Mathematics Major

A mathematics degree from Harvey Mudd College will prepare students for a variety of careers in business, industry or academics. Mathematical methods are increasingly employed in fields as diverse as finance, biomedical research, management science, the computer industry and most technical and scientific disciplines. To support the academic and professional goals of our majors, we offer a wide selection of courses in both pure and applied mathematics. This selection is enhanced by courses offered in cooperation with the other Claremont Colleges, including graduate courses at the Claremont Graduate University.

Students will have many opportunities to do mathematical research with faculty through independent study, a summer research experience, or their senior capstone experience. Active areas of mathematical research at HMC and The Claremont Colleges include algebra, algebraic geometry, algorithms and computational complexity, combinatorics, differential geometry, dynamical systems, fluid mechanics, graph theory, number theory, numerical analysis, mathematical biology, mathematics education, operations research, partial differential equations, real and complex analysis, statistical methods and analysis, and topology.

The culmination of the degree is the senior capstone research experience: every student experiences a taste of the life of a professional mathematician as part of a team in the Mathematics Clinic Program or by working individually on a Senior Thesis.

The Mathematics Clinic program extends the academic experience of our majors. An educational innovation of HMC, our Clinic Program brings together teams of students to work on a research problem sponsored by business, industry or government. Teams work closely with a faculty advisor and a liaison provided by the sponsoring organization to solve complex real-world problems using mathematical and computational methods. Clinic teams present their results in bound final reports to the sponsors and give several formal presentations on the progress of the work during the academic year.

Our Senior Thesis program provides students with the opportunity to work independently on a problem of their choosing. Advisors and readers may be chosen from the HMC faculty and the other mathematicians at The Claremont Colleges, providing students with a wealth of research opportunities. As with Clinic, the end product of a thesis is a bound volume as well as presentations made at a professional conference or other venue, during the college-wide Presentations Days and throughout the year.

The course of study for a mathematics degree has five components: The Major Core, Computational Mathematics, Clinic or Thesis, Mathematics Forum and Mathematics Colloquium, and the Elective Program. Each of these components to the major program is described below.