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Our Faculty and Graduate Students

The majority of your classes will be taught by permanent faculty who provide formal and informal supervision of your progress through your degree program. Beyond that, you'll learn a lot from your fellow students, both in and out of class. At any given time, we have a number of temporary postdoctoral visiting assistant professors; they're usually one to three years past their PhD and they provide a useful bridge between where you are now and your areas of chosen research. 

The department currently has 128 graduate students across four degree programs, of whom approximately 27 percent are women and 52 percent are from outside the U.S. We embrace the diversity of our department and community—see our statement on equity, inclusion and diversity. The UMass chapter of the Association for Women in Mathematics provides resources and networking opportunities for women and women-identifying mathematicians. We actively seek to increase the proportion of women and of minority students in our programs, including those from backgrounds that have been historically under-represented in STEM fields. International students with strong mathematical preparation and a good command of spoken English are encouraged to apply.

Life in the Department

The early part of your time in the program time will be spent on coursework. These courses provide the background necessary for further study in mathematics and prepare you for qualifying exams. A diverse group of "topics" courses are offered every year to introduce you to areas in which our faculty are currently working. You can also take directed reading classes with faculty.

Outside of formal class instruction, there are other ways you can participate in the mathematical life of the department. There are a wide variety of seminars covering the range of pure and applied mathematics and statistics, and you're encouraged to attend them to become more familiar with current research. Talks in the department colloquium are meant for a general mathematical audience, and so are generally more accessible to graduate students. Seminars such as GRASS and Reading Seminar in Algebraic Geometry are specifically aimed at graduate students.

Our graduate students are funded as teaching assistants. The Teaching Seminar helps students to become excellent instructors. Graduate students run a Math Club for undergraduate students.

Options and Requirements

Mathematics and statistics form separate programs within the department; students are admitted either to one program or the other, and permission is required to change programs. The MS in pure mathematics is normally only offered to students on the PhD track; we do not admit students whose objective is a master's in pure mathematics. The applied mathematics MS program is formally a separate program with its own requirements and admission process. It is possible to apply for both the PhD and MS in statistics with the same application.

A complete description of the requirements for each of these degrees can be found in the Graduate Handbook.

More information about graduate options in statistics can be found here.

Information on a fifth-year MS in statistics for UMass Amherst and other Five College students can be found here.

For more information about the applied math master's program, visit here.