The Department offers a wide variety of additional activities and opportunities to do more than just take classes. Taking advantage of these opportunities is the key to personalizing your education. Your college years will shape your future. What you do in addition to your coursework is what may most shape your memories of college, and affect your opportunities and decisions about what to do next.

The Learning Support Services Center (LSSC) provides many resources to help you in your studies, including workshops on study skills and collections of exams from previous semesters. In addition, the LSSC is often in need of good students to act as math specialists, or as one-on-one tutors for students in the introductory math and computer science classes. Not only can this be a source of useful income, but it is one of the best ways of strengthening your own skills in those courses. In particular, acting as a tutor or TA (see next section) is probably the best way to prepare for the GRE's or the Actuarial Exams. For the GRE's, it is best to tutor for Calculus, and for the Actuarial exams, you should tutor Calculus, Linear Algebra, or Statistics.

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The department is often in need of strong students to act as teaching assistants (TA's) for introductory statistics, calculus, linear algebra, and programming (CS 111, CS 195, and CS 203). Students can work as a TA either for credit (normally 1/2 unit), or for money. As with working for the Learning Resource Center, this is an excellent technique to strengthen your own skills to prepare you for GRE's or Actuarial exams.

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Each semester, the Math/CS department sponsors talks by students, faculty, and outside visitors. Mathematical talks are generally accessible to students who have completed calculus. Computer Science talks are usually accessible to students who have completed introductory programming. Math and Computer Science majors each give at least one of these talks, normally during their junior or senior years. Other students are invited to attend talks of their choice.

Each week, a mailing is sent to interested students describing the upcoming talk. To be added to this mailing list, see the Division Secretary in 225 Chamberlin. As a mathematics or computer science major, you should come to the Colloquium, even if you are not enrolled in it as a course.

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Mathematical Competition is a national competition for Math majors based on undergraduate mathematics. For the most part, it tests originality and cleverness, logic and mathematical thinking, rather than sophisticated mathematical knowledge. Cash prizes are awarded, and a strong showing can be very useful for gaining support for graduate studies in mathematics. Students interested in preparation for this exam may participate in an informal study group which emphasizes problem solving techniques. This study group is organized each Fall under the direction of one of the department faculty (ask any of them who is in charge any particular year). Although attendance in the seminar is not required to take the exam, students must have the instructor register them as contestants in order to compete. Three contestants are selected to represent the College as a team, and the other contestants are entered as individuals.

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The Jackson J. Bushnell prize is awarded annually to a freshman who has shown excellence in mathematics. This prize is awarded annually based on an exam given each spring.

The Conwell-Huffer prize is awarded annually to a distinguished senior in mathematics or computer science.

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Each year, the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) sponsors a competition between more than 500 programming teams from around the world. Twice, teams from Beloit have placed in the top 25 teams in the world, gaining a sport in the world finals (In 1990, Beloit placed 11th; in 1991, we placed 19th).

The competition begins with a regional match in November. The team travels to a regional site, and spends 5 hours attempting to solve problems such as optimal routing of fire trucks through city streets, and decoding encrypted messages. From the regional competition, the top three teams (from about 75) go on to the international finals.

We always send at least one team to the regionals, and usually two. For more information about participating, see Professor Chavey.

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Each spring, teams of undergraduate mathematics students from around the country compete in a four-day "Mathematics Modeling" contest. In this contest, students are given a choice of 2 real-life problems against which they pit their mathematical skills. Beloit normally fields two teams in this competition, and we have often had teams receive "Meritorious" certificates for exceptional solutions. In 1991 and 1994, Beloit's team received an "Outstanding" designation, one of only 6 teams so designated (e.g., out of 315 teams in 1994). See Professor Campbell for information about participating.

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One of the best ways to find out what it may be like to be in a particular field is to attend a meeting of professionals in that field. A prime opportunity of this sort is the Annual Meeting of the Wisconsin Section of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA), where you can hear talks and panel discussions on a variety of topics in the mathematical sciences. Most members of the Math/CS Department attend, and the department provides free transportation, housing, and meals to students who wish to go.

You should already by joining a national professional organization. Both the MAA and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) offer very readable journals and big discounts on student memberships. If there is sufficient interest, we can establish student chapters of these organizations.

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If you want to grow and experience different kinds of responsibilities, you probably shouldn't have the same summer job every year in college. One model is to try something pre-professional in one of your areas of interest, such as an internship or summer research experience. Another model is to do something totally different from what you have ever done before, something not at all related to your preconceived career aspirations -- this is more in the Beloit tradition. Your best source for information about both kinds of experiences is Field and Career Services.

What's the difference between a job and an internship? An internship tends to involve closer supervision (including a Beloit faculty member as a liaison), more attention to your growth in job and professional skills, a specific time frame, a listing on your transcript, and possibly academic credit. Also, some kinds of opportunities are available only as internships to Beloit students.

What's difference between a summer job/internship and a research experience? Some jobs/internships do offer real research experience, usually of an applied mathematical or computational nature, but others do not. For training in pure mathematical research, for example, you would want to go to a summer institute that specifically concentrates on that. Of course, you can also do research here on campus, by contacting an appropriate faculty member and doing a 390 Special Projects course.

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Several notable opportunities are available for presenting the results of your research. Making such a presentation is an activity well worth noting on your curriculum vita and on graduate school applications.

• Annual Beloit College Student Symposium, held in mid-April. Abstracts are due in early-March. Students give 20-minute presentations.
• Annual Argonne Symposium for Undergraduates in Science, Engineering, and Mathematics, held in early November. Abstracts are due October 1. Students give 20-minute presentations. Usually, several Beloit students present; transportation and housing are provided.
• Pew Midstates Science and Mathematics Consortium Undergraduate Research Symposia, one in biological sciences and the other in physical sciences (with mathematics and computer science) help at Washington University and the University of Chicago in late October and early November. Usually, several Beloit students present; transportation and housing are provided.
• Annual Meeting of the Wisconsin Section of the Mathematical Association of America, in late April. Student talks are encouraged, and we have had as many as three student presentations from Beloit at the same meeting. In particular, this is a good place to present the results of work in the Mathematical Contest in Modeling. Housing, meals, and transportation are provided by the Math/CS Department.
• SIAM (Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics) Student Paper Competition. The three winning papers in any area of applied and computational mathematics present their papers at the annual meeting, held in July, and receive up to $750 for expenses of attending. Submissions must be postmarked by March 15. SIAM also offers awards of $250 to support student travel to SIAM conferences. Top priority is given to students presenting papers at meetings, with next priority to students who are coauthors. Applications must be received at least a month before the meeting.

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Summer Employment:

• Information Technology Services, Beloit College. Details of full-time summer jobs (June 1 through mid-August) announced in mid-March, appointments made by early April.

Academic-Year Part-Time Employment:

• Math/Computer Science Department, Beloit College. Need lab aides to manage the math/computer science department computer lab, and students to do hardware and software setup and system administration on UNIX and Macintosh machines.
• Information Technology Services, Beloit College. Chronic need for capable and responsible students to do hardware and software setup, user training and consulting, networking, systems management, and systems and applications programming. Work-study, non-work-study, and internship positions available.