Â鶹Æƽâ°æ

Guidelines for pursuing Honors in the Mathematics & Statistics Department

Pursuing honors in the Mathematics & Statistics Department is an excellent way to enhance your academic experience, gain valuable research skills, and receive formal recognition for your hard work. The department offers two pathways for earning honors: a thesis or a portfolio. 

• An honors thesis typically requires two semesters of effort for independent research and writing.
• An honors portfolio involves assembling a body of work showcasing your dedication to the mathematical sciences.

Detailed criteria are listed in the course catalog. 

---

Suggested Timeline

• If you’re considering a thesis, start exploring research ideas and identifying faculty whose work interests you. Schedule informal conversations with faculty to learn about their work and share your interests. You don’t need to have a research idea prepared – just be curious! Discuss relevant coursework with your advisor so that you’re prepared for upcoming research work.
• If you’re considering a portfolio, think about applying for and completing one or more summer research projects before your senior year. Note that funding deadlines for these opportunities are typically early in the spring semester, so you should begin planning with faculty in the fall.
• If you’re considering either the thesis or portfolio option, confirm with your advisor that you’re on track to meet GPA requirements, including an overall GPA of 3.0 in all course work completed at Â鶹Æƽâ°æ and a GPA of 3.75 and 3.5 for all courses completed in the Department for the portfolio and thesis options, respectively.

Senior Year:

Guidelines for students writing a thesis: 

The usual route to writing an honors thesis in mathematics is to sign up for MA 381 in the fall semester of your senior year and MA 382 in the spring semester. Writing a senior thesis, especially one that merits departmental honors, will require an extended concentrated effort on your part and will require you to plan in advance. To help you to do this, we strongly advise that you pay attention to the following guidelines: 

1. You should decide on your general area of study, choose a thesis advisor, and submit your declaration by the end of the add-drop period of the fall semester (see above). 
2. You should have a preliminary choice of topic by the end of September.
3. You should begin your literature search immediately.
4. You should have an outline and/or a progress report for your thesis advisor before the end of classes in December.
5. You should submit your first draft to your thesis advisor early enough (roughly by the first week in March) so that several revisions and/or corrections can be made before turning in your final draft to the review committee. 

Guidelines for students submitting a portfolio: 

A successful portfolio will provide the department with evidence that you have gone above and beyond your course work and taken initiative to expand your mathematical toolkit. You can exhibit dedication to the discipline in many ways, for example, through independent research projects or enrollment in problem solving courses and/or mathematical competitions. 

The following are required elements of the portfolio: 

1. A CV or resume. This document should contain a list of: 
   1. Mathematics and Statistics courses taken. All major requirements should be listed with grades obtained in each course and semester taken. Additional courses that cover content adjacent to mathematics and/or statistics or courses taken at other institutions should be listed with course grades and a short course description.
   2. Any Academic Memberships.
   3. Contributions to the department (grader, Pi Mu Officer, etc.)
   4. Any supplementary activities that demonstrate your commitment to the mathematical sciences and the department.
2. Personal statement/reflection. This statement should explore your recent mathematical experiences, growth as a mathematician, commitment to the discipline, etc.
3. If you took a problem solving course and contributed to any problem solutions or participated in any mathematical competitions, a description of your role. Include citations if your work has been published.
4. If you have independent research work, an Executive Summary of each project. An Executive Summary is a short description of the project, including the problem details, work executed, mathematics used, relevance of the work, and background on program and time spent. You should include this in addition to any larger documents, like posters, manuscript drafts, oral presentation slides, etc.

For projects explored outside of our field or department, we encourage students to solicit letters of reference from advisors/mentors/instructors which provide context for how mathematics is explored in your research work and/or problem solving. 

You should meet with your portfolio advisor early in the semester to discuss key deadlines and to assess the quality of your portfolio. The first draft of the portfolio should be submitted to your advisor for review one month prior to the end of classes.