Declare a Major in Applied Mathematics & Computer Science

When to Declare

  • Ideally, you should declare the major as soon as possible after becoming eligible, in order to take advantage of advising in creating and refining each semester your own 4 year plan.
  • UWM recommends the major be declared before a student earns 75 credits.
  • Admission to the program requires eight credits in mathematics at or above the 200-level, six credits in computer science at or above the 200- level, and a minimum 2.5 GPA in those courses.
  • Before declaring formally, if you are thinking of majoring in AMCS, we would love for you to talk with one or both of the AMCS advisors – Prof. Lei Wang in Math and Prof. Christine Cheng in Computer Science to assist you in planning.

Process to Declare the Major

  • The first step to declare a major in Applied Mathematics & Computer Science is to fill out and submit the
    Declaration of Major Form »
  • After submitting your request to declare a major, you must request an appointment with the AMCS Program Coordinator – Prof. Lei Wang.
  • At that appointment, Prof. Boyd will try to answer your preliminary questions about the major, and encourage you to meet with Prof. Cheng to further discuss the CS aspects of the program.
  • You, in turn, will be asked about your background, your current interests, and your long-range plans, to assist the advisors in helping you to create a fulfilling program appropriate to your interests and goals.

Advising for Majors

Once you have declared your major, you will have access to three different advisors:

  • Your L&S college advisor, who will help you with your overall degree requirements;
  • The Math AMCS Advisor Prof. Lei Wang, who will help with math course selection and related planning;
  • The Computer Science AMCS advisor Prof. Christine Cheng who will help with CS course selection and related planning.

You should plan to meet with an advisor once a semester, before registering for classes, to talk over your progress in the major and your plans for future classes.

A good sequence for majors to follow in planning each semester’s course array would be:

  • First see what courses you need to fulfill specific requirements and which of those are being offered in the upcoming semester.
  • Then, go to the online schedule and check what courses will be offered. The course descriptions should help you to refine your choices.
  • Next, talk over those choices with the Math and/or the Comp Sci AMCS advisor(s) to get their feedback – and/or for math class selection advice you may attend the Mathematical Sciences department “Open Advising” event, which happens right before registration for classes begins for each semester.

Remember to do all this early enough so as not to be closed out of any courses you may want or need.