Program Opportunities
Overview
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects demand for mathematicians and computational scientists to experience much faster than average growth, with career opportunities increasing between 26 and 30 percent from 2018 to 2028. Manchester University’s new Applied Mathematics major is designed for students wishing to enter industry in a wide variety of fields, including advanced manufacturing, transportation, logistics, telecommunications, cybersecurity, image processing, and orthopedics. Our graduates are creative problem-solvers and proficient mathematical modelers in a wide variety of real‐world contexts. Applications include scheduling, medical imaging, computer simulation, network planning and routing, optimization, and traffic flow. In recent years our graduates have taken positions at major corporations such as General Motors, Raytheon, Bridgestone, and CNO Financial Group.
Successful students will be those who enjoy working on challenging questions, think creatively when facing ill-defined problems, and appropriately apply mathematical concepts and techniques in a variety of settings. Manchester students have opportunities to broaden their skills through complementary programs in Software Engineering, Computer Science and Data Science, also offered by the Marvin L. Bittinger Department of Mathematics and Computer Science.
Coursework
Foundational Courses – These courses lay the groundwork for students to understand and apply a variety of analytical and computational techniques and develop strong model-building skills.
- Calculus I and II
- Discrete Mathematics
- Linear Algebra I
- Statistical Analysis
- Computer Programming
Current Applied Courses - These courses have recently been enhanced to include even more real-world applications, in-depth projects, and mathematical modeling using applicable software.
- Ordinary Differential Equations
- Scientific Computing
- Operations Research
- Linear Algebra II
New Courses - Designed to enhance the Applied Mathematics program as well as our new program in Data Science.
- Probability & Simulation
- Machine Learning
Capstone Experience – During the final year, students either pursue a real-world mathematical modeling project under the guidance of a faculty member or gain internship experience working for a regional industry. Students continue to acquire and enhance skills in defining a problem, collecting relevant information, performing mathematical analysis, and communicating results.
Program Features
While many colleges and universities claim to provide an applied mathematics major, most simply add a few applied courses to a traditional mathematics degree; only a handful of programs in Indiana provide a degree fully focused on industry applications and careers. Uniquely, at Manchester we provide a comprehensive applied mathematics program in a liberal arts setting.
Students majoring in Applied Mathematics can easily add minors in Computer Science or Data Science. Or students majoring in these areas can pursue a minor in Mathematics.
Manchester’s Applied Mathematics program also prepares students to pursue a master’s degree in areas such as applied mathematics, operations research, computational science or statistics.
Careers for a Mathematics Major
- Account
- Actuary
- Bank Officer
- Computer Programmer
- Cost Analysist
- Economist
- Engineer
- Financial Consultant
- Logisticians
- Logistics Analysts
- Logistics Engineers
- Logistics Manager
- Market Research Analyst
- Mathematician
- Operations Research Analysts
- Physicist
- Reliability Engineer
- Statistician
- Teacher/Professor
- Supply Chain Analyst
- 111 Careers for a Mathematics Major
Student Success
- Josh Jordan (’20) – CNO Financial Group, Carmel, IN
- Joe Swartz (‘19) – Raytheon, Fort Wayne
- Ryan Morley (’19) – General Motors, Detroit
- Nick Baker (’18) – NCAA Headquarters, Indianapolis