Bryn Mawr Mathematics Department Honored for Excellence

The mathematics department at Bryn Mawr College in suburban Philadelphia received the Award for an Exemplary Program or Achievement in a Mathematics Department from the American Mathematical Society. The mathematics department at the highly rated women’s college was honored for its extraordinary record in providing opportunities for women in mathematics.

The citation announcing the award read in part:

“The math department at Bryn Mawr has a long history of encouraging women to pursue careers in mathematics and, more generally, of providing women with an environment in which they may thrive in this pursuit. During the 1990s roughly 5 percent of Bryn Mawr graduates majored in math; during the period 2001–2010 the rate rose to almost 9 percent. To put this in perspective, this percentage is 11 times the national average for the percentage of women graduating with an undergraduate degree in mathematics and places Bryn Mawr second among all colleges and universities in the U.S. Although the department has substantially increased Bryn Mawr’s percentage of math majors, it has maintained its tradition for sending its students on to doctoral programs. The department ranks 10th nationally in the percentage of female graduates going on to earn the Ph.D. in mathematics.”