Departmental Honors

Majors may attain Departmental Honors in Mathematics by meeting the following requirements:

• Apply for honors during the second semester of the junior year;
• Attain a grade point average of 3.50 in the mathematics courses applied toward the major;
• Enroll in Directed Independent Research (Mathematics 402) and complete a research paper under the direction of a faculty member in the department;
• Present the results of the research in colloquium;
• Receive departmental approval for the entire project.

Students are encouraged to participate in mathematics organizations such as:

• American Mathematical Society (AMS)
• Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM)
• Council On Undergraduate Research (CUR)
• Mathematical Association of America (MAA)
• National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)
• Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM)

The Directed Independent Research course is an opportunity for upper level majors to do supervised research in an area of interest. Students have completed REUs, attended conferences and assist professors in their areas of research interests.

Although a few mathematics majors will eventually have a job title of "mathematician," most of us have job titles that do not immediately reveal our mathematical background.? Here is a short list of jobs that mathematical acquaintances of the Mercer mathematics faculty have done over the years.? Some of these jobs require a graduate degree in mathematics or a specialized field and some do not.