We are happy to welcome you to the Budapest Semesters in Mathematics. On the following pages you find a lot of useful information, including the schedule of the coming days. Please study this material carefully.
Please note that
your participation on the orientation session is very important!
During the orientation session I'll cover briefly all basic information regarding your everyday and academic life during the
next semester, while on the welcome party you will have a chance to meet your professors for the first time and discuss details of the forthcoming classes, or simply ask questions.
As the room may change in the last minute, please look for the signs inside the Bethlen tér building
Courses will start in the same building on February 7th (Monday) morning at 10 o'clock. The schedule of classes will be distributed later, via the Internet during the first week of February, and printed version on or just before the orientation session.
| February 4, | 3:00 PM | Orientation session, Room 102, Bethlen Gábor tér 2. |
| February 4, | 4:00 PM | Welcome Party, Room 111, Bethlen Gábor tér 2. |
| February 7 (Mo), | 10:15 AM | classes begin, 2nd floor, Bethlen Gábor tér 2. |
| First day of classes | February 7 (Mo) |
| Registration deadline | February 25 (Fr) |
| Last day of classes | May 20 (Fr) |
| Final exams | May 23-25 (Mo-We) |
| Transcripts (drafts) handed out | May 26 (Th) |
| Official holidays (no classes): | March 15 (Tu), May 16 (Whit Monday) Please note that the classes of 14th of March (Monday) will be held on the 19th of March Saturday), allowing a long free weekend of 12-15 of March |
| Spring break (no classes): | Marc 21-28 (Mo-Mo), Including Easter Monday, March 28th |
Due to the record number of students, this semester initially we offer 19 core math courses, (two of them, introductory combinatorics and introductory number theory in two different versions, with slightly different syllabi), 6 further optional math courses, a history course, Hungarian language courses (elementary, intermediate, and - upon interest - advanced levels), a course on Hungarian culture, and three other non-math courses, a science history course, a philosophy course and a course on film analysis. At this moment, there are several intermediate Hungarian language courses in the offer (with different emphasis) but most probably &ndash depending on the number of students – there will be 2 or 3 finally given. Please consult the syllabi to choose the right one for yourself, and we'll discuss the details on the orientation session.
We also mention here that there are available courses given by the Budapest branch of the McDaniel College (earlier known as Western Maryland College), which you may wish to attend (without credit). These courses are held in the same building where we have the BSM classes but we can not take care of the scheduling conflicts — you will be able to audit these courses only if you do not have a BSM course at the same time. Again, these courses do not come with a BSM credit, unless special arrangements are made. In case you wish to attend any of them (even without credits), please contact the student coordinators or Dezsõ Miklós, the Hungarian director of the program.
Please note that you might not be able to take some of these courses due to the limit on the number of students (since McDaniel college naturally
will admit first their own students).
The courses Making of Modern Central Europe, Hungarian Art and Culture, Historical Aspects of Mathematics, Old World and New World Political Philosophy and Film Analysis are cross-listed with McDaniel College and therefore they have pre-decided meeting time for the semester, we will not be able to change them even if they conflict with some of the other courses you would like to take. Also, in these courses you will find fellow classmates outside of BSM. (However, these count as regular BSM courses, no need for special arrangements to sign up for them).
Most of the math courses are of introductory character with prerequisites not going beyond calculus or linear algebra, but some of them (ALG2, COM2, FUN, GRT, DIG, GEO, RFM, and the planned ALT, BAG, D&B, LOG, MAP, BIO) are somewhat more challenging and may require some experience in the field. Use the course outlines on the following pages to choose your favorites.
Please note that we've introduced two new interdisciplinary courses, Mathematical Physics and a course on Bioinformatics (Stochastic Models
in Bioinformatics). Naturally, they are both aimed for an audience with good mathematical background (i.e., you), therefore do not be afraid to
take them, they will be challenging enough in mathematics (see the syllabi).
The courses will be scheduled later partly based upon your preregistrations. If you wish to take any further math courses/topics, let us know that on the preregistration form and we will try to do our best to help you. Due to time constraints, I will be able to schedule only the core math courses initially. For the remaining 6 optional courses you (that is, the interested students and the professor of the course) will negotiate the schedule for them either on the welcome party or during the first week of classes.
We plan a series of Colloquium Lectures on various branches of mathematics held by outstanding Hungarian mathematicians and some other related activities. Watch for announcements. These events are (almost) always scheduled Thursdays 4.p.m.
Please note
The semester starts with a trial period of three weeks (February 7-25), when you can sit in as many classes as you wish. After this you must register for the courses you really want to study.
Any of the courses ALG1, ANT, CLX, SET, C&P, PRO will be cancelled after the trial period, if the number of registered students in the corresponding class fall below 6. Also, if the two versions of the Number theory 1 and Combinatorics 1 will have their total student number below 15 we might just simply join them. (Please, realize your responsibility: dropping a class of 6 at a later time would cause serious difficulties for the remaining five students.)
The other courses may continue to work with 2-5 students in the form of a READING CLASS, where instructors meet students for 1-2 hours per week, and the major part of the material must be studied on an individual basis. Also, the optional classes introduced during the welcome party (ALT, BAG, D&B, LOG, MAP, BIO) will start as reading and will be changed to regular course only if their audience will exceed 6 permanently.
Other optional elective courses – other than the standard ones above – can also be inserted in the program depending on students' demand and the avability of a suitable instructor. These additional courses may operate on ordinary or on reading basis as well (but most probably on reading basis).
As said above, the schedule of classes will be distributed later, via the Internet the first week of February and the printed version on or just before the orientation session. Still you should know that we would have most of the time 2 or 3 classes parallel to each other, and no matter how hard we try to avoid conflicts, most of you will face the situation of having two or more of your preferred courses scheduled parallel.
The semester starts with a trial period of three weeks, when you can sit in as many classes as you wish. Only after this must you register for the courses you really want to study. In effect from the last Fall semester we introduce an extra tuition fee (payable at the Budapest office) for the 6th and further math courses you would take (that is your tuition paid in the US covers 5 math courses and any number of non-math courses). For any further math course(s) a non-refundable tuition of 350USD/course should be paid by the registration time (i.e., by the end of the third week).
I'd also like to draw your attention to the fact that in case anybody would like to drop a course later, it can only be done by submitting a written request (form will be provided) signed by the instructor of the course to the Budapest BSM office. Failure of doing it will result a “U” (unsatisfactory) grade for the course.