Mathematics - Fort Hays State University

Mathematics from Fort Hays State University is a Campus Bachelor Mathematics degree that prepares you for a Education career. A bachelor's degree with a major in a field of mathematical sciences is the minimum educational requirement for a career in mathematics . For many mathematics positions, especially in research and college teaching, one or more graduate degrees are required. The three options within the major of Academic/Applied, Education, and Computer Science give students interested in mathematics flexibility in preparing for a wide variety of careers. Traditionally, most mathematicians have been teachers, but this is no longer true. Mathematics and mathematicians are found in dozens of other fields, including industry, business data processing, computer science, engineering, national defense, statistical work and research. Still, there is a great need for highly qualified high school and college teachers of mathematics . The fact is that in today's world, mathematics is a necessary prerequisite to many careers. In fact, you may wish to visit this portion of The Mathematical Association of America web site to examine several different career opportunities for one holding a degree with a mathematics major. Regardless of the option chosen, the discipline and problem-solving ability gained in studying mathematics helps an individual adjust to an ever changing and technologically diverse world. Preparation: At Fort Hays State, each prospective mathematics/computer science major is assigned to a faculty member for academic advising purposes. The student's program is carefully planned to meet his or her needs and background. Each student is placed in initial mathematics courses--College Algebra, Plane Trigonometry, Pre-calculus, Calculus I--according to his or her high school background and scores on standardized tests such as the ACT or SAT, if available. All mathematics majors complete a core curriculum of mathematics courses before choosing one of three options within the major. The department also offers basic algebra classes for those students who may have weak math background or have not touched mathematics for a long time. Computer Facilities: Mathematics and computer science students have access to a wide variety of modern computing facilities on the campus, which is committed to extending the use of the computer throughout the curricula. Such facilities are used in the instructional programs in many ways, including computer laboratory assignments in various courses. Our facilities include a department mathematics library and a department computer laboratory equipped with up-to-date PC's running Windows XP supported with many of the latest software packages. In addition, the Computing Center of the university, located in the newly constructed Tomanek Hall, contains an IBM ES/9000 9121-260 mainframe computer, a DEC ALPHA, and three up-to-date personal computer laboratories, including one Macintosh lab. All PC's in the labs are network-connected. The IBM system provides students with the experience of using the IBM operating system and its programming language environment, the common standard in many businesses and industries for many years. The latest versions of UNIX systems provide students with the experience of using the UNIX operating system and supported programming languages widely used in research and academic environments, and of finding their way into more business and industry settings. Programming languages available through the various systems include Fortran, Pascal, C, C++, Java, COBOL, PL/I, Visual C, and Visual BASIC. Most of the PC computers in the student computer labs of the Computing Center have Windows XP and many up to date application software packages (including mathematical symbolic manipulation packages). In addition, there are more than 250 microcomputers accessible to the students in various locations around the campus; all of them are connected to the Internet and provide access to electronic mail, Netscape or other web browsers, and library catalogs. These personal computers are rotationally and sometimes continuously upgraded in terms of both hardware and software.Currently, the campus has begun to move toward a wireless network, allowing the student with portable computing devices the ability to connect to the campus network. The excellent computing infrastructure on campus put students in a high-tech-high-touch learning environment. Placement Service: We maintain a Placement Service to establish contacts with business, industry, government and schools for placing graduates in positions that will be mutually rewarding to you and the hiring organization. The Placement Office keeps up-to-date credentials of the students, notifies them of openings in the fields of their interest, as well as coordinates on-campus interviews. The placement record of mathematics graduates has been excellent. Virtually, 100 percent of our majors find jobs to their liking upon graduation or proceed to graduate level academics. Approximately one-half of our graduates obtain positions in industry and computer work and the other half obtain positions in education. Financial Aid: University scholarships and loans are available to well-qualified and needy students. The Mathematics and Computer Science Department awards several scholarships to incoming freshmen majors each year. The department also has several scholarships for continuing majors. In addition, the department employs students as paper graders, tutors and laboratory assistants. Students are also employed in other areas on-campus and off-campus. View more details on Fort Hays State University . Ask your questions and apply online for this program or find other related Mathematics courses.