Popular Career Choices for Math Majors
Teaching
The teaching of mathematics at the K-12 level is a high-demand field and
the need is expected to grow in the future. The place to go for explicit
career information is the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
homepage (http://www.nctm.org/).
Actuarial Science
Actuarial science takes mathematics and statistics and applies them to
finance and insurance. Actuarial science includes a number of interrelating
disciplines, including probability and statistics, finance, and economics.
Check out http://www.beanactuary.org/.
Statistics
The proliferation of statistics in everything ranging from business to
government has inducedmany organizations to seek math majors. Statisticians
use surveys -- for example, opinion polls -- to predict the patterns of
behavior of large groups based on relatively small samples. They ask questions
such as: How can we be sure that what we predict from our small sample
is true of the population being sampled? Probability theory provides the
theoretical foundation for statistics.
Computer Science
Computer science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information
and computation and their implementation and application in computer systems.
Mathematicians, with their training in logical and precise thinking, are
highly prized in this field. See the student section (http://www.acm.org/membership/panel?pageIndex=2)
of the Association for Computing Machinery for career advice.
Operations Research
Operations research is an interdisciplinary branch of mathematics which
uses mathematical methods to arrive at optimal decisions to problems in
maximizing or minimizing things like costs or profits. The eventual intention
behind using Operations Research is to elicit a best possible solution
to a problem mathematically, which improves or optimizes the performance
of the system. The group INFORMS (http://www.informs.org/) is the world's
largest society devoted to operations research/management science.
Biomathematics
Mathematical biology or biomathematics is an interdisciplinary field of
study. It models natural and biological processes using mathematical techniques
and tools. Results have been applied to areas such as cellular neurobiology,
epidemic modelling, and population genetics. The education page (http://www.smb.org/education/index.shtml)
of the Society for Mathematical Biology links to schools offering biomath
degrees along with a description of the coursework needed.
Cryptography
Cryptography is the practice and study of hiding information. Cryptography
is considered to be a branch of both mathematics and computer science.
Not just for spies anymore, cryptography applications include the security
of ATM cards and computer passwords.
Finance
Finance is a field that studies and addresses the ways in which individuals,
businesses, and organizations raise, allocate, and use monetary resources
over time, taking into account the risks entailed in their projects. Mathematicians
can build models to help explain and predict the behavior of financial
markets. Several schools offer Master's degrees in Financial Mathematics.
A quick web search will take you to their web pages.
Further information about careers in mathematics can be found at:
http://www.careercornerstone.org/math/math.htm
