Université de Fribourg, Suisse Faculté des sciences et de médecine Département de mathématiques
Study advisor's page: MSc in Mathematics
Patrick Ghanaat Département de mathématiques Université de Fribourg Chemin du Musée 23 CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland	Tel.: +41 26 300 91 87 Email: patrick.ghanaat@unifr.ch Office: Mathematics Building 1.107
MSc in Mathematics: What is it?
The Master of Science (MSc) in Mathematics is an advanced degree program in pure and applied mathematics, typically following a bachelor's degree (BSc) in mathematics. The curriculum is individualized: Within limitations, students are free to choose their master's level courses and seminars from the department's course offerings. This allows for specialization in several domains of analysis, algebra and geometry, differential geometry and topology, probability, statistics, or biomathematics, corresponding to the fields of research currently present at the department. Master's level classes at the nearby universities of Bern and Neuchâtel are open to students registered at Fribourg and can be chosen as part of their curriculum. The program concludes with a master's thesis under the supervision of a thesis advisor.
What are the prerequisites?
In order to begin the MSc in mathematics, you need to have a BSc in mathematics or equivalent preparation. The program assumes the mathematical level, training, background and conceptual approach required and developed in a bachelor's program in mathematics at Swiss universities or the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology in Lausanne and Zurich. Holders of a bachelor's degree in mathematics from a Swiss university, EPFL or ETHZ are admitted without preconditions. If you have a similar degree from another country, this will be evaluated by our faculty during the application process. Admission may then be granted directly, if your preparation is found to be at least equivalent to our BSc. Otherwise, we may propose a pre-master program that you need to follow before being admitted to the MSc, or refuse admission and ask you to complete a BSc in mathematics first. Be aware that mathematics courses for science and engineering are generally not considered equivalent to those for future mathematicians.
How is the program structured?
The official descripion is this curriculum. The MSc program includes seven lecture courses, two seminars, a master's thesis and its final presentation in a lecture, with a total of 90 ECTS credits. The item Preparation for master's thesis consists of individual studies with your thesis advisor. The second seminar together with the essay is often chosen as an individual study seminar (séminaire libre) based on courses you followed, and can lead in the direction of a master's thesis topic. The curriculum proposes a possible schedule over three semesters, but the order given there is not mandatory. The time limit for completing the program is 6 semesters, as described in the reglement.
What courses are being offered? Where can I find them?
The curriculum merely specifies a number of SMA.04xxx Lecture courses, with the sole restriction that of the seven lecture courses chosen, at least one each must belong to the fields of analysis, algebra-geometry-topology (one field here) and applied mathematics. The 04 in the course code specifies the 4th year of studies - accounting for the 3 years of the bachelor's - and indicates that the course is a master's level course. With few exceptions, these courses change every year. To find the courses, search for the course code sma.04 in the course catalog like this. Change the semester to get an impression of what is being offered over the years. For the academic year 2023-2024, the courses are Geometric group theory (Kellerhals, autumn) Mesure et intégration (Manolescu, autumn) Algebraic topology (Baues, autumn) Control theory (Le Donne, autumn) Statistical learning (Mazza, autumn) Mathématiques financières (Mazza, autumn) Riemannian geometry (Dessai, spring) Mapping class groups (Liechti, spring) Geometric measure theory (Wenger, spring) Functional analysis (Ghanaat, spring) Percolation (Manolescu, spring) Calcul stochastique (Mazza, spring) Courses planned for the academic year 2024-2025 include Mesure et intégration (Manolescu, autumn) Lie groups and Lie algebras (Dessai, autumn) Metric geometry (Le Donne, autumn) Introduction to optimal transport (Wenger, autumn) Introduction to differential topology (Baues, spring) Probabilité avancée (Manolescu, spring) Statistique (Mazza, spring) Partial differential equations (N.N., spring) Notice that some of these courses are offered in French, but you may choose English as the language in your exams. Feel free to contact the teachers of the current courses directly if you want to sit in on a lecture. To this list should be added the programs at Bern and Neuchâtel, to be found on their pages and in the (incomplete) BeNeFri list.
FAQs
Why Fribourg? Smaller, friendly place with excellent math and high academic standards. Lots of possibilities if you use BeNeFri. What are the specialties and research areas at Fribourg? Here is a list. Which languages are used at Fribourg? At master's level: mostly English, but also French, sometimes German. You can choose the language of your exams. The city is French speaking. Are the exams written or oral? At master's level: usually oral. Can I add a 30 ECTS minor program in some other field to my MSc in mathematics? Yes, but it will not count as part of your MSc. You are free to pursue other programs besides your MSc. This is often done by students planning to become teachers. Can I do this in part time? Possible, some students work on the side. But the program is not intended for this, and there is a time limit of 6 semesters.