Why Major in Math

A math major prepares you for many interesting, important, satisfying, well-paid jobs. Here is some evidence:

• Why Do Math has a number of high level specific examples showing that math solves important and interesting problems.
• When Will I Use Math shows how important math is in every type of training.
• Exploring a Career With Numbers describes some careers available to math and related majors.
• The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median annual pay of $105,720 for mathematicians and statisticians in 2025, with employment projected to grow 10% from 2025 to 2035, much faster than average.
• The Mathematical Association of America’s Mathematics Careers gives further information about careers, as well as a link to books on math careers. Career Profiles gives specific examples.
• The SIAM Careers in Math gives an overview of different careers available with a math major.

Math majors are successful in many career paths in addition to teacher, professor, or actuary. Here are a few examples:

• Christine Fox has a BS in math and MS applied math from George Mason University. She served as Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense from December 2013 to May 2014, the highest ranking woman ever to serve at the Department of Defense, and then returned to the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory as Assistant Director for Policy and Analysis. See articles about her in the Washington Post and Mason Gazette. She was the inspiration for a character in Top Gun.
• Carson Chow is a PhD mathematician at NIH, where he is Acting Chief of the Laboratory of Biological Modeling at NIDDK. He has worked on the obesity epidemic, as described in A Mathematical Challenge to Obesity, New York Times, May 14, 2012.
• Jill Mesirov is a PhD mathematician who is Associate Vice Chancellor for Computational Health Sciences and Professor of Medicine at UC San Diego. She uses mathematics to study biology, including work on cures for cancer.
• DJ Patil is a PhD mathematician who served as the first U.S. Chief Data Scientist from 2015 to 2017. Here is a video of him telling the business community about mathematical chaos in the video Living in a Chaotic World.
• Lynn Laverty Elsenhans has a BA in applied math. She was CEO of Sunoco from 2008 to 2012.
• Alan Merten, president of George Mason University 1996-2012, had an undergraduate degree in math from the University of Wisconsin. He died in 2020.
• David Dinkins, mayor of New York 1990-1993, had an undergraduate degree in math from Howard University. He died in 2020.
• Jerry McNerney, US Congressman 2007-2023 and California State Senator since 2024, has a PhD in math from University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.
• Steven Strogatz is a professor of mathematics at Cornell University. He has written popular math books such as Sync, The Joy of x, and Infinite Powers (see his website), and co-hosts the Quanta Magazine podcast The Joy of Why.
• Terence Tao is a professor of mathematics at UCLA. He writes the math blog What’s new.
• Manil Suri retired from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where he was a professor of mathematics. He is also a bestselling novelist. He wrote an interesting column in the New York Times called How to Fall in Love with Math.
• John Urschel is a former NFL player who earned his PhD in mathematics at MIT in 2021 and is now an assistant professor of mathematics at MIT. He is a great advocate for mathematics, regularly writing and speaking on the beauty and draw of mathematics.
• Danica McKellar has an undergraduate math major, and starred in The Wonder Years. She has written six books advocating for mathematics and education.

Here are some of our alumni and where they are now

• Robert Allen, Professor of Mathematics and Associate Dean, College of Science & Health, University of Wisconsin - La Crosse. (PhD GMU 2009)
• Andrew Corrigan, Research Mathematician, Naval Research Laboratory. (PhD GMU 2009)
• Jill Dunham, Associate Professor, Mathematics, Chapman University. (PhD GMU 2009)
• Christine Fox, former Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense (see above list).
• Javed Siddique, Associate Professor, Mathematics, Pennsylvania State University - York Campus. (PhD GMU 2009)
• Richard Tatum, Division Scientist, Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City. (PhD GMU 2010)
• Patrick O’Neil, Chief Technology Officer, BlackSky, and Affiliate Faculty, George Mason University (PhD GMU 2017)
• Diego Torrejon, Principal AI Engineer, BlackSky (PhD GMU 2017)
• Alathea Jensen, Associate Professor and Department Head, Mathematics & Computer Science, Susquehanna University (PhD GMU 2018)
• Guy Oldaker IV, Senior Applied Mathematician, MITRE (PhD GMU 2025)
• Sayomi Kamimoto, Assistant Professor, Mathematics, Howard University (PhD GMU 2020)
• Tracey Oellerich, Postdoctoral Researcher, Mathematics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (PhD GMU 2024)
• Jeff Snider, Applied Mathematician / Operations Research Analyst, The MITRE Corporation (PhD GMU 2020)
• Peter Rizzi, Senior ML Engineer, Anduril (PhD GMU 2022)
• Sam Mendelson, Senior Quantum Compiler Engineer, Photonic Inc. (PhD GMU 2017)
• Deepanshu Verma, Assistant Professor, Clemson University (PhD GMU 2021)
• Zichao (Wendy) Di, Computational Mathematician, Argonne National Laboratory (PhD GMU 2013)
• Jonathan Beagley, Senior Applied AI Scientist, Knowledge Graphs (PhD GMU 2013)
• Cigole Thomas, Assistant Professor, Mathematics, Bates College (PhD GMU 2022)
• Jennifer Chubb, Associate Professor, Mathematics, University of San Francisco. (MS GMU)
• Dana Ernst, Professor, Mathematics, Northern Arizona University (BS GMU).