I got my BS in mathematics from the University of Missouri-Columbia. If you want to do research algebra or functional analysis, then we got some really good faculty. Look into Texas A&M, they might have a solid progarm.

I would really recommend Big Ten schools if you are looking for a top noch program that isn’t like Stanford, Harvard, Berkely, MIT, etc.

If you get something in appilied or finical math, then you could find a job even if it is possibly a PhD, but that might be a little tough some places wouldn’t pay a PhD for MS work..

BTW, math education is the study of techinques and methods to teah math. Like planning cirriculum and stuff. Unless you really want to study that indepth for some reason, you would be better off just taking 2-3 courses in math teaching and just work on a general math degree.

But if you want to do teaching and research at the university level, you need the Ph.D. If your math undergraduate GPA was not above 3.0, getting into a good Ph.D program might be hard, and you might want to start in an MS program first, and then move to a Ph.D program.

Math Education focuses primarly on mathematics teaching at the K-12 + Community College level, and on teaching future high school teachers. The difference between this and a math program is that you will take fewer advanced math courses, and will replace them with courses in education, educational psychology, or educational philosopphy / history. This makes the program somewhat less intense than a full math program.

Research in math can be hard. You have to develop something new, and that means understanding the state of the art in the research papers in your field. Those research papers assume you know a lot, and they can

be hard to read.

In terms of target universities, you want to get into as good a university as possible, but unless your GRE and recommendatiosn are strong, the top ten to fifteen math universities may be hard for you to get into. Many of them tend to admit small numbers of students each year, and have many more really qualified applicants than they can accept. So I might look below the top 10-15, but there are some really great programs in positions 16 through 50.

Finally, let’s talk about difficulty level. You already know that there is a big step up from high school algebra to college calculus, and another step up from first-second year undergraduate courses to courses like real analysis and abstract algebra.

What you may not know is that there is another big step up to graduate level courses, like real analysis (this time using measure theory, and maybe functional analysis). And then there is the big step up to research.

All this is to say that graduate work in math takes commitment. You want to assess your level of commitment before you start!

Good luck!

You might wish to consider something that uses math such as math education, statistics or other areas. This is only an advice and you’re free to choose what you think is right.