The Professional Master's Degree

The Modern Mathematics Master's Degree: A Survey of U.S. Programs

“…With annual reports on doctoral degrees (e.g., Cleary, Maxwell, & Rose, 2013) and a multitude of studies and recommendations on undergraduate education(e.g., Bressoud, 2014;Bressoud, Friedlander, & Levermore, 2014), the mathematical master's degree has garnered little attention. Aside from articles and books that have considered master's level education across multiple disciplines (e.g., Conrad, Haworth, & Millar, 1993) or applied and professional degrees (e.g., Marano, Pedersen, Seshaiyer, &Slimowitz, 2003), it appears that the state of the "pure" mathematics degree has not been seriously examined since 1911 (as seen in Curtiss, Kasner, &Lunn, 1911).As related in Waldo, Townsend, and Bolza (1904), a committee was appointed by the American Mathematical Society (AMS) in January 1902 to "consider and report a scheme of requirements for candidates proceeding to their second degree, with mathematics as their major subject. "…”