Fall 2006 Undergraduate Major Requirements

WHAT REQUIREMENTS HAVE CHANGED?

Prerequisites - Instead of the previous MAT 108 requirement as a gateway to all of our upper division courses, several classes now serve this purpose. There have been other prerequisite changes, so, for continuing students using the old catalog, they will be allowed to take the new course with the same prerequisites required for the old course. Consult this table for new and renumbered courses.

Renumbered Courses - There are new courses, a few old courses were cancelled and/or content was moved to new classes, all of which has led to the renumbering of several courses. Consult this table for an overview of these changes.

Transitional Lower Division Courses - Two courses have been added, MAT 25 Advanced Calculus and MAT 67 Advanced Linear Algebra. Both MAT 25 and MAT 67 should help students make the transition from the more concrete, computationally intensive lower division courses to the more abstract proof-oriented upper-division classes. Mathematics majors should take these classes early in their studies, but no later than their second year. MAT 25 takes the role of the previous 127A. The previous 127ABC series has been shortened and is now MAT 125AB.

Entry Level Upper Division Courses - These courses are also designed to serve as a bridge between the concrete mathematics of the lower division and the more abstract concepts taught in the upper division courses. Instead of the previous MAT 108 requirement as a gateway to higher mathematics, several classes now serve this purpose:

• MAT 108 Introduction to Abstract Mathematics
• MAT 114 Convex Geometry
• MAT 115A Number Theory
• MAT 141 Euclidean Geometry
• MAT 145 Combinatorics

Core Courses - The core courses are intended to provide the basic mathematical techniques that every student should know. These include algebraic techniques (MAT 150A Modern Algebra), analytic techniques (MAT 125AB Real Analysis) and probabilistic techniques (MAT 135A Probability). Note: To distinguish the mathematics offering from the course offerings of the Department of Statistics, MAT 131 and the previous MAT 132A were combined to MAT 135AB. STA 131 and MAT 135A are not equivalent courses.

Enrichment Courses - These will allow the students to further their mathematical knowledge and skills in areas that feature the research strengths of our own department. Enrichment classes provide a gateway to undergraduate research opportunities (REUs) offered by the department and are also intended to point to various career paths. New classes include MAT 129 Fourier Analysis, which is important in signal analysis and computer imaging. MAT 133 Mathematical Finance provides the mathematical background to finance markets and can point interested students to actuarial careers. MAT 148, Codes and Designs, discusses the mathematical framework of error correcting codes. These courses are offered in addition to classes in mathematical biology, optimization, differential geometry, topology, numerical analysis, algebraic combinatorics, algebra and stochastic processes. As our department continues to grow, so will the diversity of our classes.