Mathematics

When it comes to education, sometimes smaller is better. With a student-to-faculty ratio of only 5-to-1, our upper-division classes are intimate in size, usually averaging 10 students. Like any department at any college, we have a certain number of required courses, but our program is designed to be customized to the individual interests of the student. Each student designs an individualized course of study in consultation with his or her advisor. Many of our students minor in other subjects or pursue double majors. Some of our successful double majors have been math/physics, math/chemistry, math/computer science, math/economics, and even math/communication.

Several of our courses are unlike anything you'd find elsewhere: 1) John Stillwell, a world- renowned scholar and historian of mathematics, teaches our History of Mathematics course, based on one of his acclaimed books; 2) Our Complex Analysis course is taught by Tristan Needham, using the innovative geometric approach that he pioneered in his prize-winning book, Visual Complex Analysis; 3) Our Applied Mathematics Research Laboratory is a yearlong course in which a small, select group of math, physics, and computer science students work intensively on corporate-sponsored projects; 4) We offer a unique, Problem-Solving Seminar, taught by Paul Zeitz, one of the three coaches of the most successful US team in the 35-year history of the International Mathematical Olympiad.