2025 Best Applied Mathematics Master's Degree Schools

If you plan on getting your master's degree in applied mathematics, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #35 in the country in terms of popularity. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.

In 2025, College Factual analyzed 70 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Applied Mathematics Master's Degree Schools ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 6,541 master's degrees in applied mathematics during the <nil> academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Applied Mathematics School for Your Master's Degree

Your choice of applied mathematics for getting your master's degree school matters. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:

Overall Quality Is a Must

The overall quality of a master's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we consider a college's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking which itself looks at a combination of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

Average Early-Career Salaries

Average early-career salary of those graduating with their master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.

Other Factors We Consider

The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.

• Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to applied mathematics students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of applied mathematics students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
• Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
• Student Debt - How much debt applied mathematics students go into to obtain their master's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized applied mathematics related body.

Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for applied mathematics students working on their master's degree.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Applied Mathematics Master's Degree Schools ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Applied Mathematics in the United States

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in applied mathematics. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.

14 Top Schools for a Master's in Applied Math

1

Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD

158 Annual Graduates

$121,262 Median Starting Salary

Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in applied mathematics has to take a look at Johns Hopkins University. Located in the city of Baltimore, Johns Hopkins is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.

Those applied mathematics students who get their master's degree from Johns Hopkins University receive $39,729 more than the typical applied math student.

More information about a master’s in applied mathematics from Johns Hopkins University

2

University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA

49 Annual Graduates

It is difficult to beat University of Pennsylvania if you wish to pursue a master's degree in applied mathematics. UPenn is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Philadelphia.More information about a master’s in applied mathematics from University of Pennsylvania

3

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA

132 Annual Graduates

Massachusetts Institute of Technology is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in applied mathematics. MIT is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the city of Cambridge.More information about a master’s in applied mathematics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology

4

University of Chicago
Chicago, IL

228 Annual Graduates

University of Chicago is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in applied mathematics. UChicago is a large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Chicago.More information about a master’s in applied mathematics from University of Chicago

5

Washington University in St Louis
Saint Louis, MO

346 Annual Graduates

WUSTL is a large private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Saint Louis.More information about a master’s in applied mathematics from Washington University in St Louis

6

Brown University
Providence, RI

10 Annual Graduates

Brown is a large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Providence.More information about a master’s in applied mathematics from Brown University

7

Boston University
Boston, MA

100 Annual Graduates

Located in the large city of Boston, Boston U is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.More information about a master’s in applied mathematics from Boston University

8

Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY

49 Annual Graduates

Columbia is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the city of New York.More information about a master’s in applied mathematics from Columbia University in the City of New York

9

New York University
New York, NY

226 Annual Graduates

NYU is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of New York.More information about a master’s in applied mathematics from New York University

10

Northwestern University
Evanston, IL

14 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Evanston, Northwestern is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.More information about a master’s in applied mathematics from Northwestern University

11

Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN

146 Annual Graduates

$134,475 Median Starting Salary

Located in the large city of Nashville, Vanderbilt is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.

Those applied mathematics students who get their master's degree from Vanderbilt University receive $52,942 more than the average applied math grad.

More information about a master’s in applied mathematics from Vanderbilt University

12

Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA

98 Annual Graduates

Carnegie Mellon is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Pittsburgh.More information about a master’s in applied mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University

13

University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN

114 Annual Graduates

Notre Dame is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large suburb of Notre Dame.More information about a master’s in applied mathematics from University of Notre Dame

14

Boston College
Chestnut Hill, MA

68 Annual Graduates

Located in the small city of Chestnut Hill, Boston College is a private not-for-profit college with a fairly large student population.More information about a master’s in applied mathematics from Boston College

Honorable Mentions

Here are some additional great schools for Applied Mathematics students that almost earned our Best Applied Mathematics Master's Degree Schools award.

Rank	College	Location
15	University of Maryland - College Park	College Park, MD
16	University of Southern California	Los Angeles, CA
17	University of California - Berkeley	Berkeley, CA
18	Northeastern University	Boston, MA
19	University of Washington - Seattle Campus	Seattle, WA
20	Stevens Institute of Technology	Hoboken, NJ
21	Villanova University	Villanova, PA
22	University of Connecticut	Storrs, CT
23	William & Mary	Williamsburg, VA

Applied Mathematics by Region

View the Best Applied Mathematics Master's Degree Schools for a specific region near you.

Region
Southeast
New England
Rocky Mountains
Plains States
Middle Atlantic
Far Western US
Southwest
Other U.S. Territories
Great Lakes

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Rankings in Majors Related to Applied Math

One of 4 majors within the Mathematics & Statistics area of study, Applied Mathematics has other similar majors worth exploring.

Applied Math Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
Financial Mathematics	5,107
General Applied Mathematics	997
Computational & Applied Mathematics	419
Computational Mathematics	12
Other Applied Mathematics	6

Most Popular Majors Related to Applied Math

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Statistics	3,703
Mathematics	2,572
Applied Statistics	321
Other Statistics	50

Notes and References

• The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
• The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
• Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
• Credit for the banner image above goes to Steven G. Johnson. More about our data sources and methodologies.