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College of Natural Sciences & Mathematics


To Do List for Current Mathematics Students in
Pure and Applied Mathematics and Applied Statistics

  • Remove deficiencies.   If you were admitted to the program conditionally, contact your advisor to determine what you must do to have the conditional status removed.  Generally this involves taking missing prerequisite courses, or repeating undergraduate courses in which you received low grades.

  • Take the GWAR.  The GWAR (formerly called the WPE) consists of a 75 minute writing test.  Please obtain a WPE/GWAR Information Bulletin from Testing and Evaluation Services, Brotman Hall, Room 216.  If you do not pass this exam, contact your graduate advisor for guidance.  If you have previously passed the writing proficiency exam at CSULB or at another CSU, you have satisfied this requirement. The U.C. Subject A requirement does not fulfill the GWAR.

  • Maintain a GPA of at least 3.0.  Graduate students whose GPA is below 3.0 for more than one semester will be automatically dropped from the program.
  • Decide between a thesis and comprehensive exams.  To complete the graduate program, students must pass two comprehensive exams associated to their program or work with a faculty advisor to write a thesis.   
Comprehensive exams
Students opting to take comprehensive must take both comprehensive exams during the same semester.  Students have at most two attempts to pass each exam.
  • The areas of examination for the pure mathematics students are Algebra, Topology, Complex Analysis, Real Analysis, and Functional Analysis.
  • The areas of examination for the applied mathematics students are Partial Differential Equations and Numerical Analysis.  Applied mathematics students may replace one of these exams by either of the two statistics exams.
  • The areas of examination for the applied statistics students are Statistical Inference and Experimental Design and Analysis.
Passing the exams:
Exam 1 Exam 2 Result
C or better
 C or better
 Pass the comprehensive exam requirement.
C or better
 D or F
 Pass Exam 1; fail Exam 2. If this is your first attempt, you must retake Exam 2; Exam 1 need not be repeated.
D or F
 D or F
 Fail both exams. If this is your first attempt, you must retake both exams.

Students must file the paperwork to Advance to Candidacy before signing up to take the comprehensive exams.  The exams are offered during the second and third weekend of each semester.  The sign-up period roughly begins three weeks before the end of the previous semester and ends roughly a week before classes begin.  Fliers announcing the exams will be posted in the department during these periods.
Please also check out Information for preparing your comprehensive exams

Thesis
The thesis option is a much more significant undertaking than the comprehensive exams.  A thesis is a collaborative activity between a faculty advisor and the student.  Both the topic and the content of the thesis should be generated in collaboration; students should not attempt to generate a thesis topic or research without faculty guidance.  Students considering the thesis option should speak with faculty members about the possibility of working together on a thesis. With the faculty advisor, the student and advisor should together:
  1. Solicit two other faculty members to be readers and committee members who will evaluate the thesis once it is complete.
  2. Write an abstract of the thesis work to be completed to be submitted with the paperwork required to Advance to Candidacy.
Students completing the thesis option must enroll in at least 2 units of Math 698 after Advancing to Candidacy.
  • Advance to Candidacy.  The catalog description of the graduate program that is in place the semester during which you Advance to Candidacy describes the program under which you will graduate.  Any changes made to the program before you Advance apply to you; changes made to the program after you Advance do not.  Before you begin the paperwork to Advance to Candidacy, you must 
  1. have taken the necessary steps to remove deficiencies in your preparation for graduate work (if you were admitted conditionally),
  2. have completed at least 6 units of graduate course work,
  3. have a GPA of at least 3.0,
  4. have passed the GWAR, and
  5. have selected the comprehensive exam or thesis option.
Get the preliminary form to Advance to Candidacy from your graduate advisor.  The program you plan when you file this paperwork can be changed, but that requires more paperwork, so choose your courses carefully.

The requirements for each program can be obtained from the catalog entry for the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. From the link below, click on the most recent catalog, and then on M, and then on Mathematics and Statistics.


Transfer Credit.  The paperwork to transfer the courses to CSULB takes place when the student advances to candidacy.  Courses used in obtaining other degrees (bachelors, master's or otherwise) are not transferable to CSULB.  At most six semester units of credit can be transferred into a graduate program, subject to the approval of the graduate advisor.  Courses taken through "Open University" at CSULB come under the same transfer limitations as courses taken at another university.  One quarter unit counts as 2/3 of a semester unit; thus an approved course worth 4 quarter units would transfer as 2.667 semester units.  Thus at most three courses worth 4 quarter units may be transferred into the program, earning 6 semester units of credit toward the degree at CSULB.  Contact your advisor for more information.
  • Pass comprehensive exams, or defend your thesis and submit it to the library. 
Comprehensive Exams.  Students must file the paperwork to Advance to Candidacy before signing up to take the comprehensive exams.  The exams are offered during the second and third weekend of each semester.  The sign-up period roughly begins three weeks before the end of the previous semester and ends roughly a week before classes begin.  Fliers announcing the exams will be posted in the department during these periods.

Thesis.  The thesis must be submitted to the Thesis Office by the deadline. The following web site shows the deadlines as well as other information for students preparing theses.   TeX and Word templates are available for the CSULB thesis format; contact your advisor for more information.
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