We are happy to welcome you to 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.

You are cordially invited to our

held in our school building,

street address: Bethlen Gábor tér 2, Room 102 (LOOK FOR THE SIGNS)
 

and to the

at  4:00 PM, Room 111
 

Please note that your participation on the orientation session is very important

Courses  will  start in the  same building  on September 6th  (Monday) morning  at 10 o'clock
The schedule of classes will be distributed later, via the Internet the first week of September and printed version on or just before the orientation session.
 
 

September   3 (Fr)       3:00 PM     Orientation session, Room 102, Bethlen Gábor tér 2.
September   3 (Fr)       4:00 PM     Welcome Party, Room 111, Bethlen Gábor tér 2.
September   6 (Mo)    10:15 AM    classes begin, 2nd floor, Bethlen Gábor tér 2.
 
 

First day of classes                    September 6 (Mo)
Registration deadline                 September 24 (Fr)
Last day of classes                    December 10 (Fr)
Final exams                               December 13-15 (Mo--We)
Transcripts (drafts) handed out  December 16 (Th)
Official holidays (no classes):     November 1 (Mo), November 25 (Th), Thanksgiving Day
 
 

This semester initially we offer 19 core math courses, (two of them, introductory combinatorics and number theory twice, with slightly diofferent sillaby), a few more math courses will introduced during the orientation session, a history course, Hungarian language courses (two or thee elementary and some  intermediate levels), a course on Hungarian culture, and two other non-math courses, a science history and a philisophy course. At this moment, there are four intermediate Hungarian language courses in the offer (with different emphasis) but most probably -- depending on the number of students -- there will be 2 or 3 finally given. Please consult the syllabi to choose the right one for your self, we'll discuss the details on the orientation session.

We also mention here that there are 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, usually these courses do not come with a BSM credit. In case you wish to attend any of them please contact the student coordinators or Dezsõ Miklós, the Hungarian director of the program.

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, DEQ and LOG) are somewhat more challenging and may require some experience in the field. Use the course outlines on the following pages to choose your favorites.

The courses will be scheduled later partly based upon your preregistration. 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.

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.
 
 

The semester starts with a trial period of three weeks (September  6-24),  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 further classes introduced during the orientation sessions (ALT, BAG, DEQ and LOG) 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 September and the printed version on or just before the orientation session. Still you should know that  we will have most of the time 2 or 3 classes parallel to each other, and no matter how hard we tried to aviod conflicts, most of you will face the situation of having two or more of your prefereed 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 you must register for the courses you really want to study.
In effect from this 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 as many as  you wish 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).
Also, I'd like to draw youyr attentiuon to the fatc that in case anybody would like to drop a course later, it can 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..
 

List of courses and instructors

ALG1 Introduction to Abstract Algebra    Dr. László HÉTHELYI
ALG2 Advanced Abstract Algebra           Dr. Péter HERMANN
ANT Topics in Analysis                           Dr. Ágnes SZILÁRD
CLX Complex Functions                         Dr. Károly BÖRÖCZKY
COM1A  Combinatorics 1A                   Dr. Dezsõ  MIKLÓS
COM1B  Combinatorics 1B                    Dr. Attila Sali
COM2 Combinatorics 2                          Dr. András GYÁRFÁS
C&P Conjecture and Proof                      Dr. György ELEKES
DIG Differential Geometry                       Dr. Balázs CSIKÓS
FUN Functional Analysis                         Dr. Gábor ELEK
GAL Galois Theory                                 Dr. Csaba SZABÓ
GEO Topics in Geometry                        Dr. Gábor MOUSSONG
GRT Graph Theory                                 Dr. Ervin GYÕRI
NUT1A Number Theory 1A                    Dr. Csaba SZABÓ
NUT1B Number Theory 1B                    Dr. Mátyás DOMOKOS
NUT2 Topics in Number Theory             Dr. Antal BALOG
PRO Probability Theory                          Dr. Tamás SZABADOS
RFM Real Functions and Measures         Dr. Tamás KELETI
SET Set Theory                                       Dr. Péter KOMJÁTH
THC Theory of Computing                      Dr. Gyula Y. KATONA
TOP  Introduction to Topology                Dr. András SZENES

ALT  Algebraic Topology                         Dr. Károly BÖRÖCZKY
BAG  Basic Algebraic Geometry               Dr. Tamás SZAMUELY
DEQ  Ordinary Differential Equations        Dr. Péter SIMON
LOG  Mathematical Logic                         Dr. Miklós ERDÉLYI SZABÓ

HST The Making of Modern Central Europe                   Dr. Éva KISS
HUN1 Beginner Hungarian Language                              Ádám SZEKFÛ and Dr. Erika FALLIER
HUN2A Intermediate Hungarian Language                      Ádám SZEKFÛ
HUN2B Intermediate Hungarian Language                      Dr. Erika FALLIER
HUN2C Intermediate Hungarian Language                      Dr. Erika FALLIER
HUN2D Intermediate Hungarian Language                      Ádám SZEKFÛ
HUC Hungarian Art and Culture                                      Dr. Márta SIKLÓS
HAM Historical Aspects of Mathematics                        Dr.András RINGLER
PHIL Old World and New World Political Philosophy   Dr. János SALAMON