Mathematics & Statistics

Mathematics is one of the oldest learned disciplines and continues to be a vital and developing topic of research. It is the basis for understanding much of the physical world, and it has become essential for the study of modern developments in the social sciences.

Mathematics graduates are very much in demand in teaching, the business world, and the computing professions. The Vassar Mathematics Department offers a flexible major, enabling students to tailor their course of study for a range of interests, as well as a correlate sequence for students concentrating in other disciplines. Our biweekly colloquium, the annual Asprey Lecture, and participation in Undergraduate Research Summer Institute (URSI) offer opportunities to get a glimpse of the living subject that is present-day mathematics.

Mathematics begins with the notions of number, shape, function, and data and through the process of formal, logical reasoning discovers the patterns and relations between these ideas to articulate mathematical truths. These truths are rigorously derived through proof, the language of mathematics.

Graduates with mathematics majors are in high demand in graduate programs in economics, business, and engineering, and in education, law, and computing. The demands of critical thinking, precise reasoning, and effective communication that mathematics requires are also central to the goal of a liberal arts education, and they apply in almost every activity in life.

The study of the mathematical sciences at Vassar develops a precision of thought and articulation that is valued both within mathematics and statistics, as well as in other disciplines. The curriculum ranges over a large portion of the landscape of mathematical and statistical ideas from symmetries to measures of randomness, from calculus to abstract vector spaces. Through the use of computing, students engage with real-world data to answer research questions and understand the world around them. Developing a student’s intuition about mathematical objects and data is a goal of our courses, accomplished through lectures, workshops, assignments, projects, and oral and written presentations.