Career Opportunities

In January 2009, the Wall Street Journal published a ranking of 200 professions; the top three were: 1. Mathematician, 2. Actuary, 3. Statistician.  Abundant and attractive opportunities exist for individuals with the highly developed mathematical and statistical skills and problem-solving ability that the major provides.  Many companies avidly seek such individuals, especially those with knowledge of software packages and computational methods.  The American Mathematical Society maintains a website with a wealth of information and advice about careers in mathematics: www.ams.org/careers.

Employment opportunities for mathematicians and statisticians in business, industry, and government are many and varied. The habits of careful, analytic thought instilled by training in mathematics and statistics are valuable for scientific careers, as well as careers in finance, actuarial science, data analytics, and management.  Math majors with coursework in computation and statistics compete favorably with majors in computer science and engineering for positions in computer-related industries and in the burgeoning field of data science. For students interested in teaching, there are many opportunities in the primary and secondary schools.  Majors in the actuarial concentration have been able to take advantage of the large number of insurance companies in Massachusetts, Connectictut, and New Hampshire via the department's annual actuarial career fair.

Our majors who choose to go on to graduate school mostly choose programs in education, applied math, statistics, computer science, pure math and business, but others have entered programs in biostastics, epidemiology, operations research, potlical science and philosophy.

For more information on career opportunities, contact the Chief Undergraduate Adviser, tel. (413) 545-2282, Lederle Graduate Research Tower (LGRT) 1521E.