What is the difference between Mathematics, General and Statistics, General?
Mathematics, General is the most common program in the family — offered at all 1,476 colleges in the data with 18,758 annual completions — and covers abstract theory, proof-writing, calculus, linear algebra, and analysis. Statistics, General is far narrower in scope (163 colleges, 3,379 completions) and focuses on data collection, probability theory, inference, and applied modeling. In practical career terms, the gap matters: mathematics graduates most commonly end up as secondary school teachers at a median wage of $64,580, while statistics graduates route toward data scientist roles. If your goal is a quantitative analytics career without additional graduate study, Statistics is typically the more direct path.
Which major in this family leads to the highest-paying careers?
Financial Mathematics (43 colleges, 611 completions) is the most explicitly career-targeted program in the family, designed to feed financial and investment analyst roles where the median wage is $101,350. Management analyst positions — another common destination for quantitative majors — carry a median wage of $101,190. Statistics, Applied Mathematics, Computational Mathematics, and Computational and Applied Mathematics all route graduates toward data science careers that overlap heavily with these salary ranges. By contrast, Mathematics, General graduates most commonly enter teaching, where the median secondary school teacher wage is $64,580, a significant gap from the data science and finance roles.
Is Applied Mathematics, General a better choice than Mathematics, General for job prospects?
For students targeting industry roles rather than graduate school or teaching, Applied Mathematics, General (192 colleges, 2,591 completions) is generally the stronger choice. Its curriculum is oriented toward real-world problem solving — optimization, numerical methods, mathematical modeling — and its top career outcome is data scientist rather than secondary school teacher. The trade-off is availability: Mathematics, General is offered at 1,476 colleges while Applied Math is at only 192, which affects both which schools you can attend and how easily academic advisors can map out your coursework. If your target school offers both, the applied track is worth prioritizing unless you intend to pursue a mathematics PhD.
What do graduates in this concentration typically earn?
The median earnings across the Mathematics and Statistics family are approximately $54,726, but that aggregate masks an enormous spread. The lowest-earning common career outcome — secondary school teaching — carries a median wage of $64,580, but graduates who land in management analyst roles earn $101,190 and financial and investment analysts earn $101,350. The major you choose shapes which of those outcomes is most likely: Mathematics, General sends a disproportionate share of graduates into education, while Statistics, Financial Mathematics, and Applied Math programs route graduates toward the higher-paying analytical and financial roles.
How does the size of this concentration compare across colleges?
Mathematics and Statistics produced 27,774 total completions annually across 1,476 colleges — a substantial but not dominant footprint. Mathematics, General alone accounts for 18,758 of those completions (67.6% of the total), meaning the six or so more specialized majors divide up the remaining 9,016 completions among themselves. Statistics, General is the second-largest at 3,379 completions, followed by Applied Mathematics at 2,591. The highly specialized programs — Mathematical Statistics and Probability (10 colleges, 255 completions), Computational Mathematics (23 colleges), and Computational and Applied Mathematics (39 colleges) — are boutique offerings at a small number of institutions, which limits access but often signals a more research- or industry-connected department.
Should I consider transferring into a mathematics program, and what should I know?
Mathematics is among the more transfer-friendly concentrations in STEM because foundational coursework — calculus, linear algebra, differential equations — is widely offered at community colleges and generally accepted by four-year programs. The critical issue is sequencing: mathematics courses build tightly on each other, so a gap or repeated course can add a semester. Students transferring into a Statistics or Applied Mathematics track should confirm their target program accepts calculus and lower-division statistics as prerequisites, since some programs require their own department's sequence. With 1,476 colleges offering some form of mathematics and 163 offering Statistics, there are enough receiving institutions that transfer pathways are well-established at most state university systems.