MS Program

Introduction

The Mathematics Department offers a two-year Master of Science (M.S.) program in Applied Mathematics, accredited in the US. It is carried out in cooperation with the Alfréd Rényi Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

This program follows the lines of the Bologna process regarding structures, while keeping the US standards and characteristics. At this moment, there is a unanimously accepted subject classification in mathematics. This classification is clearly reflected in the curriculum of graduate programs. In general, the basic courses are the same everywhere. Of course, different programs choose different subjects for elective courses. It is worth mentioning that our M.S. program is strongly oriented to modern topics in Applied Mathematics, including analytical, statistical, numerical and computational methods, which are known to be strong tools in tackling real world applications. Concerning the overall workload in credits, our M.S. program is similar to other European programs and stronger than US programs.

Our M.S. program is unique since:

•    It is an international graduate program in the region. The language of instruction is English. There is growing demand in the region for well-trained mathematicians, in particular applied mathematicians. Industrial companies, banks, research institutes, governmental and EU organizations need such kind of specialists. There are specific positions for M.S. graduates, such as, for instance: mathematician, statistician, system analyst, business analyst, optimization analyst, modeler, high school mathematics teacher, mathematics editor, manager. These specialists are supposed to play an important role in the region, as well as in the EU. In fact, we are sure they will be highly appreciated everywhere in the world.

•    Outstanding scholars are involved in both teaching and supervision.

•   This program contributes to the development of CEU as a research focused university, through close cooperation with other CEU departments (Economics, Environmental Sciences and Policy, International Relations and European Studies (IRES), Political Science, Sociology and Social Anthropology) in a joint effort to study regional phenomena, including those related to transition and globalization. Differential equations, graph theory, statistical and numerical methods, calculus of variations, computer simulations are widely used nowadays to develop various models associated with biological, ecological, economic, political, social phenomena. This kind of cooperation is specific to CEU. It is supposed that our graduates will be using their interdisciplinary experience when they hold various positions in the region or elsewhere. 

•   The program can benefit a lot from the opportunities offered by the rich local academic environment, including the Alfréd Rényi Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the Eötvös University (ELTE) and the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME). Indeed, they can support our program through their staffing and library resources, conferences, seminars, and their long experience in running high quality mathematics programs.

Note: In designing this program, we have examined similar existing programs of different universities, such as: The Australian National University, Brown University (Providence, RI, USA), California Institute of Technology (USA), Cambridge University (UK), Columbia University (USA), Illinois Institute of Technology (USA), ELTE (Budapest), Kyoto University (Japan), University of  Calgary (Canada), University of Leeds (UK), University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia), University of Texas at Austin (USA), University of Western Ontario (Canada), University of Sheffield (UK), Washington University.