How To Become A Mathematician In India | Career and Job Opportunities for Mathematicians

How to Become A Mathematician in India: India has had a long tradition of mathematics that has given the world some great mathematicians who have made many valuable contributions to the field. Ancient mathematicians like Aryabhatta have given the world the value of Pi, a place value system.

Other Indian mathematicians have given mathematics the numeral Zero, the modern way of writing numbers, the decimal place value system, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter,  and many more concepts.

How To Become A Mathematician In India | Career and Job Opportunities for Mathematicians
How To Become A Mathematician In India | Career and Job Opportunities for Mathematicians

Do you like numbers? Are you passionate about mathematics? You could make a career as a mathematician. If you have it in you, perhaps you could be the next Aryabhatta or Ramanujan.

If you are deeply interested in the field or feel inclined towards the subject, find out all about being a mathematician and how to become one in India. First, let us start by exploring who is a mathematician?

Refer to Course Details to know more about related courses and find details like Admission Process, Eligibility Criteria, etc.

Who is a Mathematician? What do they do?

The definition of a mathematician is an easy one, a mathematician is somebody who is an expert in the field of mathematics. What do they do? They engage in the philosophy and study of mathematics and its theoretical constructs from formulating new theories, researching on existing mathematical fundamentals, to adding to existing theories. But that’s not all that mathematicians do.

Mathematicians aren’t just academicians who deal with academic theories that do not find much substantial use in everyday life. And neither is a career in the field as Mathematician is not synonymous with being a teacher or a researcher although that is surely a domain of great scope. The skills of mathematicians can also be applied to real-world problems.

Mathematical theories, algorithms, techniques, often find their application and use in problem-solving for various other fields such as management, engineering, business, sciences and economics.

Quick Facts for Mathematicians

A table for quick facts with following information:

IndustryEducation
Eligibility10+2 with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics
Average Starting SalaryINR 1.92 Lakhs
Job OpportunityBusiness analysts, statistician, professor, Researcher, Coder etc.

All About Career as Mathematician

Mathematics provides career opportunities in various sectors and specialized fields. However most of them are based within science and technology fields.

Eligibility

One must study mathematics at 10+2 level in his/her school. After this the student needs to do a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from a recognized university.

  • 10+2 level-75% overall score from a recognized.
  • UG level-65% in a ug degree of mathematics from any recognized university.

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To give you a better picture and a clearer idea, let us tell you there are two types of mathematics and mathematicians: one is pure mathematics and the other is applied mathematics. Pure mathematics studies and focuses on the philosophy and theoretical constructs of maths while applied mathematics can be applied to any field from physics to robotics, architecture, engineering, computer graphics and computer technology.

How to Become a Mathematician in India?

Becoming a mathematician is a long and arduous journey that requires an in-depth study and immersion into the subject, it begins with the first and foremost requirement:

A bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from a recognised university. For that, you need to have studied mathematics in your 10+2 higher education to get into the course.

After obtaining a Bachelor’s degree in the subject, the next step and natural progression for a mathematician is to undertake further study and acquire a Master’s degree in Mathematics. You shall have to sit for an entrance, such as Joint admission tests which are often conducted for M. Sc. courses that can get into premier institutes such as IITs, NITs, and IISc.

The journey goes well beyond this, after a post-graduation, you need to take a full immersion into the field with a doctoral degree in the subject where you undertake a much deeper study and research in the domain of mathematics.

You can choose to pursue applied or pure mathematics at this stage, which shall decide which kind of vocation you shall get into. Theoretical or pure mathematics will lead you to an academic role such as a teacher or researcher in academia. Opting for Applied Mathematics can help you make a career in fields such as scientific research, finance and business, technology and information science etc.

You can enrol yourself in a PhD course for which you need to first clear an entrance exam such as IIT JAM. You can get into government-funded or autonomous-aided research institutes that offer purely research-based opportunities or one of the IITs for applied mathematics opportunities. There are also Joint M.Sc-PhD, M.Sc-M.tech and other dual degrees and courses as well.

Entrance Exam

The schedule for top 5 entrance exams for M.Sc Mathematics course are as follows:-

Entrance ExamRegistration DateExam DateExam Result
IIT JAM 202110 September 2020 to 17 October 202014 February 202120 March 2021
CUCET 2021March – April 2021May 2021June 2021
CMI Entrance Exam 2021February – May 2021October 2021November 2021
NEST 2021January – March 2021June 2021June 2021
BITSAT 2021December 2020 – May 2021May 2021May 2021

Steps on how to become a mathematician

Following are the steps that one should follow to become a great Mathematician.

Decision Making

The correct time to make a decision is in the class 9th or 10th as after these classes you don’t have a choice to select any subject of your choice. Students having analytical skills and attitude should make up their mind while studying schools and colleges.

Students having developed critical thinking processes by breaking down complicated problems would make way to be good in Mathematics.

Subject Choices

The perfect subject combination for this field is PCM + Computer programming as it is the best subject combination in both future research as well as employment.

For a degree in Mathematics, one might also want to think about the following subjects:

  • Economics
  • Engineering
  • Computer science
  • Physics or theoretical physics
  • Another science subject such as chemistry, biology or psychology. 
  • A specialist maths degree, eg statistics, financial mathematics or actuarial science
  • Accounting or finance 

Entrance Exam Preparation

IIT JAM is the exam needed to crack to do a good degree in mathematics. The exam consists of three parts which are:

  • Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ)-Each MCQ type question has four choices out of which only one choice is the correct answer of the given question.
  • Multiple Select Questions (MSQ) -Each MCQ type questions are similar to MCQ but with a difference that there may be one or more than one choice(s) that are correct out of the four given choices.
  • Numerical Answer Type (NAT) Questions -These types of questions do not have any choice. The answer can be either numerical value, decimal, and an integer value.

