Tufts University
Department of Mathematics
Opportunities for Graduate Students
The Graduate Program in Mathematics
Information for Prospective Students
Tufts University offers both master's and Ph.D. programs in
mathematics; teaching assistantships are available. For information about
our department and the graduate school please consult our departmental web pages,
the Tufts Bulletin and the web pages of the graduate school.
Master's students
must either pass nine courses or pass seven courses and
write a thesis; the first alternative is usually reserved for those who
have passed oral examinations
in three areas of mathematics. Four of the
courses are required to be in specific areas to develop a breadth of
knowledge. A master's thesis is the result of directed study with an
advisor of your choice; it is usually a survey of a specific topic or an
in-depth study of some problem. The master's program is a significant part
of our graduate program. Many of our students pursue only the master's
degree and most of these get good jobs in industry or teaching; others go
on to the Ph.D. degree.
Normally, applicants without a master's degree in mathematics who want a
Ph.D. are first admitted to the master's program. After passing the three
oral examinations,
such a student may petition the department's graduate
committee for admission to the doctoral program. If this request is
granted by the committee and the Graduate School, the student is allowed to
take eighth and ninth courses instead of writing a master's thesis, so
that no time is lost in getting a master's degree on the way to the Ph.D.
Besides these oral examinations, the requirements for the Ph.D.
include an additional
oral qualifying examination and of course the dissertation,
which must be defended before a faculty committee. There are
language requirements for both degrees and a teaching requirement for the
Ph.D.
If you already have a master's degree
and wish to enter the Ph.D. program,
please specify the area in which you want to write your dissertation. This
will help us to decide whether we will be able to meet your needs.
A wide range of research areas is available for both degrees. Areas of
research in mathematics at Tufts are mostly in pure mathematics and include:
We are an active research community, and colleagues from all over the world
visit and add their influence. Moreover, Boston is a world center of
mathematics, and you can easily attend the many seminars at universities in
the area. Tufts graduate students can cross-register for courses at
Boston College, Boston University, and Brandeis University.
Our program offers substantial benefits for many types of students.
Currently there are 15 students. Classes are small (2 to 8 students)
and contact with faculty outside class is easy, so that students receive an
unusual amount of individual attention. Our students work quite hard
in a demanding but non-competitive environment where they get support from
both their peers and their instructors. If you are coming into the program
from a field besides mathematics, the program is flexible enough to allow
a certain amount of catch-up time.
The mathematics department has access to several mainframe computers and
owns Macintoshes and workstations that currently support research in
tomography, numerical analysis, and dynamical systems.
These computers are fully networked and the Internet
is accessible from all of them.
The Tufts library
includes a collection of books and journals on the mathematical
sciences, including over 3,800 mathematics books and
subscriptions to 100 mathematics journals; furthermore,
Tufts students have access to 11 other university
libraries through the Boston Area Library Consortium.
The department's building was completely renovated in 1989
and now has a new graduate study area as well as a common room,
faculty and graduate student offices, and classrooms.
With over forty colleges and universities, the Boston area is a
student mecca. There are many sporting, musical, and cultural institutions and
social events. There is much
to see, from the variety of neighborhoods and parks in Boston to the beauty
of Cape Cod and rural New England. Our picturesque campus is
conveniently located in the suburbs of Medford and Somerville,
about two miles from Harvard Square
in Cambridge and five miles from downtown Boston. Access to all parts of
the metropolitan area by buses and subway is convenient; there is
direct bus service to Harvard Square, and the Davis
Square station of the MBTA subway system is
about ten minutes' walk, or a short shuttle ride, from campus.
We have on-campus housing for graduate students; in addition, the local area
has many private apartments that can be shared by
several persons to reduce costs.
Employment opportunities for students' spouses are relatively widespread and
varied.
Please visit the web
site about Graduate and Professional Studies at Tufts. It gives
guidelines and lets you obtain application materials directly.
Applications for entry in September with financial aid
should be received by February 15. It is desirable to have the
application, together with all supporting documents, received earlier
since the Graduate School's office is very busy in February.
If you are a foreign applicant, i.e. if you are not a resident of the U.S.,
the Graduate School requests that you
submit your materials by January 15, since your application will take
longer to process.
The first decisions will
be announced about March 1; later applications will be considered until the
program has been filled.
We strongly urge you to contact our committee (not the Graduate School)
to verify that your folder has been forwarded to the mathematics department;
if any part of the application
(such as a transcript, a letter of recommendation, or the fee)
is missing or mislaid we will not see your
application and you may not receive any notification;
this can prevent you from receiving a teaching assistantship!
Stipends for new teaching assistants are expected to be about
$13,800 for 2003-2004;
they are usually accompanied by tuition scholarships.
The GRE general and subject tests are strongly recommended as part of
your application, and should be taken so that we will have the results
in time. In fact, if you want a teaching assistantship
it is essential that you take these tests unless it is impossible to do so;
in this case you should explain why you cannot take them.
At Tufts the
computer science program is in the Department of Electrical Engineering
and Computer Science,
which offers a master's program and a doctoral program in computer science.
If you want to do graduate work in computer science you should contact
that department directly.
Much of the department's communication with applicants is now carried out
by electronic mail, so be sure to put an e-mail address (yours or that
of a professor or a department) in the appropriate space on your
application or notify me of it separately.
If e-mail is not available, please substitute a fax number if possible.
This is important since we need to communicate quickly with those applicants
to whom we offer financial aid.
If, instead of using the web pages, you wish to request printed information
or application materials, please call the graduate school at (617)627-3395
(except if you are outside of the US, in that case, click here).
For information you cannot retrieve from our departmental web pages,
the Tufts Bulletin and the web pages of the graduate school,
please send e-mail to
<zbigniew.nitecki>
or write to
Mathematics Graduate Committee
Department of Mathematics
Tufts University
Medford, MA 02155.
Our fax number is 617-627-3966. If you want to talk with someone about
our program or to discuss your individual situation, please call
(617) 627-3234 and ask to speak to
Professor Z. Nitecki or
another member of the Mathematics Graduate Committee.
If you will be nearby, please come to visit; we would
be pleased to show you around and talk with you about the program.
Your visit will be better if you call ahead to let us know you are coming.
The mathematics department is in the Bromfield-Pearson Building,
located between Boston Avenue, College Avenue, and Dearborn Road; it is
number 16 on the campus map in the Graduate School brochure. Please consult
our separate page with directions.
