Being a mathematician is ranked as the best job by the Wall Street Journal. Moreover, of the five top jobs in the ranking, only being a biologist does not obviously depend on mathematics ... and with recent advances in biotechnology and genome research, significant and growing branches of biology are "heavily mathematical," too. Mathematics is so important, because it is fundamental to all science and engineering. Many mathematical careers take place in cutting edge fields or they involve great responsibility, so it may not be surprising that, according to the Wall Street Journal, the median salary for mathematicians is $94,160. But because mathematicians can be used universally, the career path "mathematician" is very hard to define, and some job descriptions may not even include the word "mathematics."
Graduates of Louisiana Tech's bachelor's degree program have gone on to graduate school in a variety of fields, such as, applied mathematics, computer science, mechanical engineering, nanoscience, physical therapy, physics, pure mathematics, or statistics, at schools like Baylor University, George Washington University of St. Louis, Kansas State University, Louisiana State University, Louisiana Tech University, Southern Methodist University, or SUNY Albany. Career paths of graduates who directly entered the work force include being an Air Force officer, high school teaching, or being a professional pilot.
To facilitate this variety, Lousiana Tech's B.S. degree program in Mathematics starts with an integrated freshman and sophomore curriculum in which students are exposed to mathematics and its connections to the sciences. This exposure can help decide upon a minor in the sciences, but minors are not limited to the sciences. Recent minors of mathematics graduates include Aviation, Biology, Business Administration, Computer Science, English, Finance, Physics, and Spanish to name a few. For students interested in engineering, we offer an engineering concentration instead of a minor, and for students who want to focus solely on mathematics, we offer a concentration in mathematics and statistics. In fact, because mathematics is so closely related to engineering and the sciences, it is not uncommon for our majors to, along with the mathematics degree, earn a degree in one of these fields.
The final two years of the B. S. degree program are devoted to advanced classes in mathematics and to finishing the minor or concentration. The flexibility of mathematics is again reflected in the curriculum, which, aside from fundamental classes in Linear Algebra, Logic and Set Theory, Abstract Algebra, and Analysis, consists entirely of electives. In this fashion students can tailor their curriculum to their interests. Electives include analysis, numerical analysis, partial differential equations, linear algebra, control theory, graph theory, number theory, and statistical models. Faculty are ready to advise which subjects would be most useful to the student's intended career path.
The M.S. degree program provides intensive studies in foundational areas such as analysis, algebra, and probability theory, as well as in applied areas such as statistics, numerical analysis, control theory, partial differential equations, and graph theory. It also allows students to pursue interdisciplinary studies with courses taken from disciplines such as Computer Science, Physics, Engineering, Economics, and Finance. Students in the M.S. program often continue in the CAM program, an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Computational Analysis and Modeling.
