Program Overview

Mathematics MA, Data Science Emphasis

Preliminary Advisement

Incoming students are assigned advisers with whom they should consult before each registration period to determine an appropriate course of study. If necessary, students may be required to complete undergraduate course work without receiving graduate credit.

Admission Requirements

Applicants must have at least a bachelor's degree in mathematics or in a field with significant mathematical content. Examples of such fields include computer science, data science, economics, engineering, and physics. An applicant’s record should demonstrate superior achievement in undergraduate mathematics.

Individuals may apply for direct admission to either the M.A. or Ph.D. program. Candidates for the M.A. degree may choose an emphasis in mathematics or data science. Students in the M.A. program who want to transfer to the Ph.D. program upon successful completion of 15 credit hours must fill out a new application through Graduate Admissions.

Degree Requirements

Candidates for the M.A. degree must complete 30 hours of course work with at least 15 hours of courses numbered 5000 or above. Up to 6 credit hours can be completed outside the Department of Mathematics and Statistics in a related field, with graduate program director’s prior approval. Up to 9 graduate credit hours could be transferred into the program, pending the approval of the Graduate School. All courses numbered below 5000 must be completed with grades of at least B. The selections of the courses numbered 5000 or above need the prior approval of the graduate advisor.

For the M.A. degree with data science emphasis, the courses taken must include the data-science core courses and five elective courses chosen from the data-science electives listed below. Up to 2 courses in the data-science electives can be substituted with other courses upon student’s request and graduate program director’s approval.

Students who have already completed courses equivalent to those in the core may substitute other courses numbered above 4000. All substitutions of courses for those listed in the core require the prior approval of the graduate director.

Thesis Option

The non-core course work may consist of an M.A. thesis written under the direction of a faculty member in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. A thesis is not, however, required for this degree. A student who wishes to write a thesis should enroll in 6 hours of MATH 6900, M.A. Thesis. Students writing an M.A. thesis must defend their thesis in an oral exam administered by a committee of three department members which includes the thesis director.

Core Courses

• MATH 4005: Exploratory Data Analysis with R (3 credits)
• MATH 4200: Mathematical Statistics I (3 credits)
• MATH 4210: Mathematical Statistics II (3 credits)
• MATH 5250: Statistical Methods in Learning and Modeling (3 credits)

Elective Courses

Choose six of the following courses:

• MATH 4220: Bayesian Statistical Methods
• MATH 4260:
• MATH 5070:
• MATH 5080: Scientific Computation
• MATH 5090: High-dimensional Data Analysis
• MATH 5225: Statistical Computing
• MATH 5320: Topics in Statistics and its Applications
• MATH 5470: Statistical Data Analysis for GIS
• MATH 5480: Remote Sensing Digital Image Analysis
• MATH 5600:
• MATH 5750: Mathematics of Artificial Neural Networks
• MATH 5770:
• CMP SCI 4200: Python for Scientific Computing and Data Science
• CMP SCI 5300: Artificial Intelligence
• CMP SCI 5340: Machine Learning
• CMP SCI 5342: Data Mining
• CMP SCI 5390: Deep Learning
• SCMA 5300: Business Analytics

Total Hours

30 hours

Financial Assistance

Any student who intends to apply for financial assistance, in the form of a teaching assistantship or a research assistantship, is required to have three letters of recommendation submitted with the application to the graduate program in Mathematics or Computer Science. The application must include scores on the GRE general aptitude test. Applicants are also encouraged to submit scores in the GRE subject area test in Mathematics or Computer Science. Applications for financial assistance should be submitted before February 15 prior to the academic year in which the student expects to begin graduate study. Notifications of awards are generally made March 15, and students awarded financial assistance are expected to return letters of acceptance by April 15.