Department of Mathematics

University of Denver

• You like it and/or you're good at it. Do you really need another reason? If you need a little more convincing, read on.

• Professional graduate schools (business, law, medicine) think it's a great major because they realize that studying mathematics develops analytical skills and the ability to work in a problem solving environment; these are skills and experience which rank high on their list of assets.

• Jobs in the private sector abound; careers where a mathematics major is particularly well suited include:
  • Actuarial Science
  • Computer analyst or programmer
  • Cryptographer
  • Economist
  • Elementary or secondary school teaching, college professor
  • Engineering analyst
  • Information scientist
  • Marketing research analyst
  • Mathematician
  • Meteorologist
  • Numerical analyst
  • Operations research analyst
  • Statistician
  • Systems analyst

  Whether you're interested in developing models and interpreting their results, or are interested in developing efficient algorithms to expedite known processes, mathematics and computer science are the tools of choice.

  • Models are needed to investigate air flow across the surface of aircraft wings, chemical and biological processes, astronomical trajectories and urban development. These models need to be designed, created, the data from them collected and analyzed, conclusions drawn and predictions made from them.
  • Possibly your interest is in the construction of the model; maybe it's in what the model tells you about the situation being modelled; maybe it's in how to collect and organize the data for analysis, or maybe it's in the analysis of the data itself. Maybe your interest is in developing a system to keep the data secure, or in developing your talents to circumvent the existing security of a data system.

• In the recent book The Jobs Rated Almanac author Les Krantz ranks 250 jobs according to six criteria: income, stress, physical demands, potential growth, job security and work environment. He obtained his data from the government, trade groups and telephone surveys. The top ten jobs according to Krantz:
  1. Web site manager
  2. Actuary
  3. Computer systems analyst
  4. Software engineer
  5. Mathematician
  6. Computer programmer
  7. Accountant
  8. Industrial engineer
  9. Hospital administrator
  10. Web developer
  Note that the jobs rated higher than Mathematician also involve significant mathematical reasoning and knowledge.

Here are various links to nonacademic job opportunities for mathematics majors.

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  This page was last updated on Fri May 2 07:51:37 2003

  Copyright © 2002
  University of Denver
  Department of Mathematics
  John Greene Hall / 2360 S. Gaylord St.
  Denver, Colorado 80208
  (303) 871-2911   info@math.du.edu
  All rights reserved.
  The University of Denver is an equal opportunity/affirmative action institution.

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