Careers in Mathematics, Program highlights and FAQs
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Majoring in mathematics can assist with expanding career options, providing possibilities for very high salaries, furthering education, traveling abroad, and fostering unique collaborative opportunities. Mathematicians also develp highly specialized skills in problem-solving, analytical and critical thinking. These skills are absolutely necessary and desired by all scientific and academic institutions, as well as employers in industry. Every career choice has a position that requires the production of accurate data, cultivating a space where a mathematical mind can flourish.
Careers in Mathematics |
From Indeed.com...to read the full article, click this link / (PDF). All posted salaries are based on the National Average.
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Primary duties: Accountants review the financial records of a business and analyze financial reports, tax returns and other accounting data to ensure the company stays in solid financial status. |
Primary duties: Actuaries work within the insurance industry to develop policies and decide the proper rates for certain premiums. Additional skills required: must be proficient with various forms of programming languages. |
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Primary duties: Budget analysts review different budget proposals and decide how much a company can spend on various projects, services or products. |
Primary duties: Cost estimators project expenses for various projects or services a company hopes to spend money on. They work with clients and vendors to determine exact pricing and review project blueprints to accurately estimate each project's price and length of time. |
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Primary duties: Data analysts use statistical tools and programs to gather and interpret data to help companies understand how well they're operating. Additional skills required: Programming and clear communication skills |
Primary duties: A data scientist takes raw data and inputs it into a format that is easier to understand. Additional skills required: must be proficient with machine learning and programming software. |
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Primary duties: Economists study ongoing activity in the financial market. They collect and examine socioeconomic and financial data to advise business and government organizations on economic decisions. |
Primary duties: Financial analysts monitor, examine and forecast a company's financial status and recommend actions for leadership to improve it. |
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Primary duties: A financial planner works with clients to help them better manage their money and develop an effective financial strategy. They help clients to set financial goals, assess potential financial risks and build their retirement and investment plans. |
Insurance underwriter - $70,232 Primary duties: An insurance underwriter evaluates applications for mortgages, insurance and loans to determine the risk factors of approving an applicant. Additional skills required: conduct research and must be proficient in some programming languages |
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Primary duties: Investment analysts review financial trends and data to help companies understand where to invest their money and how much to invest. |
Primary duties: A market researcher gathers and analyzes customer and competitor data to help a company develop goals and action items to target its audience better and outperform its competitors. Additional skills required: clear communication skills |
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Primary duties: Mathematicians (Applied or Pure) use their advanced mathematical knowledge to create concepts or theories to solve common problems within various businesses. Additional skills required: must be proficient with various forms of programming languages. |
Primary duties: Math teachers work in elementary, middle or high school academic institutions to teach students different mathematical subjects. Additional skills required: must be proficient in speaking, thinking and engaging to various levels of audiences. |
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Primary duties: Meteorologists determine weather conditions based on data from weather satellites and sensors. They also observe the land, sea and other atmospheric conditions to predict upcoming weather patterns accurately. Additional knowledge required: must understand weather, physics and other elements directly related to atmospheric layers and behaviors. |
Primary duties: Physicists are scientists who study matter and energy to better understand how the universe functions. Additional skills required: advanced research skills |
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Primary duties: A purchasing agent buys various goods/materials for companies to use, through the use of research by comparing products from different suppliers to determine the best value for their company. |
Software Test Engineer - $93,093 Primary duties: A software test engineer conducts tests on various software programs to learn how well they operate and what they need to fix. They often develop new ways to test software programs using coding and programming languages accurately. |
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Primary duties: Statisticians collect and analyze numerical data of various businesses by conducting surveys, polls and questionnaires. They clean and sort through data from these findings and determine relationships between each data set. Additional skills required: must be proficient with various forms of programming languages. |
Systems Integration Engineer - $120,532 Primary duties: Systems integration engineers use electronic software and programs to develop and test engine control systems. |
| What sorts of jobs or achievements have UH Math students (current or alumni) obtained after graduation or received while within the major? |
Math Alumni Testimonials: (visit this page to see comments)
