Pursue your passion for problem-solving with a major in 数学, and prepare for high-impact careers in engineering, statistics, finance, cryptography, aeronautics, scientific research or business.

Deepen your understanding of calculus, modern algebra, physics and statistics, and build your programming and computational skills in applied computer science courses.

Partner with professors to conduct research in your areas of interest, whether that’s biology or political science. You’ll benefit from the university’s state-of-the-art computer infrastructure, software and data storage for innovative research. Take advantage of Austin’s dynamic technology and innovation scene and the mathematics meetings that happen in the city each semester. Leave St. Edward’s ready to continue your education in graduate school or immediately begin your career in urban development, market research, computer technology, government or teaching.

What do our graduates do?

数学 majors go on to a variety of careers and graduate schools from St. Edward’s. Here’s a sample.

• Data analyst for Apple
• Procurement analyst for SpaceX公司
• Data analyst for the National Security Agency
• Mechanical designer at Fugro Oil & Energy Company
• Full stack developer at T3
• 毕业 research fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
• PhD candidates in 数学 at The University of Texas at Austin, Human & Statistical Genetics at Washington University, and Physics at Vanderbilt University and Case Western Reserve University
• Master’s students in mathematics at Emory University, the ESTEEM 毕业 Program for entrepreneurship at the University of Notre Dame, mechanical engineering at Purdue University and University of Texas, statistics and data science at the University of Houston, and education and school leadership at Harvard University.

The Classroom and Beyond

As a 数学 major, you’ll be part of a community of students and professors who value creativity and the courage to tackle difficult, unsolved problems. You’ll build these relationships alongside your problem-solving skills in classes, research projects, competitions and extracurricular clubs. 

Experiential Education

A core component of the St. Edward’s mathematics program is a four-semester sequence of research courses. In these classes, you’ll conduct open-ended research on unsolved problems individually with faculty members. You’ll present your findings at regional and national professional conferences, where you’ll meet other mathematicians and learn about graduate-school options and careers in your field.

Mathematics majors participate in the William Lowell Putnam 数学 Competition, the preeminent math competition for undergraduates worldwide. A typical competition involves two 3-hour sessions in which students solve 12 problems. Thousands of math majors nationwide score 0 points every year due to the hyper-strict grading scale, so any positive score is a noteworthy accomplishment. In the past decade, four students from St. Edward’s have earned a positive score on the exam.

研究

As part of your coursework at St. Edward’s, you will complete four semesters of research. You will have the option to further develop this research and present your findings at conferences and for publication. Recently, 数学 majors have studied the following:

• Mathematical analysis of lottery voting
• Dark energy, the force that causes the universe to expand
• Detecting whether congressional districts are racially gerrymandered
• The effects of storm-related electrical changes on tropospheric ozone levels 

Most math majors travel to at least one conference during their time at St. Edward’s. These include:

• Texas 大学本科 数学 Conference
• Joint 数学 Meetings of the American Mathematical Society and the Mathematical Association of America
• MAA Texas Section Meeting
• mathfest
• National Conference for McNair Scholars and 大学本科 研究

Outstanding students have been selected for 研究 Experiences for 大学本科s, in which they join the lab of a professor at a major research university over a summer. These experiences help you decide if a career in research is right for you. In recent years, 数学 majors have completed these REUs:

• Deep learning – specifically, teaching computers to identify the content of an image – at the Center for Imaging Science at the Rochester Institute of Technology
• 研究 in the Mathematical Biosciences Institute Program at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

You’ll also have the opportunity to contribute to other research projects led by your professors. During Hurricane Harvey, which battered southern Texas in August 2017, several 数学 majors, along with Natural Sciences professors and staff, collected meteorological data with weather balloons. They released 13 weather balloons that collected data used by the National Weather Services to create forecasts during the hurricane. Some of the students who participated also wrote code to automate the computation of data collected from the balloons and to visually display the data in graphs.

实习 

You’ll also be encouraged to complete an internship to apply your mathematical skills in a professional context. 数学 majors have recently interned at the following organizations:

• 埃克森
• Molecular Rebar Design
• The Nature Conservancy
• National Ecological Observatory Network
• Department of 主页land Security STEM Summer Internship Program
• Society for Industrial and Applied 数学
• SpaceX公司

As a student in the 数学 program you are afforded access to the funding programs, including paid internships, offered exclusively to STEM students at St. Edward’s University by the Institute for Interdisciplinary Science (i4). For more information on these programs please visit the Institute for Interdisciplinary Science (i4) 在网上。

Student Organizations 

The St. Edward’s Math Club is a student chapter of the 数学 Association of America. Members have traveled together to regional mathematics conferences, presented math concepts and helped with science fairs at local schools, and participated in the global MegaMenger collaborative fractal build. The club also hosts student 和lumni research talks and serves as a forum for social events like Halloween pumpkin carving, bowling, laser tag and pizza parties.

The St. Edward’s Maker Club attracts tinkerers and programmers who have worked on projects involving 3-D printing, soldering, programming LED strips, and creating art through programming. 

You can apply to join the Natural Sciences Living Learning Community your freshman year. Members of the LLC live together in the same residence hall and take a fall-semester science course together. They also arrive on campus before school begins to learn research tools and methodologies so they can join research projects early in their college career. LLC members participate in regular community dinners and recreational activities to relax and have fun together.

Teaching Assistantships

Strong students with an interest in teaching and mentoring can serve as teaching assistants for introductory classes. At St. Edward’s, all classes are taught by professors, but student teaching assistants help tutor and lead study sessions. You’ll expand your communication and people skills by helping other students learn the material. If you’re interested in teaching, you could also become a tutor in the Math Lab.