Employers seek graduates with mathematics and statistics background and mathematics and statistics majors. They do this even when they don't need functions integrated, series summed, or theorems proved. They seek mathematicians because mathematicians are bright and creative. Their minds are supple from years of consciousness-expanding courses, and they are at home with abstract ideas.
Consequently, our graduates work in a large variety of areas (some have ended up in Congress). The following table details our majors' occupations after graduation in the 90's:
| Field | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 00 | |
| grad school | |||||||||||
| math. sciences | 3 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| grad school other | 3 | 3 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| education | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| business | 7 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | |
| finance | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 5 | |
| consulting | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 1 | |
| computing | 2 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | |
| scientific | 1 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| unspecified | 6 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 4 | |
| total # majors | 21 | 23 | 21 | 23 | 22 | 20 | 26 | 19 | 16 | 19 | |
Most of the graduates who went to graduate school in the mathematical sciences enrolled in masters programs. The most common graduate school choice in the other category was business school. The second most common was medical school.
To give this some more color, here are some occupations taken from a list of recent mathematics graduates:
corporate administrator... technical writer... computer consultant... senior programmer... medical student... county board supervisor... associate programmer... graduate student (computer science)... product line manager... programmer and analyst... mechanical engineer... high school math teacher... senior technical associate... graduate student (statistics)... account executive... associate programmer... project coordinator... graduate student (mathematics)... technical staff ...In recent years, several majors have also joined the Peace Corps.
You can find more information on careers in the files outside the classrooms on the third floor of Burton Hall. The department annually hosts a career panel. Several alumnae and people in the professional world participate.
We have a video ``Careers in Mathematics" produced by the American Mathematical Society, the Mathematical Association of America and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. Ask Pau Atela if you want to borrow it. Information about careers in statistics is also available from Katherine Halvorsen and Nick Horton.