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S. Bruns: (Math B.S.) “I got a summer job off of the UH job boards at Reliant doing retail pricing. Then when I graduated I used that as my experience to get an analyst position at Direct [Direct Energy as a Pricing & Structuring Analyst. I am down on the trading floor and my job is to develop energy cost profiles for clients. It is like being an Actuary for the energy market. It took me five months to land, but the effort finally paid off. There are two people on the floor that have MS Applied math from UH from a couple years ago, and the person I replaced was UH Applied Math (I believe). Lots of economist degrees in my group as well]. I worked non-stop building great analytic models and finally got my shot at trading. I did well in real-time trading and was recently promoted to spec (commodities) trading this February. Haha, my math background was instrumental. I use statistics and probability models for 12 hours a day. It's hard to turn the brain off at the end of the day.” (Current position: NE/NY Short Term Trader at Direct Energy)” |
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Gallegos: (Math B.S. FMO) “I am currently working at San Jacinto College as a research analyst (Senior Research Analyst) in the Institutional Research and Effectiveness office. I obtained this position shortly after graduating from UH in 2010. Majoring in math gave me the analytical, statistical, and programming skills I needed to land this position. I use SAS to program and build statistical reports using studentt data. These reports are used by administration to make informed decisions that impacts student success. Although I despised taking computer science during my undergrad career, I am so grateful that I did. Computer programming and the analytical skills I obtained at UH, helped me learn the SAS programming language I use at work everyday. As a math major I initially thought I was going to end up teaching high school math, but I learned that with a math background you can go into any field, math is everywhere! For me, it's in higher education" |
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N. Tran: (Math B.A.; Minor: Business HR Management) "...I originally got into the energy industry in '09 where the recession was at it's lowest and no one was hiring. So I decided to take a job as a receptionist for a small energy consulting company to work my way up. The owner of the company said because I have a math degree, she choose me over all the other candidates; knowing that math will help me think and solve problems in a more pragmatic and logical way, especially in this industry (even as a receptionist, they wanted something who could think for themselves). Same with my current position (Senior Account Manager at Atlas Commodities, LLC); my superiors, each, have discussed how they like the fact that I studied mathematics in college, they are confident in my analytically thinking abilities. I use math everyday at work. Some of my responsibilities require outside of the box thinking yet still being able to systemically organize new procedures. Another responsibility is to organize large amounts of data and make sense of it; using excel and reading graphs and charts. I'm picking up a lot of computer skills: logic thinking, writing/creating formulas, how programs work; and applying it to my responsibilities..." |
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A. Sameei: (Math B.S. & M.A.; Finance M.S.) “My degree in Math is the driving factor that lead to my ability to become a trader (Trader at EP ENERGY). More often than not companies need quantitative thinkers…especially in analytical role (i.e.risk quant analysts, traders, marketing, etc...). The biggest hurdle for math graduates is learning the fundamentals of the underlying business in order to properly apply meaningful analysis. Once you've reached a point where you are comfortable with |
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Medina: (Math B.A.; Minor: Asian American Studies) “I’m a Geophysical Seismic Pre-Processor at a Seismic Ventures Inc. in Stafford. I do data input and preliminary analysis on seismic data. Basically I...map the layers of earth to find places to drill and sell the processed data. For more information, go to: www.seismicventures.com. Having the math background, with a little computer science, helps you on this field because of the major's emphasis on the broad and fundamental. If you are not capable of looking at the big picture, it will always be harder to find the proper solution.” |
Math Undergraduate Accomplishments: (visit this page to see more accomplishments)
Program Highlights |
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Lower-Division Requirements (16 hours)
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Lower-Division Requirements (16 hours)
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B.S. in Mathematics teachHouston Lower-Division Requirements (16 hours)
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B.A. in Mathematics teachHouston Lower-Division Requirements (16 hours)
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B.S. in Mathematics - Mathematical Finance Lower-Division Requirements (16 hours)
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B.S. in Mathematics - Data Science Option Lower-Division Requirements (16 hours)
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B.S. in Mathematics - Mathematical Biology MATH 2413, MATH 2414, MATH 2415, MATH 2318, MATH 3331, MATH 3338, MATH 3339 |
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FAQs |
| What fundamental Math courses should I enroll in, to know more about his field of study? When should I take them? |
When thinking about 'advanced' Mathematics, what probably comes to mind first is the standard Calculus sequence. In this sequence, you learn about limits, derivatives, and integrals and how to compute these quantities. Because many other majors used calculus in their own specialized courses, these classes are taught from a very applied point of view. A lot of emphasis is placed on knowing how to compute these quantities, but not necessarily on understanding where they come from, why they hold, and any limitations of this theory.
