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

Degree Requirements (30 Hours)

The M.A. degree requires a thesis and 30 approved semester hours of graduate mathematics course work, including the three-credit thesis course, MATH 799 . All courses in the student’s program must be numbered 700 and above (excluding 7xx-I courses) and must include a one-year sequence in real and complex analysis (MATH 703  - MATH 704 ) and one of the one-year sequences in abstract algebra (MATH 701  - MATH 702 ) or in the foundations of computational mathematics (MATH 708  - MATH 709 ). These courses form the core of the student’s program and provide the topics upon which the Masters Comprehensive Examination (Admission to Candidacy) is based; a “master’s pass” or “pass” is required.

The thesis for this degree is generally a short monograph (to be bound and delivered to the department), the content of which is drawn from several current research papers, possibly including the student’s original contributions, which could lead to topics of suitable depth for a Ph.D. dissertation. The thesis is subject to the approval of the thesis committee, consisting of the major professor and a second reader. The student is invited to present the thesis to the department in a seminar format.