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Degree Requirements

The Master's Program:  M.A. and M.N.S.
  1. Program of Study for M.A. and M.N.S.  Every graduate student must fill out a program of study (POS). The POS must be approved by a supervisory committee of three members and the graduate director. The form is now submitted electronically. Please contact Debbie Olson at debbie.olson@asu.edu for more information.

      M.A. (no thesis option): 30 credit hours of graduate coursework to include at least 18 hours at the 500 level. Courses from other departments must be pre-approved as graduate level courses.

      M.A. (thesis option): 24 credit hours of graduate coursework to include at least 12 hours at the 500 level and 6 hours of thesis credit. Courses from other departments must be pre-approved as graduate level courses.

      M.N.S. 24 credit hours of graduate coursework from the Department of Mathematics (prefix MAT or STP), of which at least 12 hours are at the 500 level. 12 credit hours of graduate coursework must be outside the Department of Mathematics, with at least 6 hours at the 500 level. These 12 credit hours must be in an approved related area.

      Non-degree Credit:  A maximum of nine credit hours of ASU graduate course work, completed before admission to a graduate degree program, or six credit hours from other institutions' graduate programs may be submitted for use on the POS. Only graded graduate courses with grades higher than "B" may be transferred. Maximum Time Limit: A Master's degree must be completed within six consecutive years starting with the first course included on a POS. This includes non-degree credit hours approved on the POS.

      Maximum Time Limit: A Master's degree must be completed within six consecutive years starting with the first course included on a POS. This includes non-degree credit hours approved on the POS.


  2. Written Examinations.  Qualifying examinations are required. Please see the academic progress guidelines for a time line. The exams must be attempted until they are completed. Students writing a masters thesis have the option of completing four courses of two qualifying sequences with at least a 3.25 GPA. Students intending to transfer to the Ph.D. program are subject to those requirements.

  3. Thesis and Oral Exam for the M.A.  The final copy of the thesis or equivalent must be reviewed by the student's supervisory committee and submitted to the Graduate College for format evaluation at least three weeks before the degree conferral date. The final oral examination in defense of the thesis or equivalent must be conducted at least one week before the degree conferral date. The examination is conducted by the supervisory committee. Applications for the examination are available at the Graduate College.

  4. MNS with High School Certification Option  The Department of Mathematics and Statistics in collaboration with the College of Education offers an M.N.S./High School Certification degree. The POS follows the same guidelines as the M.N.S. degree but contains more credit hours in the related discipline. Students must take 24 credit hours of graduate level mathematics courses (MAT or STP prefix). The choices of these courses, as well as of the exam, must be approved by the student's supervisory committee. Moreover the following courses are required:

    1. MTE 482 (3 credit hours), Methods of Teaching Mathematics in Secondary School, taught in the Mathematics Department.


    2. EDP 510 (3 credit hours), Essentials of Classroom Learning, taught by the College of Education.


    3. RDG 507 (3 credit hours), Content Area Literacy, taught by the College of Education.


    4. Internship, (8 credit hours), to cover the state mandated 8 weeks of High School teaching.


    5. Students taking SED/EED 594 (Middle Grades Mathematics Education) in addition will receive Middle School endorsement.

    The option for the MNS with high school certification is only open to students who have:

    1. Taught at least 3 semesters at ASU.


    2. Completed the TA training program of the Department of Mathematics


    3. Participated in one TEAMS (Teacher Education for Arizona Mathematics and Science) seminar series (or a comparable series of professional workshops jointly organized by the Department of Mathematics and the College of Education).

    The High School internship will be organized through the College of Education. Reasonable efforts will be made to accommodate the student's schedule for the internship (summer internships are possible). Students in the MA program or the Ph.D. program in the Department of Mathematics who seek High School certification may participate in this program as an addition to their MA or Ph.D. program of study. Upon graduation with an MNS with High School Certification option, the College of Education will provide the graduate with an institutional recommendation to the Arizona Department of Education for issuance of the Arizona High School certification. This program potentially reduces the time for Mathematics Master's students to obtain High School certification from 3 semesters to one extra summer internship.

