About math graduate studies

Caltech has one of the best mathematics departments in the country, and offers a very strong graduate program.

The graduate program in mathematics is designed to prepare students for research careers in universities, industry, or government. Accordingly, only those students seeking the Ph.D. degree are admitted. In the past fifteen years, Caltech has awarded doctorates in mathematics to about 90 students, many of whom have moved into attractive positions as members of university faculty and in industry and government research.

Graduate students are encouraged to engage in creative research work after passing their qualifying exams. As a result of the informal atmosphere, small size of the department, and the large faculty to student ratio, graduate students have ample opportunity to interact closely with the faculty in research.

Caltech also has an excellent mathematics library of over 20,000 volumes and 250 mathematical journals. Students have access to a wide variety of computing equipment in the computing center and to personal computers in the mathematics building and other campus locations.