<p>I'm an incoming freshman and I'm planning to major in Computer Engineering and Computer Science.</p>
<p>My school recommends students to take Calc I and Calc II the first year. And on the second year, CE recommends to take Calc III and Differential Equations, and CS recommends to take Discrete Math and Combinatorics. (Note: CE doesn't require to take Discrete Math/Combinatorics and CS doesn't require to take Calc III/DE at all.)</p>
<p>I got a 5 on AP Calculus AB last year and I'm pretty sure I will get a 3+ on BC this year. So, I can skip Calc I and II in college.</p>
<p>And you probably can guess my question. Which maths should I take in my freshman year? Calculus III + DE or Discrete Math + Combinatorics.</p>
<p>I researched and concluded that Discrete Math is much easier than Calculus III. I don't want my first year to be ridiculously hard since I'm was not really good at AP Calc BC (Calc II). Everything will be new. College courses will be a lot faster than high school classes. So I was thinking to have some time to adjust to college experience and take more difficult courses later. At the same time, however, I'm afraid that I will totally forget Calculus if I push Calculus III until the second year.</p>
<p>What do you guys think? Please advice, I have no idea what to do.</p>
<p>Take all of them. Get stuff done early so you won’t have to worry about it later or worry about pre-requisites. If you don’t feel comfortable with Calc BC, study it over the summer.</p>
<p>Calculus III / multivariable calculus will help if you take the physics course in electricity and magnetism, and differential equations will help with electric circuits and electronics.</p>
<p>Discrete math will help you with computer science theory (algorithms and complexity and the like).</p>
<p>So yes, take both if you want to go into both CE/EE (where you will likely need to take courses in electricity and magnetism, circuits, and electronics) and CS (where you will likely need or want to take a course in algorithms and complexity).</p>
<p>Check your school’s policy on math placement. Other than at super-elite science and engineering schools, a 5 on AB is usually sufficient to skip calculus I, and a 5 on BC may be sufficient to skip calculus II, but a 3 or 4 on BC may not be sufficient to skip calculus II. If you only get a 3 or 4 on BC or otherwise feel that your grasp of calculus beyond the AB level is shaky, you may want to consider (re)taking calculus II.</p>
<p>Discrete math is somewhat independent of calculus (although some schools want to see students pass calculus II or equivalent first, to show ability to handle math of supposedly similar difficulty); take it whenever you have space in your schedule.</p>
<p>Analytic Geometry/Calc I
Analytic Geometry/Calc II
Analytic Geometry/Calc III
Calc of several variables I
Calc of several variables II
Linear Algebra & Differential Equations</p>
<p>Engineering majors typically take freshman calculus, which is 2 semesters or 3 quarters (unless exempt from some or all of it with AP credit).</p>
<p>Following freshman calculus, they take multivariable calculus, linear algebra, and differential equations, which is another 2 semesters or 3 quarters (total 4 semesters or 6 quarters). Discrete math, if needed for computer science or engineering, adds one more course.</p>
<p>Discrete Math in my opinion is 10x harder than Calculus (I, II, or III). Discrete math is also much more relevant to CS and much more interesting. You will most likely do proofs in your discrete math course while Calculus I, II, and III will prety much be straight computation. Besides the last part of Multivariable Calculus (the Green/Stokes/Divergence theorem part) everything else in the Calculus sequence is easy.</p>
<p>Combinatorics and Discrete Math require intuitive thinking and problem solving abilities.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Discrete is not easier. It can be a brain killing course. If you want a good book on set theory, look at the book Navie Set Theory. It’s a very good supplemental aid when you begin to learn set theory. There are plenty of good lectures PDFs online. Just google harder. I always find combinatorial and permutation problems the most challenging part of Discrete mathematics.</p></li>
<li></li>
</ol>
<p>
No. I take 18 credits when I was a freshman. Definitely doable. Just work harder.</p>
<p>I will not take Differential equation until you have finished calculus 3. It is doable co-taking with calculus III. You only need little bit of partial differentiation… </p>
<p>IMO I would take Linear algebra along with DE next semester once you get out of calculus III.</p>
<p>I took both discrete math and combinatorics at Georgia Tech. Discrete math was okay. Not as involved as a Calc III class. Combinatorics was a complete nightmare. The easier stuff in that course was the hard stuff from discrete math. To this day that class puts a bad taste in my mouth.</p>
<p>As far as workload goes, computer science courses with programming and science courses with labs tend to be more work than math, humanities, and social studies courses without labs (unless there is a large term project in such courses).</p>
<p>I am surprised that you have already made a scheulde for next semester (spring). Is it already registered? Or are you just planning?
We always make plans ahead of time, but sometime we change the plan according to the new knowledge and information we are given. For example you may be told that a very good instructor for D.M is teaching in the spring, but your plan was to take it in the Fall. Well, if you don’t want to risk, and if swapping D.M with another course does not delay your graduation, the swap is worthy.</p>
<p>:]</p>
<p>– edit</p>
<p>There are three goals:
(1) get a good GPA
(2) graduate on time (if possible)
(3) learn the material</p>
<p>What is best for the some courses? For example, at CCNY engineers take “Computer Aid” class which is a MALTAB course. But beside the MATLAB, we also learn various mathematics techniques. It was intended for second semester of freshman and first semester of sophomore. But most of the math stuff are really differential equations (and a little bit of EE, because the instructor is EE professor). The pre-requisite is calculus 1. Most students without calculus III or have not taken differential equation usually have hard time understanding the material. The moral of the story is that while pre-requite is an indication of the difficulty of the course, outsider (incoming freshman) and people who haven’t taken the course yet may not have the whole story at hand. Find out more from your upperclassman.</p>