Stony Brook Is Top Ranked in Applied Math

 

Stony Brook’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics has produced the most Bachelor’s and Ph.D. degrees in the country in recent years. The qualities of the undergraduate and graduate programs have also been ranked near the top.

UNDERGRADUATE ACHIEVEMENTS

Stony Brook graduated the most applied math Bachelor’s degrees in 2017-18, according to the U.S. government’s National Center of Educational Statistics. Of 3964 applied math BS’s, 379 came from Stony Brook. In other words, about 10%, 1 in every 10, applied math BS’s were from Stony Brook’s AMS major. Second place was UCLA with 296 and third was UC-Berkeley with 248.  While national data are not yet available for 2018-19, locally there were over 400 AMS BS’s graduated last year.

The Stony Brook AMS major has also been ranked for several years as one of the top five U.S. undergraduate programs in applied mathematics by College Factual, as cited in USA Today. The 2020 ranking is: 

                   CalTech 1st,    Brown 2nd ,    Stony Brook 3rd ,    Stanford 4th,    and Harvard 5th .

This ranking is based on earnings of graduates, quality of faculty in the department and related departments, and popularity among students.

For Stony Brook students concerned about career opportunities, the Applied Math and Statistics major is a natural choice; it trains students for four of the 7 most highly rated careers [source: CareerCast 2017]: #1 statistician, #3 operations research analyst, #5 data scientist, and #7 industrial/business mathematician.

GRADUATE ACHIEVEMENTS

The Department’s doctoral program has garnered similar recognition. Ranging across all mathematics, applied mathematics and statistics doctoral programs in the U.S., the Stony Brook Applied Math Dept. tied for the most Ph.D.’s graduated in 2014-15—34 – surpassing famous mathematics departments at universities like UC-Berkeley and Michigan with three times as many faculty [source: 2017 Notices of the American Mathematical Society]. It was in sole first place for the most math PhD’s in 2015-16 with 28 Ph.D.’s. In the quality arena, the most recent National Research Council ranking of U.S. graduate programs placed Stony Brook in the top 10 in applied mathematics.

Stony Brook President Samuel Stanley Jr., M.D., has said: “We have known for many years that Stony Brook’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics is one of the best in the country. It is truly gratifying to know that our faculty, staff and students are being recognized by external organizations; it reinforces our mission to provide access to excellence at an amazing value- especially in fields that will help shape our future.”