For Prospective Students

Our program features:

A well-rounded preparation for a variety of careers in academia and industry
Financial support for five or six years though research, teaching, and internships:
- assistantships providing a variety of teaching experiences
- internship opportunities at companies and government labs
A unique Sonoran Desert location in the heart of the historic Southwest
A strong academic program including:
- a rigorous foundation in core mathematics: algebra, analysis, and geometry-topology
- a second-year research experience (RTGs)
- a variety of research specialties, encompassing the creation, application, and teaching of mathematics, including:
  - Algebra and Geometry
  - Analysis
  - Applied Mathematics
  - Mathematics Education
  - Probability and Statistics
A nationally recognized tradition of innovation in teaching and curriculum development

Finances

Students making good academic progress and fulfilling their teaching obligations can count on support in the form of teaching assistantships (TAs), fellowships, and Research Assistantships. MA and MS students will be supported for up to two years. PhD students will be supported for up to five years, or in some cases six years, including any time supported as a Master's student.

Salaries for TAs, RAs, and fellowships are currently in the range of $19,278 to $20,135 for the academic year. (Your pay increases as you pass certain milestones like the qualifying exams and the comprehensive exam.) There is also the possibility of support in summer months through summer teaching, research positions, and internships.

TAs, RAs, and fellowships include a full waiver of tuition (both in-state and out-of-state) as well as individual health insurance through Campus Health Services. Students are responsible for paying the remaining miscellaneous fees.

In recognition of the demands on parents of newborns or newly adopted children, continuing Graduate Assistants anticipating the arrival of a new baby or child may apply for a paid Graduate Assistant Parental Leave for up to six weeks of new parenthood in addition to Family Medical Leave.

When comparing assistantships and fellowships across universities, it is important to take into consideration the cost of living. Housing in Tucson is quite inexpensive compared to other popular locations.

Living in Tucson

Students

The graduate student community in the mathematics department is a friendly bunch. You'll meet several graduate students during the Integration Workshop before classes begin. In the core classes you'll have the opportunity to meet weekly with an experienced graduate student “Super TA” to go over problems and questions. We also run a weekly Graduate Student Colloquium to share ideas and practice speaking. A less formal weekly meeting is the graduate student tea.

Graduate Students are involved in administration. The Mathematics Department Graduate Committee includes a graduate representative elected by the graduate students. At the university level there is a Graduate and Professional Student Council.

Of course one must also take time for fun and games. There are several department intramural sports teams. Most recently softball and flag football have been popular.

To be put in touch with a current graduate student, please contact the graduate student representative.

Housing

One of the joys of living in Tucson is the wide variety of affordable housing. This is one aspect of the low cost of living here. There are many charming homes for rent near campus. Often owners will simply post a For Rent sign rather than listing the property in the Classifieds. A day or two driving around can yield wonderful results. Of course, that's not an option if you're arranging housing prior to arriving in Tucson. There are some newspaper links at the bottom of the page and here are some online housing resources to start with:

The City

Things To Do

Outdoor:
- Desert Museum
- Biking
- Climbing
- Saguaro National Park
- The Grand Canyon (5 hours away)
- The Mogollon Rim (3-4 hours away)
Arts:
Newspapers:

From the UofA website

Did you know...

There are approximately 55 tenured or tenure-track faculty in the department whose research interests encompass the creation, application and teaching of mathematics.
Faculty in the Mathematics Department have been awarded the AMS-SIAM Norbert Wiener Prize in Applied Mathematics, the Dirac Medal, a Presidential Young Investigator Award, a Fulbright Award, DOE Early Career Principal Investigator Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Monroe Martin Prize, the American Statistical Association's Distinguished Service Medal, Sloan Foundation Fellowships and NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowships. (Check out the complete list of faculty awards.)
Each year about forty to fifty external funding awards bring approximately $2 million to the Mathematics Department.
The Mathematics Department has a close working relationship with the Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Applied Mathematics and the Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Statistics. Students from the three graduate programs interact extensively.
Graduate teaching assistants in the Mathematics Department teach their own courses, and the department provides substantial opportunities to help them improve and broaden their teaching portfolios.
The Department is a national leader in the use of technology in mathematics education and was awarded the Theodore M. Hesburgh Certificate of Excellence for Enhancing the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics with Technology.
The Southwest Center for Arithmetical Algebraic Geometry hosts a winter school which brings together the leaders in the field and the best students for an intensive week of lectures and projects. The Center also hosts a Distinguished Lecture Series.
The Mathematics Department offers Outreach Scholar positions where students are supported to do an outreach or service project.
Tucson has more than 300 sunny days per year and is surrounded by several mountain ranges with peaks over 9,000 feet.