Graduate Program Overview
The Department of Mathematics offers programs leading to the degrees of Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy.
There are several programs leading to the Master of Science degree, some of which prepare the student to seek nonacademic employment, others prepare the students to continue to the Ph.D. degree. The interdisciplinary Computational Science and Engineering program gives students the opportunity to study mathematics and computing in a multi-disciplinary environment. The master's degree program requires 30 hours of coursework. The other programs include the Computational Finance Program which requires 34 hours of coursework. There are no required oral or written examinations, and a thesis is not required. A student with a half-time teaching assistantship normally takes two years to complete the master's degree program.
Among the requirements for the Ph.D. are a minimum of 42 hours of graduate work, passing written qualifying examinations and an oral specialty examination, writing a thesis, and passing a final oral examination based on the thesis. A student with a half-time teaching assistantship would require a minimum of four years to complete the Ph.D. program, and most students spend five or six years in the program.
Funding
Fellowships
For a list of specific fellowships see our fellowship page.
Beginning graduate students who intend to work toward the Ph.D. degree will be considered for fellowships. Some of these fellowships include the Andrews, Ross, Lynn, Knox, Purdue Doctoral, and Puskas Fellowships. These fellowships provide a stipend of $25,000-$27,000 or more for twelve months with all tuition remitted. An additional stipend is provided to cover insurance costs. These fellowships have tenures ranging from 1 to 2 years, after which the student will be supported with a departmental teaching assistantship or research assistantship up to a total of seven years provided satisfactory academic progress towards the Ph.D. is made.
Research fellowships are available for advanced students for both the summer and the academic year.
Purdue University is a tenable school under the provisions set forth by the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation. Hertz Fellowships cover tuition and all fees plus an annual stipend. Students apply directly for this fellowship.
For more information contact the Graduate Office or Graduate School or the Graduate School Fellowships webpage.
Teaching Assistantships
Students who do not receive fellowships will be given graduate teaching assistantships with stipends starting from about $23,175 per academic year. Half-time assistants usually teach four hours per week. Teaching Assistants must pay a partial student fee rate of around $300.00, and are also eligible for reduced insurance costs. Teaching assistant training and mentoring is provided by the Graduate Teaching Program.
Facilities
The Mathematics Library, located in the Mathematical Sciences Building, features an outstanding collection of research journals and reference material in pure and applied mathematics. The department maintains a network of Sun Workstations, several high performance scientific computing and graphics workstations, and equipment for high-quality graphics output. Supported software includes TeX, LaTeX, Macaulay, MACSYMA, Maple, Mathematica, and MATLAB. University facilities for research computing include an Intel Paragon parallel supercomputer. Student offices contain workstations and the Mike Keedy Computer Laboratory contains workstations, personal computers, terminals, and laser printers for graduate student use.
Applications
Electronic Application for Graduate Studies
The Graduate School application fee is $60 (U.S. dollars) for domestic applicants and $75 (U.S. dollars) for international applicants. The deadline for applications is January 1.
Applicants are not required to submit GRE scores.
Non-native English speakers need to obtain the following minimum scores on the paper-based TOEFL exam: Reading 19, Listening 14, Speaking 18, Writing 18 and an overall score of at least 80. The following minimum scores are required for the iBT: Reading 6.5, Listening 6.0, Speaking 6.0, Writing 5.5 and an overall score of at least 6.5. An official score report not more than two years old must be submitted (Institution Code 1631, Department Code 72).
Purdue does not discriminate against qualified handicapped persons in any of its programs or activities. Purdue is an Equal Opportunity/Equal Access University
Contact
Mailing Address:
Associate Head for Graduate Studies
Purdue University
Department of Mathematics
Telephone: 765-494-1961
email: gcomm@math.purdue.edu
Handbook
The Department of Mathematics maintains an updated, online version of its Graduate Student Handbook. Consult this guide for detailed information about the program and its requirements.
- Current Handbook - 2022
- Past Handbooks
Qualifying Exams
The Department of Mathematics maintains an archive of Past Qualifying Exams.
Related Information
-
Purdue University Graduate School
The official online site of Purdue University's Graduate Programs.
- Faculty Research Interests
A list of faculty research interests and contact information.
- Graduate Teaching Assistantship Appliction
Information about the Department of Mathematics Teaching Assistantships for Purdue students outside the Mathematics Department.
- Graduate School Employment Manual
Purdue University maintains an online version of their Employment Manual.