As a result, students are left with the impression that Mathematics is just Calculus, that Mathematicians are mainly interested in computations, and that there is always a recipe to tackle any mathematical problem.
However, Mathematics as a subject is very broad, encompassing areas like abstract algebra, real analysis, topology, combinatorics, complex analysis, probability, statistics, and many more. However vast, at its heart Mathematics is about learning how to take a problem, look at its basic components, and then use logic and abstraction to arrive at a solution under reasonable assumptions. In other words, Mathematics is about solving problems structured reasoning.
A good starting point to learn more about this subject is to take Transitions to Advanced Mathematics (Math 3325). In this class you will learn how to communicate mathematical ideas using different methods of proof, all while studying logic, sets, relations, functions and cardinality, and limits. You can take this course on your second year, or after completing Calculus II (Math 2414).
Follow up courses are Abstract Algebra (Math 3330), Intermediate Analysis (Math 3333), Introduction to Complex Analysis (Math 33364), or any of the other 3000 sequences. These courses can be taken in your second and third years. Of these courses, intermediate analysis and abstract algebra form the core of the major, as the theory you learn in these classes forms the basis for other subject areas. Indeed, as you progress through the major you will find that topics covered in these classes appear in more advanced courses, including Numerical Analysis (Math 4364 - 4366), Differential Equations (Math 4335, Math 4362), Probability (Math 3338), and Differential Geometry (Math 4350-1), to list a few. For this reason, if you are interested in pursuing a graduate degree in Mathematics, or a mathematically based discipline, a good foundation in, for example, Real Analysis (Math 4331-2) or Advanced Linear Algebra (Math 4337-8) will take you a long way.
For more information about degree requirements go to: https://uh.edu/nsm/math/undergraduate/major-minor-programs/
| Program details: What are Senior sequences and why do we need them? |
Senior sequences are courses that have been paired together because they complement each other, or because they are yearlong courses that have been split into two semesters. The goal of all senior sequences is to provide students with the opportunity to study a particular subject in much more detail. To graduate with a BS in Mathematics at the University of Houston you need to have taken at least one senior sequence. There are 8 senior sequences that you can choose from. What you choose will depend on your career goals and on what you want to do when you graduate.
The following link lists degree requirements and the 8 senior sequences that are available.
| Department details: Are there any undergraduate research opportunities in the department? |
Yes, all faculty in the college of Natural Science and Mathematics post research opportunities to the HireNSM website. On Job Board website you can also find internships and career jobs for math majors.
Faculty members can also help you find research projects that are suitable for undergraduates. A good strategy is to ask the instructor of one of your favorite classes for help. They themselves might be looking for an enthusiastic undergraduate, or they can point in the right direction. Additional information on how to approach faculty for opportunities can be found here: https://uh.edu/nsm/math/undergraduate/undergrad-research/
The Office of Undergraduate Research and Major Awards (OURMA) is also an important resource. This website presents valuable information about how to get started in research.
In terms of specific funding opportunities, the PURS and SURF programs have consistently supported undergraduate research in mathematics. PURS is a scholarship program that supports research during the fall and spring semesters. SURF is our summer research fellowship program. Information about these and other funding opportunities can be found at this link.
| Department details: Does the department award any scholarships? |
Yes. The Department of Mathematics offers 5 scholarships:
- The Charles P. Benner Scholarship
- The Blanche B. Grover Scholarship
- The Math Undergraduate Scholarship
- The Math Education Scholarship
- The Henry W. Graham Scholarship
Detailed information about how to qualify can be found at this link. To view previous scholarship recipients, please visit this webpage.
| Department activities: Where can I find more information about student groups/clubs/activities? |
There are a plethora of resources and information about events, groups, clubs, and activities located on this webpage.
| Department details: Whom can I speak to about becoming a Math Major? |
You can speak to the Director of Undergraduate Studies (Dr. Mehrdad Kalantar) and Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies (Dr. Nicholas Leger) regarding course selectives for MATH elective and MATH required curriculum. Math majors should also contact their NSM Academic Advisors to keep up with all of the requirements they need to graduate.
See here for more contacts:
| Other programs: If I want to apply to graduate school in Mathematics, whom should I contact? |
Please visit our Graduate Program Information page at the following link, https://uh.edu/nsm/math/graduate/.