primarily for students who wish to enter the Ph.D. program in mathematics. A student’s program of study for this degree is usually narrow in scope but intense in content. Course work for the degree is generally regarded as preparatory for the Ph.D.

For admission into the M.A. degree program, applicants must have a bachelor’s degree from an approved institution and should have an undergraduate foundation in mathematics equivalent to that of a major in mathematics at the University of South Carolina, which at a minimum should include a course in abstract algebra (equivalent to MATH 546 ) or advanced calculus (equivalent to MATH 554 ). A minimum B average in all college-level math courses is required for full admission.

Degree Requirements

The M.A. degree requires a master’s pass on the admission-to-candidacy examination as well as a thesis and 30 approved semester hours of graduate mathematics course work, including MATH 790  and the three-credit thesis course, MATH 799 . All courses in the student’s program must be numbered 700 and above and must include a one-year sequence in linear algebra/algebra (MATH 700 , and one of MATH 701 , MATH 706 ) and the analysis sequence (MATH 703 , MATH 704 ). These courses form the core of the student’s program and provide the topics upon which the master’s examination is based.

The thesis for this degree is generally a short monograph (to be bound and placed in the University library and in the department), the content of which is drawn from several current research papers (possibly including the student’s original contributions) in an area of interest to the student, which could lead to topics and issues of suitable depth for a Ph.D. dissertation. Upon conclusion of the program, the student is invited to present the thesis to the department in a colloquium address.