Concurrent Master's Degrees

A concurrent master's degree can have a maximum of 10 credit hours in common on the POS and may not include Research (MAT 592) or Thesis (MAT 599) credit.  Transfer credit can only be applied to one degree program.

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The Doctoral Program
  1. Program of Study for the Ph.D. Every graduate student must fill out a program of study (POS). The POS must be approved by a five member supervisory committee and the graduate director. The form is now submitted electronically. Please contact Debbie Olson at debbie.olson@asu.edu for more information.

    2. A minimum of 84 credit hours is required after admission to the Doctoral Program:

    ** 24 credit hours that combine research (MAT 792) and dissertation (MAT 799)
    ** 30 credit hours (may include MAT 792)
    ** No more than 24 credit hours of MAT 799.

    Transfer of credit from Masters' program:
    ** Up to 30 credit hours of graduate work from a Master's program may be used for the Ph.D. POS, with a maximum of six master's thesis credit hours. (The Master's thesis and corresponding credit hours must have been used to complete the Master's program).
    ** Graduate courses receiving grades "B" or above may be transferred. Courses with grades pass, credit, or satisfactory may not be transferred.

  2. Written Qualifier Examinations Please see Written Qualifier Examination Structure and the academic progress guidelines for a timeline.


  3. Written Comprehensive Examination:  The written comprehensive exam is a four hour exam that covers material from two or three 500-level graduate courses. The exam content must be approved by the student's supervisory committee. Some pre-approved syllabi can be found at (website). If new topics are to be included on the exam, they must be submitted for Graduate Committee approval as soon as possible, and at least three months before the exam. Non-mathematics courses may be used for part of the exam.
    A student may try the same or different (approved) comprehensive exam if he/she did not obtain a Ph.D. level pass. A sutdent who has failed the comprehensive exam twice at the Ph.D. level must withdraw from the Ph.D. program. Under special circumstances the student may transfer to the master's program.


  4. Oral Comprehensive Examination (Dissertation Prospectus):   The oral comprehensive exam will determine the student's potential for completing a Ph.D. thesis and will establish that the student has sufficient fundamental skills to pursue high level research in his/her general area. The student must show awareness and understanding of the current state of knowledge in the chosen research area and make evident that s/he is on track to complete a Ph.D. dissertation. The oral comprehensive exam must be completed in time so that the Ph.D. dissertation can be defended according to the time-line established for satisfactory academic progress. (PDF file)


  5. Oral Defense of the Dissertation:  After the dissertation has been completed, the advisor should notify the graduate chair that the student is ready for the final oral defense. A suitable external examiner will be selected by the graduate chair and the supervisor. A copy of the dissertation will be sent to the external examiner at least one month before the scheduled date of the final oral defense. If all the comments in the external examiner's report have been addressed, the final oral defense proceeds as scheduled. The final copy of the dissertation must be reviewed by the supervisory committee and the Graduate College at least three weeks before the degree conferral date. It must also be sent for format approval at this time.


    6. Qualifier Exam Structure
    WRITTEN QUALIFIER EXAMS: A qualifying exam is a two part exam covering a particular topic. Each part of the exam is offered as the final exam in a qualifying course. If a student fails either or both parts of the exam, there will be a make up exam offered once a year. It is possible to take the qualifying exam without registering for the course.

    The exams are graded in three categories: Ph.D. Level Pass, Master's Pass, and Master's Fail. The student must achieve a the appropriate level pass on all parts of the examinations.

    List of qualifying course sequences:
      Algebra: MAT 442 and MAT 444.
      Differential Equations: MAT 475 and MAT 476
      Statistics: STP 421 and STP 427.
      Numerical Analysis: MAT 423 and MAT 425.
      Real Analysis: Prep. MAT 472 and MAT 473.
      Discrete Mathematics: MAT 415 and MAT 416.
      Mathematical Biology: MAT 494 (Math Bio I) and MAT 494 (Math Bio II)

    Students interested in the concentration in statistics should meet with the graduate chair to discuss the requirements. Students interested in computational mathematics should visit alternative qualifying course sequence. Ph.D. students enrolled in the concentration in computational biosciences, please see.