<p>DS is currently a junior at top 40 college majoring in math with a minor in computer science. GPA in major is 4.0 and overall GPA is around 3.9. He is interested in attending grad school for a masters degree in math but is not interested in obtaining a PhD. </p>
<p>What top graduate math programs offer a terminal masters degree? Nearly all of the top schools that are known for having strong graduate programs in math -- Princeton, U Chicago, Columbia, Duke, U Wisconsin, etc. -- are geared towards PhD candidates only and he does not want to lie to schools about his intentions. Where are the similar quality programs that do offer the terminal masters degree?</p>
<p>He might want to look at an MS in statistics then. Neither employers nor academia look very highly upon terminal math masters degrees, although they are certainly helpful towards becoming a teacher.</p>
<p>An MS in stats generally leads to industry, and most top schools offer them (whereas they wouldn’t offer a general math masters)</p>
<p>Trout, are you saying that if someone has no interest in teaching and plans to go into industry, then there is no point in getting a masters degree in math? (Assume he wasn’t interested in statistics, but another branch of applied math, so the MS in stats isn’t an option.) Would not successfully completing more advanced math courses – at the graduate level – count for something?</p>
<p>Math is most useful when it is combined with a field for applications. The most marketable Master’s degrees go by names other than “math”: statistics, finance, operations research, computational x, numerical analysis, scientific computing, industrial mathematics, etc. Some disciplines of computer science (graphics, image processing, sound processing, cryptography) are basically all math.</p>
<p>The term “applied math” is rather misleading because “applied” math courses, especially at the graduate level, can be very theoretical. Students might spend a lot of time proving error bounds and never think about a single application.</p>