Applied Mathematics
What you'll do in college
Applied Math is for those who love rigorous mathematics but actually want to solve physical, real-world problems instead of just proving abstract theorems in a vacuum. Coursework heavily features differential equations, linear algebra, numerical analysis, mathematical modeling, and optimization. You'll spend your time figuring out how to translate complex physical systems—like fluid dynamics, financial markets, or electrical grids—into elegant mathematical equations.
What you'll do after college
Graduates become quantitative analysts (quants), operations researchers, cryptographers, and systems engineers. You might be modeling aerodynamic flow for aerospace companies, optimizing supply chain logistics, or building algorithmic trading models for hedge funds. It’s highly lucrative, but you will often have to explain to pure math majors that you haven't "sold out," while explaining to engineers that your math is actually useful.
Famous graduates
- Katherine Johnson — NASA mathematician whose calculations of orbital mechanics were critical to the first US crewed spaceflights; B.S. in Mathematics and French from West Virginia State University
- Claude Shannon — Father of information theory; B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Mathematics from University of Michigan
- Jim Simons — Founder of Renaissance Technologies and pioneering quant; B.S. in Mathematics from MIT, Ph.D. in Mathematics from UC Berkeley
- George Dantzig — Inventor of the simplex algorithm for linear programming; B.A. in Mathematics and Physics from University of Maryland
Selectivity vs. earnings
By acceptance rate
By SAT median
Majors in this category
| Major | Colleges | Degrees ▼ | Male/Female | Intl | 5yr Earn |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Applied Mathematics | 299 | 5,772 | 65% / 35% | 23% | $94,832 |
| Applied Mathematics | 166 | 2,407 | 62% / 38% | 24% | $96,600 |
| Mathematics and Computer Science | 52 | 643 | 68% / 32% | 19% | $92,383 |
| Financial Mathematics | 34 | 581 | 73% / 27% | 12% | $92,000 |
| Mathematics and Statistics | 45 | 488 | 60% / 40% | 33% | $90,070 |
| Mathematics - Computer Science | 1 | 338 | 80% / 20% | 30% | |
| Computational and Applied Mathematics | 27 | 327 | 63% / 37% | 21% | $88,777 |
| Applied Mathematical Sciences | 3 | 166 | 66% / 34% | 14% | $82,935 |
| Systems Science and Theory | 8 | 158 | 57% / 43% | 1% | $80,268 |
| Computational Mathematics | 14 | 136 | 59% / 41% | 26% | $107,896 |
| Mathematics of Computation | 1 | 95 | 69% / 31% | 37% | $113,873 |
| Financial Mathematics and Statistics | 1 | 82 | 55% / 45% | 45% | $96,719 |
| Applied and Computational Mathematical Sciences | 1 | 69 | 43% / 57% | 65% | $116,919 |
| Mathematics-Statistics | 2 | 49 | 59% / 41% | 14% | $133,382 |
| Mathematical and Computational Science | 1 | 33 | 61% / 39% | 15% | |
| Computational Finance and Risk Management | 1 | 29 | 79% / 21% | 66% | $116,919 |
| Engineering Mathematics and Statistics | 1 | 21 | 67% / 33% | 5% | |
| Financial Mathematics (Course 18) | 1 | 19 | 58% / 42% | 5% | |
| Mathematics with Computer Science (Course 18-C) | 1 | 19 | 68% / 32% | 11% | |
| Applied Mathematics and Statistics | 2 | 17 | 47% / 53% | 41% | $84,316 |
| Computational Mathematical Sciences | 1 | 16 | 69% / 31% | 19% | $96,590 |
| Computer Science and Mathematics | 1 | 14 | 71% / 29% | 14% | |
| Computational Finance | 1 | 11 | 64% / 36% | 64% | |
| Applied and Computational Mathematics | 1 | 10 | 50% / 50% | 0% | |
| Mathematics (Applied) | 1 | 10 | 20% / 80% | 0% | $96,590 |
| Mathematical Analytics and Operations Research | 1 | 9 | 100% / 0% | 22% | $84,435 |
| Mathematics-Computer Science | 1 | 8 | 62% / 38% | 38% | |
| Mathematical Biology | 2 | 7 | 0% / 100% | 0% | $91,873 |
| Quantitative Biology | 1 | 7 | 43% / 57% | 43% | |
| Systems Science | 2 | 3 | 33% / 67% | 0% |