Sample Curriculum

Overview:

    • 31 units
    • Possible to complete in 2 academic years as a full-time student
    • 600-level math content courses are 4 units
    • Scheduling potential for 600-level courses to remain offered 4-8 PM, MW
    • Thesis and Comp Exam option

Required Courses: 10 units

    • Analysis (4 units)
    • Algebra (4 units)
    • Communicating Mathematics (2 units)

5 Elective Courses, with at least 6 units at the 600 level: 15 units required at least

600 level courses chosen between 610 (4 units), teaching practicum (2 units, repeatable once for credit), problem solving (4 units), independent study (0-4 units). Other 500 level courses (or below) are assumed to be 3 units each.

Culminating Experience: 6 units

Thesis option: This works as before, 3 unit Thesis I (695 and half of 696), and 3 unit Thesis II (the other half of 696 and 697). Approved thesis proposal either required to pass Thesis I or to enroll in Thesis II. GPA must be greater than or equal to 3.25 to pursue the Thesis option. It seems common across the CSU that the chair of a math thesis committee receive 0.5 unit per student per semester.

Comp Exam option: The student is required to enroll in one more elective at the 500 or 600 level (or can petition to waive the 500-600 level requirement to a lower level class level if they’ve taken all of them). Also, the student enrolls in a 3 unit Comp Prep course. Suggested comp exam structure: 3 exams total, all given at the end of the semester of intended graduation. Whoever teaches analysis and algebra will each make a 2 hour exam on the material they covered in their course until the course is offered again (i.e., twice). Thus, the student may very likely take a comp exam prepared by a professor who did not teach their specific course. The third comp exam will cover material from two elective courses, at least one at the 600 level (not Teaching Practicum), see the culminating experience page for info on this exam. The Algebra and Analysis comp exams are graded by a committee (one committee for each topic), consisting of the faculty who wrote the exam, and at least 2 other faculty. The Algebra and Analysis comp exams are offered at the end of every semester to anyone who wishes to take it, but the final comp exam is taken at the end of the expected final semester. Any failure of any of the 3 exams allows for the student to attempt it at most one more time, and only those failed exams will need to be retaken. The student must apply to take the Comp exam prep course, and part of that application is the assembly of a committee. See the culminating experience page for more info (We are still working on ideas to compensate committee members with WTUs, but scheduling an extra office hour is perhaps one way to formalize any committee member's effort.)

Sample 31 credit curriculum:

  • Fall semester, 1st year: Analysis 4-6 PM MW, Communicating Math 6-7 PM, Teaching Practicum 7-8 PM. (note that we might consider Communicating Math and Teaching Practicum to meet once per week for 2 hours each instead.)
  • Spring semester, 1st year: Algebra 4-6 PM MW, 500 level elective
  • Fall semester, 2nd year: Math 610 or Problem solving, MW 4-6 PM, 500 level elective, Thesis I (Thesis option) or another elective (comp exam option)
  • Spring semester, 2nd year: 500 level elective, Thesis II (Thesis option) or Comp Prep (comp exam option)