General Information: The Directed Reading Program (DRP) is designed to pair undergraduate math students with graduate student or postdoc mentors in order to undertake independent study projects in a mathematical topic of their choosing. Undergraduate students may apply for the DRP and, if accepted, will be assigned an appropriate mentor. We do our best to pair students and mentors who have similar mathematical interests.

The goal of DRP is to cover material that is not typically covered in a standard undergraduate math course.  Projects are generally based on reading through either a book or a research article.  Mentors and students will choose their projects together based on the student's interests.  All of the students of a given mentor will work on the same reading project as a group.  More details about choosing a project will be provided after the program has started.

If there is a particular mentor that you have previously worked with or would like to work with during the DRP, then we encourage you to personally reach out to said mentor.  Mentors will have the ability to request specific students that they would like to work with during the DRP.

The number of student applicants typically exceeds the number of mentors who are available to participate in the DRP.  In order to accommodate as many students as possible into the DRP, some students may be paired together in a single reading group under a single mentor.  Students can mutually request to be placed in the same reading group.

We warn student applicants that a larger portion of the mentors for the DRP work in pure mathematics as opposed to applied mathematics.  In light of this, student applicants that are only interested in doing directed reading projects in applied mathematics may be less likely to be paired with a mentor. We thus encourage you to express interest in a variety of pure/applied topics. 

Requirements: During the IAP, the student is required to meet with their mentor on campus at least 3 times per week to discuss their reading project. The student is expected to independently work for approximately 4 hours between meetings. All but 3 meetings should be in person; 3 meetings can be over zoom to accommodate travel.  In the late afternoon on February 2, 2023, the group of DRP participants will meet and, each DRP student will give a short talk on their reading project. All DRP students and mentors are required to attend these presentations.  There will also be a kick-off meeting on the evening of December 14th.  During the kick-off meeting, students and mentor will meet and select reading topics for the DRP.  Dinner will be provided!  All DRP students and metnors are expected to attend the kick-off meeting.

Pairing decisions announced: November 20, 2023