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Contact
Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer ScienceOlin-Rice Science Center, Room 222 651-696-6287
mscs@macalester.edu
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We offer majors and minors in Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, and Data Science.
Mathematics and Applied Mathematics Program
Our mathematics program honors the traditional liberal arts focus on pure mathematics complemented by a strong emphasis on applied and computational math.
The math major flexibly allows students to choose from a full slate of theoretical and applied courses, and prepares students for graduate study or careers in many fields of mathematical science.
The math minor gives students a solid base to supplement their studies in other areas across the sciences and social sciences.
Statistics Program
The statistics major emphasizes statistical modeling, real data applications, and scientific computing, and prepares students with state-of-the-art skills applicable to all areas of the natural and social sciences.
The statistics minor prepares students with the same skills, and supports their primary interests. Statistics minors are majors from many areas, including math, economics, psychology, and geography.
Computer Science Program
Our computer science major and minor prepare students for a wide range of future career paths, from graduate studies in computer science to work in the high-tech industry. Our program imparts necessary skills in software development, but also emphasizes a broad view of rapidly changing technology and its place in the world.
Data Science Program
Our data science major and minor prepare students for a wide range of future career paths. Our interdisciplinary program combines courses in data science, statistics, computer science, and mathematics. Our curriculum ensures that students acquire skills in all of the areas, with additional emphasis on using data to investigate open-ended questions across the liberal arts disciplines.
Mission Statement
Our mission in the Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science is to contribute to the broad education of Macalester students with a particular emphasis on patterns of thought, methods, and communication skills that are quantitative, logical, computational, and analytic in character. For our majors, we give a deep grounding that can support future professional activity. For non-majors from quantitative and analytic disciplines, we provide the foundational concepts and skills that assist them to progress in those fields. We help all students — the general education student as well as majors in our own and partner disciplines — to acquire an appreciation of the beauty and significance of our disciplines, including their relation to ongoing events in the broader world.
To accomplish our mission, we teach classes, carry out research, engage our professional communities, support student internships and student research, and sustain student participation in professionally formative activities such as contests and conferences. We provide leadership at the college, regional, and national levels and encourage excellence in teaching and professional exposition. We pay particular attention to the ways that the disciplines that compose the department are linked together and our view that successful formation in any one of those disciplines must involve contact with the others.