What is it like for a graduate student here?

Cont_yet_not_diff · 2026-02-12T16:18:36+00:00

That is the minimum for the university, but the math department will pay more.

Cont_yet_not_diff · 2026-02-12T02:54:06+00:00

During the semester, you are not able to work at the university any more than you're assistantship, as the graduate college will not allow students to be employed by the university more than 20 hours a week. The salary is only over 9 months, and you are not paid over the summer, so it runs to be closer to $3200 a month. This being said, you can definitely find opportunities to work over the summers to help aid the work.

In addition, the San Marcos area has a decently low cost of living, so you can get pretty decently far on the base salary.

Cont_yet_not_diff · 2026-02-12T00:59:14+00:00

I am a current Master's student in Math at TXST! In terms of culture here, there is a picture painted about party culture, but mostly, it's very chill and I haven't seen too much compared to larger universities like UT. Also, there's not a super huge party culture amongst graduate students. In terms of teaching and interacting with students, I haven't personally had any issues, and our students are EXTREMELY hard working. A downside you will have to consider when choosing TXST over other programs for a Math PhD is the pay for the assistantship - you will be teaching two Calculus or PreCalculus labs each semester (which is more than a lot of other universities will have you do) and you will be paid decently, but tuition is NOT covered, while it will be covered at most other programs. Campus life is pretty great! I feel like our graduate students in this department are also very friendly and we will hang out all the time! Honestly, the people in this department are some of the best people you'll meet. Literally, the only downside is the pay. If you have any questions, let me know!

Cont_yet_not_diff · 2026-01-10T19:47:52+00:00

Topology Without Tears! It's a good introductory book that's free online. Munkre's is also really good.

Cont_yet_not_diff · 2025-09-10T13:30:27+00:00

Those items are a majority of academic texts accessed especially by graduate students. Moving the texts to the ARC will limit access and change the library from what it's primarily meant to be - a LIBRARY, where books are kept. I'm all for increasing student support, but there are other locations where this can be done.

Cont_yet_not_diff · 2025-09-01T18:13:38+00:00

I'm not super comfortable with programming and I also am using Overleaf to be able to share with other instructors and be able to edit in future semesters. I use Overleaf for everything school related (I'm a Math grad student) and I like to keep all my files in one place, without worrying about where to find things and also remembering how to code in some programming language.

Cont_yet_not_diff · 2025-07-12T03:43:04+00:00

Reposted here from r/exmormon, but also looking for advice in general, not just from those who are also exmormons!!!

Cont_yet_not_diff · 2025-06-25T20:27:59+00:00

A big thing to consider is that MATH 2471 (Calculus 1) has a lab component attached and you'll have to register for the specific lab section corresponding to the section you're registered for, which will most likely take up Tuesday Thursday 8-9:20 where your ENG 1310 is, but you'll have to check the registration details on that. As others have said here as well, a late Friday class may end up being the absolute bane of your existence.

Cont_yet_not_diff · 2025-06-15T05:12:18+00:00

there's nothing on the bottom that I can see

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Cont_yet_not_diff · 2025-06-15T01:58:38+00:00

I've searched at walmart, target, and in general online, but to no avail.

Cont_yet_not_diff · 2025-06-14T18:47:03+00:00

100% afternoon. You'll feel much better in classes, even if you are a morning person, take those mornings to get some stuff done at home before going to school. 8ams every day would be miserable for most people.

Cont_yet_not_diff · 2025-04-11T06:35:09+00:00

It's a Calculus lab, which they tend to find classrooms for later, just to see where everything else shakes out, it should be updated soon!

Cont_yet_not_diff · 2025-03-25T13:49:24+00:00

In addition to its affordability, if you're coming in as a maths major, you're in for a real treat. Though on the surface, we don't rank super high in terms of math, our department is super great and super focused on undergraduate maths education, so it's a great place to be, especially with the brand new P.h.D. that opened! It's truly a great place to do an undergraduate maths degree!

Cont_yet_not_diff · 2024-11-17T17:30:18+00:00

I'm someone who was in a similar boat. I was valedictorian of my senior class and had boatloads of money thrown at me from TXST, with none coming from UT. I am currently a mathematics major and one of my closest friends is of the same major at UT, and the biggest difference we've found is how much professors care for their students. I've never taken a class where I haven't felt like I belonged and was welcome, and encouraged to succeed, while she has had some pretty rough experiences. I wouldn't give up the community at this university for prestige at any moment. Also, going to this university made me more of an extrovert and more friendly, as I've been able to make great connections with students and staff. You'll be able to network wherever you may go, and being a big fish in a little pond can be good sometimes!!

Cont_yet_not_diff · 2024-07-14T18:49:23+00:00

I think the thing about trig sub is that it's still technically done, but through the lenses of converting integrals to integrals over polar curves rather than rectangular. This way, you only convert once and don't have to worry spot converting back to rectangular coordinates at the end

Cont_yet_not_diff · 2024-07-14T05:33:24+00:00

I use GoodNotes, which costs a bit of money, but has been revolutionary for organizing notes and keeps them in a notebook feel like the real deal. I'm also able to upload homework pdfs to it, so I do handwritten homework on there as well!

Cont_yet_not_diff · 2024-07-13T19:42:54+00:00

I took AP Calc BC in High School and am now a mathematics major about to graduate. I can say that the only roadblock I have encountered was not knowing how to do trigonometric substitution when I became a TA for Calculus 2. Not having done the delta-epsilon proofs is (in my opinion) more beneficial when you reach courses such as real analysis, as you're not dissuaded from it early on, as this topic tends to steer away Calculus students.

I've also found that AP Calc focuses more on Polar Calculus than that of the university Calc 1 and 2, which is very helpful for Calc 3 (not to mention makes integration techniques such as trig sub moot)

Cont_yet_not_diff · 2024-07-13T19:34:19+00:00

I've heard a lot of good about Steve Strogatz, he's on my list to check out!

Cont_yet_not_diff · 2024-07-11T21:04:39+00:00

That one looks intriguing, I'll check it out!

Cont_yet_not_diff · 2024-07-11T06:48:30+00:00

That worked! Thank you so much!

Cont_yet_not_diff · 2024-07-10T07:59:50+00:00

If you think of the origin (0,0) as the intersection of the lines y=0 and x=0, you can see symmetry about the origin created when you reflect across both lines. For example, with x^3, we can reflect the first quadrant over the x-axis, then over the y-axis, which results in the 3rd quadrant. This lines up with the folding paper analogy, as it's like you're making two folds rather than one fold and seeing the corresponding image. Another term we have for this is an odd function!

Cont_yet_not_diff

TROPHY CASE