Selecting Correct Colleges

There are various colleges which offer a degree in mathematics but while selecting the college one must look for the college with best faculties, research scope and the student crowd which is present in the institute. The top 3 colleges to pursue mathematics in India are- ISI, IISc and IITs(the best IIT for mathematics is IIT Guwahati).

What does a Mathematician do? Role & Responsibilities

What are the roles & responsibilities a Mathematician has to take?

So, if you want to become a Mathematician, then you have to take the following roles & responsibilities:

As a Mathematician, you have to apply geometrical & calculus concepts to design objects in fields of architecture, computer graphics, and robotics.

You have to develop & improve Mathematical Models to analyze data.

You have to develop Computer Modelling.

Develop new mathematical rules, theories, and concepts in areas such as algebra and geometry.

You have to design surveys, experiments or opinion polls to collect data.

You have to support and improve business decisions using data analysis.

Mathematician Salary in India

Here is the most important topic or we can say the topic which is most discussed by many individuals. “A Mathematician’s Salary”.

The average salary of a Mathematician in India is 30,000 INR per month. The starting salary is 16,000 INR per month.

But as a Mathematician, your salary will keep on increasing with experience and you may get more than 80,000 INR per month.

So, a career as a Mathematician is always going to be tough but you will surely get a high paid job if you passionately clear all the steps.

Here we have mentioned every single detail on How to become a Mathematician. Share it with your friends as well so that they too can get a career in this field.

If you have any queries or doubts regarding this article, then you can mention them in the comments’ section below. We will get back to you with the solutions as early as possible.

You can also join India’s No.1 Learning Community for IIT JAM, where you will get a doubt solution for all your exam-related queries with the help of experts from all over India. To join the community, you can download

Career and Job Opportunities for Mathematicians

Many Higher learning institutions offer opportunities for mathematicians in teaching and research in state and central universities, in purely research-oriented roles.

Outside academia, there are great employment options in government departments such as the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), National Aeronautics Limited (NAL) and in big institutions and organisations as well.


What degrees do Mathematicians hold?

The most common degree held by Mathematicians is Mathematics which is held by 24% of Mathematicians. Other common degrees include Physics, and Applied Mathematics.

Degrees% of Mathematicians
Mathematics24%
Physics7%
Applied Mathematics6%

What does Mathematician do?

Mathematician generally to do the following:

  • Expand mathematical knowledge by developing new principles
  • Recognize previously unknown relationships between known mathematical principles
  • Create models to resolve practical problems in fields such as business, government, engineering, and the sciences
  • Develop computational methods and computer codes
  • Compare results derived from models with observations or experiments

What Personality traits do Mathematicians have?

Mathematicians are predominantly Investigative individuals, which means that they are quite intrusive and curious people who generally like to spend time alone with their thoughts. Mathematicians are very Conventional, detail oriented and organized in nature who like work in a structured environment.

As an individual if your prototypes of these two traits then you are well suited to be a Mathematician. Mathematics is not a good career option for social people.

Investigative

An Investigative person is someone who typically lives in the mind rather than using things physically. These kinds of individuals usually analyze first before taking any decision. They are curious individuals who think independently and are insightful. While solving any problem, they research a lot by reading books and text rather than using their hands.

Conventional

A conventional individual is someone who pays attention to details and is careful and quiet in nature. Set of Rules appeals to them because they like to feel secure and certain. They don’t take leadership roles and prefer to take tasks laid down by others. A conventional person enjoys working with data and is neat and tidy with their work.

What is the Workplace of a Mathematician like?

Mathematicians tend to generally work in the Government and in Private Science and Engineering Research organisations. Mathematicians work along with the Engineers, Scientists, and other working professionals within the organisation.

Mathematicians who have Teaching and Research responsibilities usually tend to work in Post-Secondary Educations. Most of the Academic Mathematicians do research by themselves or in collaboration with other mathematicians. They communicate virtually with the other collaborators working in the same Institution or from different locations Mathematicians in Academic Profession helps Graduate students studying in the college or Institution.

How to Become Mathematician in India

India has been the epicentre of great Mathematicians over the years.To become a Mathematician in India is easy, if one takes the following steps at various education levels:

School Level Preparation

Afirst you need to study mathematics at 10+2 level the topics like statistics, algebra, linear differential equations, calculations should be focussed the most.

UG Preparation

At this level one must sharpen a particular topic of his/ interest in which he/she wants to pursue higher education, also students tend to prepare for IIT JAM to get the masters done from a top-notch institute.

PG Preparation

Here usually an individual will do the research and also projects and gets a good job if not interested in doing a doctorate in mathematics.

Courses to Become a Mathematician

There are different Mathematics courses in India where one can study and progress their career as a Mathematician.

Associate’s Degrees

  • The duration of the course is 2-years.
  • The eligibility to get admission into this course is a High School Diploma or GED.
  • The course has a combination of general education with math courses. 
  • An Associate of Arts or Associate of Science degree is received by the students after the completion of the course.

About The Author

Hemant Singh

Hello friends, I am Hemant, Technical Writer & Co-Founder of Education Learn Academy. Talking about education, I am a student. I enjoy learning things related to new technology and teaching others. I request you that you keep supporting us in this way and we will continue to provide new information for you. :)

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