2nd MS Mathematics?

[Drew L]

Hi, I'm doing my MS Math at a mid-sized state school. I've looked into MS Statistics and Operations Research programs and for a long time considered a PhD in these departments. Now, though, I'm considering just applying to a program with a broad "Applied Math" MS so I can receive GTA funding to take a lot of the classes the MFE students take and be done in 1 year anyway. Plus if I want to do a PhD in OR or Stats I can transfer all those credits toward it.
I'm not interested in paying $60k for a MFE degree when I already have an MS Mathematics and a few extra graduate credits that don't apply to my degree. Which leads me to my next question:
Since I have 3-4 grad classes that didn't apply towards my MS can I transfer some to a MS Math elsewhere and shave off some time? Most programs let you transfer 6 credit hours, I'm just not sure how common that is.

Will it look goofy to employers if I have an MS Math and an MS Applied Math? To me it seems like a smart strategy. Thanks!

 

[Daniel Duffy]

IMHO 2 Msc in maths is not very useful. I don't see any major advantage.

 

[Drew L]

I'm not sure if you read the whole thread but it's not like I'm taking the same classes twice.
An "applied math" degree lets me take courses from outside the department and/or those cross-listed with other departments. It's also a lot more interesting to me (especially probability/stats stuff). The theoretical Math degree I'm doing now is probably a very useful combo with the applied stuff I'll study later.

 

[Pavlos Sakoglou]

Hi, I'm doing my MS Math at a mid-sized state school. I've looked into MS Statistics and Operations Research programs and for a long time considered a PhD in these departments. Now, though, I'm considering just applying to a program with a broad "Applied Math" MS so I can receive GTA funding to take a lot of the classes the MFE students take and be done in 1 year anyway. Plus if I want to do a PhD in OR or Stats I can transfer all those credits toward it.
I'm not interested in paying $60k for a MFE degree when I already have an MS Mathematics and a few extra graduate credits that don't apply to my degree. Which leads me to my next question:
Since I have 3-4 grad classes that didn't apply towards my MS can I transfer some to a MS Math elsewhere and shave off some time? Most programs let you transfer 6 credit hours, I'm just not sure how common that is.

Will it look goofy to employers if I have an MS Math and an MS Applied Math? To me it seems like a smart strategy. Thanks!

Why don't you instead extend your masters to another semester and take only financial math classes? You can also use your summer before that extra semester studying fin math alone or through summer classes. I am doing a similar thing with CS and it seems to work out (I am a grad math student too who is interested in tech).

 

[Drew L]

My uni doesn't offer financial math courses (we had one based on Zastawniak and Capinski for undergrad, but it wasn't very advanced). I've taken the few graduate probability and stats courses they offer (I actually took them as undergrad, and one didn't count towards my BS or MS due to some registration red tape haha) so for my MS I'm taking your standard theoretical stuff (analysis, topology, DiffEQs, numerical linear algebra etc).
They're running a special topics on combinatorics and graph theory this summer and in Fall I'm doing a Directed Reading with a professor on combinatorial optimization from papadimitriou's book.
I'm sure it's great stuff and I'm appreciative of the stipend and GTA funding but it's not the thing my heart/brain bleeds for like stochastic systems, algorithms and econometrics. This school actually doesn't have a graduate Econ program or industrial engineering department. Of course theory is important but I'm not a math professor or Math PhD type and I want to work in application.
And it seems if I transfer credit I can move to a cool town and get another MS in one year.

 

[Pavlos Sakoglou]

And it seems if I transfer credit I can move to a cool town and get another MS in one year.

Fair enough. But also think of diversifying your resume a little bit. It wouldn't seem "goofy" as you put it to an employer to have two maths MSc's, but I think it would look better if you choose either OR or Fin.Eng/Quant Fin instead.

Maths are important and quite heavy, but engineering comes more in handy sometimes in real life situations. Let me share this video with you, it's funny how they demonstrate the different approaches of solving the same problem

 

[Drew L]

Pablo's I believe you're right about the degree choice. But since no MFE or even MS Stats is offered in my state I'm looking at $18k/semester for tuition and possibly no credits transferring, so another year and a half in school.
The C/B analysis here says the MS Applied Math is the smartest choice, since I get GTA funding and can be put in a year. And I can choose a broad range of courses basically getting the equivalent of an MFE degree.
And honestly any quantitative interviewer should know that an Applied Math degree is very broad.