Mathematics (Minor)
Program Description
Mathematics is the cornerstone of science. It provides both the language and framework for scientific thought, incorporating logical rigor and the power of abstraction. These attributes allow human ingenuity to extract deep scientific understanding from relatively simple experiments and physical observations. Mathematics plays a double role: On the one hand, it is a scientific field of its own that has yielded powerful and surprisingly beautiful theroretical constructions. On the other hand, mathematics provides the toolbox needed to solve problems and to model phenomena observed in nature or of interest in industry and technology. As such, mathematics allows humans to model the physical universe, to build efficient algorithms in computing, to develop powerful artificial intelligence methods, to analyze financial markets, to produce predictions for climate science, to map and study the human genome, to analyze the structure of the human brain, and a long list of etcetera’s.
NYU Shanghai offers two tracks for a degree in Mathematics: Mathematics and Honors Mathematics. Both tracks develop the pure and applied aspects of the discipline. Math majors acquire a solid grasp of the main areas of mathematics while being invited, through a number of electives courses, to apply this knowledge in a wide range of areas, including computer science, physics, chemistry, engineering, data science, operations research, finance, etc. Graduates are qualified either to continue with further graduate education, or to start a career in industry, financial institutions, logistics, statistical consulting, or any activity requiring abstraction capability, mathematical modeling skills or relying on intensive computational or quantitative techniques.
The Honors Math track requires students to take the Honors version of the mandatory Math courses and to keep both a general and a Math Cumulative GPA higher or equal to 3.65. Honors courses have a broader scope and breadth than the regular courses, exposing students to general definitions and complete proofs. The Honors program is very demanding, as the combination of distinguished professors and a homogeneous selected audience results in fast moving courses that often become undistinguishable from graduate courses.