I am finishing up my first year at UC Davis and am currently an EE major. I absolutely hate it. I love math and do well in all my classes (mostly A’s and A-'s), but i can’t seem to stand EE labs and learning the subject. Basically if I switch now, I feel like I’d be really behind because I haven’t taken any comp sci classes here. I would like to switch to a math major with a minor in computer science. I am already ahead of most freshman in the EE curriculum by 2 quarters as of now, and if I switch to math with comp sci minor, I feel like I’d be behind… I wouldn’t be so behind on the math part, but I would be lagging on the comp sci part. Additionally, I don’t really know what I would do with my degree. I plan to have software or programming jobs as back up, but would rather do something more involved with math for a job. Anyone have any advice on anything I mentioned? Thanks
Do you need a comp sci minor? Couldn’t you learn programming languages over the summer or something?
@bodangles I could… but I would like the extra classes. Plus it might help my employment chances.
Maybe you could take classes without completing an entire minor, then? In any case you’re probably not as behind as you feel. Have you chatted with an advisor about the switch? Might be a good next step.
Plot out the sequence of CS courses you would need to finish a minor or major in the subject to see if you can finish it in 9 quarters. It would not be surprising if it were doable.
If you are ahead in the EE curriculum, you should be ahead or at least on schedule for math.
@ucbalumnus I am ahead on the sequence of math… but i havent taken any proof based classes.
Alright, thank you. I will look at it.
I just don’t know what I can do with my degree though… I like math, but it seems a lot of industry oriented jobs of math don’t use too much math. Actuaries, operations analysts, software analysts… whenever I read about them, employees of those fields say that they usually only use simple arithmetic. Even actuaries, who have to take notoriously hard exams (involving math), often tell stories of how the exams reflect nothing of corporate work.
Take an intro to proofs class of some sorts before you think about switching majors. Any upper level math course will be based almost entirely on proofs so if you don’t like the intro class you probably won’t like the upper levels.
@existential12 I like to prove things in my linear algebra and calculus class. I will definitely take the intro to proof writing class next quarter, but if I do that I won’t be able to take my EE class and it will put be on the normal track for engineering. If I stay in engineering, I’d like to be ahead of the track so I can choose to minor in math. I don’t know how much you know about math but do you know how different linear algebra proofs are from math proofs?
@iamjack I don’t know what your linear algebra class is like but assuming it’s an intro one then I’d say that the proofs in upper division classes will be a bit more rigorous and most likely harder that calc proofs and intro lin alg. Proofs in upper divisions tend to take more thought and care when writing them. For example, in calc proofs we basically can say oh lim 1/n goes to 0, etc. In intro analysis we prove that limits converge from the epsilon delta definition of a limit. The same methods and logic apply but you’ll be using more theorems rather than computing answers. If you can find an intro analysis text online or maybe a modern linear algebra textbook then those will give you a good idea of what to expect.
@iamjack Are you taking MAT 22A or MAT 67?
I took MAT 67, and honestly the proofs were harder than the ones I did for MAT 145 and 141. But those two classes are also considered light for math majors.I definitely noticed that the people who took 22A instead of 67 (assuming they didn’t take something like 108 or 25 beforehand) struggled a lot more in those two classes than the people who had taken some proof-based class. Usually those were the CS people, because most take 22A instead of 67.
Regarding calculus proofs, are you in MAT 25 or do you plan to take it?
And frankly, you wouldn’t be very behind in CS. You’d need ECS 20, 30, 40, and 60 before you could get to upper div, which would take 3 quarters. You could include ECS 50 in those 3 quarters as well and still have 2 years to do all your upper div classes. I started with ECS 30 my second quarter and didn’t get to upper divs until junior year, and am graduating on time (could have graduated a quarter early). And CS requires an upper div math class, so if you take one out of curiosity then you’re already fulfilling a CS upper div requirement.
Long story short, you’re not really that behind and a CS major is easily doable in your next three years if you start your CS classes next quarter.
@PhantomVirgo no I’m in math 22a…I plan to take math 108 next quarter (in the fall) though. Do you recommend I also take math 67 afterwards? I dont think id get much credit considering I would have already taken 22a by the end of the quarter. I did not take mat25. I never took a math course other than 21series and 22a. I talked to the math counselor very shortly and she advised taking 108 before taking 25. So I am still deciding whether to take 108 and 25 in the fall or take 108 in the fall and 25 in the spring. Which would you recommend?
Looks like UCD CS has handy flowcharts:
http://www.cs.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/CS-Lower-Division-2015-2016.pdf
http://www.cs.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/CS-Upper-Division-2015-2016.pdf
It looks like the longest sequence of required courses for the CS major is the following:
ECS 30 → ECS 40 → ECS 60 → ECS 122A → ECS 122B
i.e. 5 quarters, and you have 9 quarters remaining.
Of course, there are additional requirements and in-major electives, as listed in
http://www.cs.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Computer-Science-CS-Checklist-2015-2016.pdf
However, it does not look like it will be very difficult to build a schedule that will let you graduate with a CS major in 9 quarters.
Be aware that the CS major requires a 3.0 GPA to declare:
http://www.cs.ucdavis.edu/undergraduate/cs-major/change-of-major/
This is not listed for the CSE major:
http://www.cs.ucdavis.edu/undergraduate/cse-major/change-of-major/
@iamjack I wouldn’t take MAT 67 if you’re already taking 22A. It’s not a huge deal to have taken 22A instead of 67; it just means you’ll need to take another proof class.
Regarding MAT 108 and 25, I’d take 108 first if you’ve never taken a proof-based math class before. 25 is real analysis (albeit elementary compared to the 125 series), which is is made at least a little less painful if you have some experience with rigorous proofs.
And to clarify @ucbalumnus’s post:
ECS 122B isn’t strictly required, and is only offered once per year when it is offered (prior to last year, it had been a few years since it had been offered and had been cancelled many times). You can take either 122B or 120 for that requirement, but 120 is offered every quarter and only requires ECS 20. As is stated in several places on the website though, if you take both then one fulfills the requirement and the other fulfills an elective.
And speaking of ECS 20, you’ll need that for 60. That’s not a big deal though, because it only requires MAT 21A. If you do decide to do CS, you’d just take 20 concurrently with either 30 or 40 and it would be no problem.
If you decide to go for a CS minor and a math major, consider taking ECS classes in the 120s and 130s. Those are the more theoretical CS classes and will probably be of more interest to a math major than the more project-based classes.
EDIT: I just remembered something else I wanted to mention: If you’re a CS major, you can choose to have all your electives be math classes if you want. So you would have the lower division sequence, the required upper division classes, and then you could take a bunch of math classes to fulfill the rest. Note that you can’t do that with CSE though.