Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Online Information for the class of 2013
Supplement to Information in the Dean's Academic Packet
Overview of the Math/Stat Program for Incoming Students
Should You Bring a Graphics Calculator?
Fall 2009 Registration and Lotteries
Must You Follow our Placement Recommendations?
Welcome to Swarthmore! We suspect you are planning to take some math or statistics here; most Swarthmore students do. There are 3 different groups of courses from which a first-year student typically chooses. The best known and most popular, but not necessarily the best for you, is the calculus sequence (Math 15, 25, 27-28-28S, 33-34-35). The second group is statistics (Stat 1, 11, 31). The third might be called "the rest of math", courses on basic ideas (Math 3) or on areas not covered in the calculus sequence (Math 29). If you are planning a major that requires or recommends the traditional calculus topics (majors such as physics, chemistry, engineering, economics, and of course mathematics) you will probably want to start or continue with the standard calculus sequence, although you may well wish to branch out after a semester. For the rest of you, consider a math/stat course from outside the calculus sequence this Fall - one goal of the first two years at college is to expand your horizons.
Courses. Please consult the math/stat part of the online catalog at http://www.swarthmore.edu/cc_mathstats.xml
No course in our Department requires a graphics or symbolic calculator. Our courses typically use computers for such calculations. But calculators are welcome and often useful, other departments may make heavier use of them, and many Swarthmore math students use them. So if you already have one, bring it, but don't buy one to take a Swarthmore math/stat course.
The Math/Stat Department is currently offering one first-year seminar, at the honors linear algebra level (Math 28S).
What is a math seminar? First, like all seminars, it's smaller. The first-year seminars are limited to 12 students, whereas regular class sections may be 30 or more. And as with all Swarthmore first-year seminars, part of the goal is to form an informal advising group through which you learn the ways of Swarthmore. But the biggest difference between a math course and a math seminar is in the style of learning. You learn cooperatively by discussing math with your peers, through getting up to the board and explaining your insights and solving problems. Lectures by the professor are limited. Seminars typically meet in a seminar room, around a table with blackboard all around.
To accomplish this style of learning one needs more class time. So math seminars tend to meet more than the normal number of hours. The amount of material covered is the same, so it's still a 1-credit course, but many students feel they learn it better in a seminar, have more fun, and become friends with their seminar-mates.
But don't take our word for it. Here are some comments from two students who took the linear algebra seminar:
The linear algebra seminar is one of the best classes I have ever taken. I learned concepts at a much deeper level than I have in comparable, science/math lecture classes. This was probably because unlike lecture classes, we did not spend time going over material in the book. Instead we spent all the time addressing issues we faced while doing problems and readings. All of that discussion (which we do not get much of during lectures), really helped in solidifying my understanding. I had expected the linear algebra seminar to be more difficult than a lecture, and took it only because it fit into my schedule. It turned out to be an amazingly interesting and challenging, but not overwhelming class.
Math 28P [a version of Math28 in 2005 with a physics slant] was my best and favorite class of the fall semester. Though the time commitment was admittedly large, it was not unreasonable for the material covered, or considering the culture of the class. Every day before class, five or six of us would work problems for about an hour, and attack misunderstandings and difficult problems so that, come seminar, we would feel comfortable presenting. The class was structured such that I always felt comfortable stretching my mathematical and conceptual limits, and was therefore able to lay a much stronger foundation for moving on in math. Socially, suffice it to say that six of the eight people in my housing block for next year were in 28P with me. Eschewing hyperbole, this class is why you are coming to Swarthmore: it is a challenging, supportive, intense, relentless, rewarding, and wickedly fun experience.
At Swarthmore, registration for courses has 2 steps: first you register by computer, then certain courses are lotteried or adjusted.
A lottery means that a course has an enrollment limit, and if more students register, some will be excluded. For example, first-year seminars are restricted to twelve students. In the fall, the classes that may be lotteried are Stat 1, Stat 11, and Math 28S. Stat 1 and 11 are offered every semester, so students will not have to wait long to get into them.
Math/Stat does something few other departments do. For most courses, if a section gets too big, instead of lotterying, we move students to less crowded sections that fit in their schedules, and sometimes we change how many sections we offer and/or when we offer them. In order to do this we need to collect information during registration that most other departments do not collect.
The procedure is as follows.
1) On Friday afternoon, August 28, after you have consulted with your advisor, you will participate in the College's regular online registration. If you are thinking of taking a math or stat course, you must list it during this preregistration process. If you fail to list it during this electronic preregistration, we cannot guarantee you a slot.
2) If you preregister for a math course that we did not recommend for you (or if we have not made a recommendation because you did not take one of the required placement tests, the preregistration program will not accept your choice.
3) If you preregister for a course that has multiple sections, you will be directed at some point to a second online form just for that course. You will be asked questions about your availability for other sections of the same course.
By Saturday morning, August 29, at 9am enrollments will be posted on MySwarthmore. You must check this information because we may have lotteried you out of a course or moved you to another section, perhaps a newly created section.
4) If you are satisfied with your math enrollment (and all your other registrations), you are done with registration. If you are not satisfied, come to the in-person registration at 11am on Saturday. Also, seek out Prof Everson between 9 and 11am.
Must you follow our placement recommendation?
Try it. If it turns out to be either too hard or too easy, you can switch. Swarthmore students have two weeks in which they can add and drop courses without penalty, after consulting their advisors.