Frequently Asked Questions

Application/Financial Aid

How do I apply for graduate school at USU? What are the admission requirements for the BioMath program?

You can find all the information at the USU graduate studies website. Basically, you fill out an application, submit test information on your GRE (and TOEFL, if required), provide a transcript, pay an application fee, and submit email info for three academic references. Minimum requirements to get into our BioMath program are GRE Q > 700, high grades in differential equations and linear algebra, an overall GPA > 3.2 in a science or engineering BS program. Background is biology is helpful, but not necessary.

What financial aid is available for graduate school?  Can I apply for a scholarship if I am an international student?

We offer assistantships to all qualified students -- these are paying jobs for grad students which include tuition and insurance benefits.   Generally graduate students get teaching assistantships and are expected to teach approximately one class/semester, although scholarships and research assistantships may be available for specially qualified applicants.  Assistantships come with tuition waivers (out-of-state waivers for MS students and full waivers for PhD students), as well as healthcare benefits and a monthly stipend.  International students are automatically considered for assistantships if they qualify for admittance. More information is available on the USU Financial Aid website.

Which tests should I take in order to be eligible for the graduate program?

Utah State University requires that all students must take the GRE General Exam; GRE subject exams are not necessary.   If you are an international student (not from the UK, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, Australia or New Zealand), you must also take the TOEFL exam (or an equivalent test).

Can I apply to the program if I am not a mathematician? What if I hold a biology degree?

Absolutely. In your undergraduate background you want to have taken differential equations, linear algebra and multivariate calculus; some preparation in statistics will also help. The Industrial and Interdisciplinary Math Masters Program is for students who do not come from an undergraduate mathematics program.  And if you have undergrad coursework in biology and/or ecology you will fit right in!

Who should I contact for information regarding graduate study in Mathematical Biology?

Feel free to contact our BioMath faculty:

Getting Involed in BioMath

What classes should I take to be a math biologist?  What type of preparation do I need to have to feel like a contributor to math-bio research?

Phew! One at a time!  All kinds of math are useful, but to get started you generally need to have a full year of calculus, multivariable calculus, differential equations and linear algebra.  Quite a lot of biomath gets done with just these fundamentals and clever modeling. Beyond that, depending on your interests, you may wish to study probability, graph theory, partial differential equations, dynamical systems, statistics, and of course general applied math techniques (perturbation techniques, dimensional analysis). More importantly, you should probably learn to program a computer (MATLAB is particularly useful) and you may wish to figure out how to use  a symbolic manipulator (e.g. Maple or Mathematica). But, jumping off from DE and linear algebra, most of our students learn as they go, just ask them!

If I am an undergraduate how do I get involved in research?

It's easy - the place to start is talking to one of your professors and showing interest in what they do.  If you are interested in mathematical biology research in particular you should contact one of our BioMath faculty: Jim Powell, Luis Gordillo or Brynja Kohler.  We always have some research projects suitable for students who have done well in their calculus-and-beyond math classes!

What can I do to "hit the ground running" when I arrive?

The first and best thing you can do is to contact one of our biomath faculty before you get here and talk to them about your interests.  Don't be a stranger!   Working with students is the best part of our job! There are often basic, accessible papers that you can start reading to get a sense of what research involves. Computational skills are very important, so if you have never used MATLAB you might want to familiarize yourself with the software.

What opportunities are available for getting involved (e.g. student groups) in the department or around campus?

We have a weekly 'lab' meeting in which we discuss professional development, learn new skills, test out new teaching strategies, read and discuss papers, and help one another with presentations, posters and papers. The applied grad students have also started a SIAM (Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics) Student Chapter, which you may find interesting. 

Careers

What are job possibilities for a bio mathematician?

Well, first off, a biomath person is a special form of applied mathematician, and so in principle qualifies for all the industrial jobs that applied mathematicians would. Possibly more; standard applied math training is relatively weak on probability and statistics, whereas in our view a biomath person needs some probability and statistics to connect math with real-world data. This gives mathematical biologists an advantage, since a variety of companies have scads of data but no models to describe and utilize the data.

Most non-academic applied math jobs revolve around software, so if you wish to get industrial jobs it is important to build your simulation skills. Most of our students have experience working with real experimental data, developing models and parameters which describe the mechanisms generating the data and account for uncertainty, and construct and analyze simulations which predict the behavior of those simulations in the real world. These skills have proved to be useful for our industrial partners.

And you shouldn't discount academic jobs, both at the four-year and research university levels. We invest a lot in teaching and training teachers in our BioMath program, and we specialize in using real-world, even experiential examples to enhance teaching. Several of our students have gone on to teach and there will be more and more post-secondary teaching jobs in the future.

How will this program help me later in my career?

There are many unique opportunities for graduate students in mathematical biology here at USU. You can take classes here which prepare you to work with real-world scientists, because we have an `open' curriculum, which allows students to take any combination of classes in math, statistics, biology, ecology, applied economics and computer science. You will gain practical experience working with scientists because our projects are generated by collaborations with real-world researchers. Students working in applied math here learn to use practical computing skills and mathematical analyses that provide valuable and unique skills. And our department, particularly in applied mathematics, has a tradition of teaching and mentoring excellence. All of our students come out with high-level teaching skills and experience, making them top contenders for post-secondary education jobs.

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