Mathematics Major

A mathematics degree from Harvey Mudd College will prepare students for a variety of careers in business, industry, or academics. Mathematical methods are increasingly employed in fields as diverse as finance, biomedical research, management science, the computer industry, and most technical and scientific disciplines. To support the academic and professional goals of our majors, we offer a wide selection of courses in both pure and applied mathematics. This selection is enhanced by courses offered in cooperation with the other Claremont Colleges, including graduate courses at the Claremont Graduate University.

Students will have many opportunities to do mathematical research with faculty through independent study, a summer research experience, or their senior capstone experience. Active areas of mathematical research at HMC and The Claremont Colleges include algebra, algebraic geometry, algorithms, and computational complexity, combinatorics, differential geometry, dynamical systems, fluid mechanics, graph theory, number theory, numerical analysis, mathematical biology, mathematics education, operations research, partial differential equations, real and complex analysis, statistical methods and analysis, and topology.

Harvey Mudd College seeks to educate engineers, scientists, and mathematicians well versed in all of these areas and in the humanities and the social sciences so that they may assume leadership in their fields with a clear understanding of the impact of their work on society.

When Maria Klawe was installed as the fifth president of Harvey Mudd College in 2006, she shared with the Harvey Mudd community the results of a year of planning and discussion on campus and across the country. “HMC 2020: Envisioning the Future” is an ambitious outline of the college’s aspirations for the next decade, and beyond.