Requirements for the MA in Mathematics

(Note: the following requirements are for students beginning in Fall 2016 or later; students who arrived before then should consult with the Graduate Chair.)

The MA program in Mathematics at UH Mānoa has two principal components:

  1. Course requirements
  2. Paper and presentation

There are further specific requirements presented below.

Course requirements

For courses offered by the department, click here.

Students must pass 30 credit hours of mathematics courses numbered 400–699 subject to the following conditions:

  • All courses that count towards the 30 credit requirement, or to any of the other requirements below, must be passed with a B– or better.
  • At least 9 credit hours must be from the four core courses: algebra (611), applied mathematics (601), analysis (631), topology (621); and at least six credits must come from 603 or 607, 625, 644, 654 or 655 or 657, and 661.
  • At most 6 credit hours from courses numbered 400–499.
  • At most 6 credit hours can be numbered 649 or 699, unless authorized by the graduate chair. It is expected that the graduate chair will authorize additional courses if they are regular graduate courses that are running with a 649 number, but not otherwise.
  • Courses must be from the mathematics department, unless authorized by the graduate chair in consultation with the student’s advisor. It is expected that the graduate chair will authorize graduate-level courses from other departments that are judged to be relevant to the student’s work, and to have serious mathematical content.
Paper and presentation

To graduate, a student must write a paper on a research topic approved by the Graduate Chair and give a one-hour public presentation followed by an oral examination by the student’s Master’s committee.

Further requirements

Students must complete a graduate seminar requirement by either participating in a graduate-level seminar or by taking a 699 reading course in the mathematics department.

Additional university-wide requirements can be found on the Office of Graduate Education website under Master’s Plan B.

A LaTeX template for dissertations is available to department users.