Master of Science in Mathematics - Foundations of Advanced Studies

at University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee USA

Mediated communication brings information, persuasion, and entertainment to our neighborhoods, our nation, and our world. As the choices expand and the reach of the media becomes more global, media producers can be anyone from a major corporation to an individual activist with a Web site, and media consumers can interact with the products they encounter in a multitude of ways.

The MA in Media Studies offered through the Department of Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies is wide ranging and interdisciplinary. The goal of the program is to foster knowledge and understanding of mass media and society through critical, cultural, historical, legal, ethical, or social scientific approaches. One particular emphasis of the program is the relationship between the media and the public interest.

Medical laboratory scientists are trained in the theoretical and practical aspects of laboratory medicine, which are critical to the detection, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases. Medical Laboratory Science offers a wide variety of career options, including hospitals, clinics, independent laboratories, public health facilities, business, industry, research, sales, and marketing. Students also may use this major to prepare for medical or graduate school. Students successfully completing this program are eligible to sit for a national certification exam offered by the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP-BOC). The UWM Medical Laboratory Science Program is accredited by the National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences (NAACLS).

Civil Engineering is a profession that deals with the infrastructure of society and impacts your everyday life. From the roads and bridges you use every day to the drinking water that comes out of your tap at home, civil engineers work to develop safe, efficient and sustainable ways to continually improve our infrastructure.

Environmental Engineering and Water Resources Engineering
Environmental engineering uses the principles of engineering, soil science, biology, and chemistry to develop solutions to environmental problems. Water resources engineering (and management) includes engineering for both water supply management and water excess management.

The MA in Language, Literature, and Translation (MALLT) is an interdisciplinary MA degree program focused on global languages, literatures and translation. With over 50 faculty from five different departments, MALLT offers a flexible program of study tailored to your professional goals. Three departments—French, Italian and Comparative Literature, Foreign Languages and Literature and Translation & Interpreting Studies cooperate in offering this interdepartmental, interdisciplinary master’s program designed for the student who wishes to focus on language, literature, and translation on a cross-cultural basis.

Students in the Biomedical Sciences major are awarded a Bachelor of Science degree upon completion of all requirements. This submajor provides excellent preparation for medical, physician assistant, dental, or veterinary school, biomedical research, forensic science, or employment with pharmaceutical or biotechnology companies.

Psychology is a science that provides critical insights into human behavior. Psychologists investigate how behavior is modified in the face of psychiatric disorders or disease and how the brain gives rise to the rich tapestry of behaviors that govern our day-to-day experiences.

A psychology major gives you much career flexibility because of its emphasis on reasoning, problem solving, critical thinking, communication, research and writing. In addition to becoming a counselor or therapist, many students go into human resources, sales, marketing, business management, law, medicine, social work, real estate, social services, and more – all fields that require comprehensive knowledge of human behavior.

Everything we use is made of some material or combination of materials. Materials science is involved with all the processes that turn natural resources into useful products that impact all facets of our economy such as aerospace, electronics, transportation, communication, construction, recreation, entertainment and environment.

Concentrations:

• Biomaterials
• Materials for energy application
• Materials processing
• Advanced materials characterization
• Metal casting
• Specific courses in ceramics, polymers, composites, and electronic materials

Actuarial science is the quantitative analysis of risk. In addition to mathematics and statistics courses, students in actuarial science take classes in finance, economics, and computer programming.  

What Do Actuaries Do?
Actuaries help individuals, businesses and society manage risk by evaluating the likelihood of future events and creating plans to reduce the negative financial or emotional impact of undesirable events. Some of the questions that actuaries address on a daily basis include:

• What price best balances an insurance company’s risk tolerance with various risk parameters such as age of the insured, health status, place of residence, and other risk characteristics?
• What would be the economic loss in the event of a flood, and how can these costs be covered?
• How large a fund is needed for a company to provide pensions for its employees?
• How likely is it for someone to be hospitalized? What is the average duration of a hospital stay, and how can the costs associated with each day of hospitalization be provided for?
• In the event of a merger, how can the employee benefits plans of the different organizations be reconciled?
• How should an investment portfolio be balanced to maximize return and minimize risk?
• Actuaries also must take this information and convey it to their companies and customers clearly and concisely through written reports, graphs, charts, or other visual or oral presentation formats.

The counseling program in the Department of Educational Psychology offers two distinct concentration areas:

• Clinical Mental Health Counseling
• School Counseling

Given UWM’s location in the largest urban area in Wisconsin, the counseling faculty is committed to training multiculturally competent community counselors and school counselors to serve clients in urban environments. Both concentrations share a core preparation in the areas of counseling and educational psychology. As students make progress in their program of studies, their focus will take on a more specialized training with content specific courses and field placements where they will refine their counseling skills in practical settings.

The concentrations train counselors to work with a diverse group of clients in urban settings and to deliver services in an ethical manner, as outlined by professional codes of conduct. They share in common courses comprising an Educational Psychology core of studies, a general Counseling core of studies, and a Concentration core. The Educational Psychology core provides knowledge for understanding research and professional scholarship, techniques of educational and psychological measurement, and typical human growth and development across the life-span. The Counseling core courses provide training in basic helping processes and relationships, career development, social and diversity issues in counseling, group work, appraisal of client issues, counseling theory, and the role of family systems. The Concentration core provides training in advanced strategies for helping clients change, and opportunities for increasing competency with specific populations through field placement. Pre-Practicum, Practicum I and Practicum II provide 700 hours of supervised clinical training which involves the refinement of more advanced and sophisticated counseling skills in placements in actual counseling settings.

Students are required to spend 20 hours each week during the semester at their placement site (an exception to this hour requirement is described below for students interested in seeking experience in dual concentrations).

The Clinical Mental Health Counseling concentration prepares students for work in a variety of community settings such as mental health clinics, community agencies, counseling centers, colleges and universities, and business and industry. Students arrange their program of studies in consultation with their advisors so that the 60 credits earned toward a master’s degree will meet selected state certification requirements.

The Department of Geography offers both master’s and doctoral programs of study across a range of systematic, regional, and technical fields, with innovative energy in the doctoral program for studying urban environments. The department’s overall strengths are aligned along a theme of “Changing Environments,” with three major axes, each responsive to areas with strong demand for new professionals:

• Urban Environments: This area emphasizes the spatial interactions of economic systems as well as political, social, cultural, environmental, technological, and other forces that influence the people, identities, landscape, development, and dynamics of urban areas. With the world’s population becoming increasingly urbanized and globalized, courses examine the continuing challenges of urban growth and change, race, ethnicity, and gender in the city, immigration and identity politics, and spatial aspects of urban planning processes and political decision-making.
• Physical Geography and Environmental Studies: This area addresses the interactions among natural forms and processes on the earth’s surface, the impact and implications of global climate change, and human connections with those natural phenomena. Courses discuss and analyze the distribution and processes of earth surface landforms (geomorphology), soils (pedology), plants and animals (biogeography), water (hydrology), and long-term atmospheric conditions (climatology). Overlapping emphases include phenology, water resources, conservation, natural hazards, natural resource scarcity, and the mounting challenges of global environmental change.
• Geographic Information Science (GIS): This area emphasizes using geospatial technology to further understanding of spatial interactions among natural and social forces at multiple scales across the Earth’s surface, and exploring the impacts of using such technology on social and cultural interactions. Courses examine geographic information collection (including remote sensing), data analysis and geocomputation (spatial analysis), information presentation (cartography), and societal implications. Our program emphasizes applications of GIS in urban, regional, and environmental planning, policy making, and public health.