Upcoming Exam Dates
The January 2025 Qualifying Exams will take place from January 17th to January 24th
Time & Location: Examinations will be held from 9 a.m. – 1:00 p.m EST, location MTH 3206
Friday, January 17, 2025: Algebra and Mathematical Statistics
Tuesday, January 21, 2025: Analysis and Applied Statistics
Thursday, January 23, 2025: Probability
Friday, January 24, 2025: Snow date for any of the above exams
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Requirements for the Ph.D. in Mathematics (Exams and Courses)
The requirements below are for students in pure mathematics, not in statistics. For students in Statistics: Qualifying Exams must be passed in Statistics, Probability, and Applied Statistics.
1. Students must pass 2 qualifying exams from the following list:
Algebra (Math 600, 601)
Analysis (Math 630, 660)
Probability (Stat 600, 601)
Statistics (Stat 700, 701)
A student in pure mathematics can use at most one of Probability and Statistics to satisfy the exam requirement.
2. Students must take four additional semesters of courses from the following list, with a grade point average of 3.3 or better for the four courses used to satisfy this requirement. Courses with grades less than B cannot be included (for example, B− is not allowed).
Math 600, 601 (Algebra)
Math 630, 660 (Analysis)
Math 730, 740 (Geometry)
Stat 600, 601 (Probability)
Stat 700, 701 (Statistics)
Math 634 (Harmonic Analysis)
Math 642 (Dynamical Systems I)
Math 712, Math 713 (Logic)
Math 734 (Algebraic Topology)
Math 744 (Lie Groups)
AMSC 666, AMSC 667 (Numerical Analysis)
Math 631 (Real Analysis)
Math 670 (ODE)
Math 673, Math 674 (PDE)
The four semesters are not required to be in the same sequence of courses. For example, Math 730, Math 670, AMSC 666, and AMSC 667 would be acceptable. These four semester-long courses must be distinct from the ones supporting the qualifying exams passed in Part 1.
A student may take and pass a third (and possibly, a fourth) qualifying exam in place of taking the actual courses. For example, passing the written exams
in Algebra, Analysis, and Geometry would count as 2 exams plus 2 semesters.
One qualifying exam must be passed by January of the second year, and all requirements must be finished by January of the third year.
Students who have taken courses from the second list elsewhere may petition the graduate chair to have such courses satisfy up to two semesters of the four-semester requirement (although generally students should instead use these courses as preparation for qualifying exams).
Each course on the lists should have serious assessment methods (graded homework, projects, exams, and/or similar). There should be some significant assessment that is guaranteed to be done solely by the student (that is, an exam, not only homework).
Important note: The qualifying requirements for the Scientific Computation concentration of the AMSC program are different. In addition, students in the Applied Mathematics concentration of the AMSC program usually must take one or more exams outside of the mathematics department; see here for further information.
- The written exams and course options for MATH can be found here for the MA degree.
- Syllabi for the written qualifying exams
- Archived written qualifying exams
- Suggestions on preparing for the qualifying exams