Interested in Cryptography/graduate degree in CS. Are my courses appropriate?

College Majors Math/Computer Science Majors
1

Hi everyone, this will be kinda long, so I apologize for that.

I’m interested in cryptography and cryptanalysis as a career and plan on getting a graduate degree in computer science. I’m double majoring in math and computer science and must also minor in music for my scholarship (just finished my freshman year). I was just wondering if my course selections are appropriate and if there are any other courses you’d recommend (I’ll see if my university offers them) for someone with my interests, or if there is something important I am missing. I’m also willing to take summer/online courses if there is something not offered at my university and am planning to apply for internships for next summer (agencies and companies along the lines of NSA).

Math/CS core classes:
-Calc 1 and 2 (AP credit), Calc 3 ( from HS, will not appear on transcript- it was waived), Linear Algebra (taken)
-Fundamentals of Abstract Math (discrete, logic, proofs, basic real analysis; taken), Abstract Algebra 1, Real Analysis I
-Intro CS (transfer credit), Discrete Structures (dumbed down version of Fundamentals of Abstract, took already), Data Structures (taken)
-Software Systems, Computer Organization, Algorithms, Design/Implementation of Programming Languages

Math/CS electives I will take:
-database systems, compiler construction, computer security
-number theory, numerical analysis, probability, mathematical statistics, coding theory (cryptography class)

Other relevant electives:
-Will probably only have elementary italian on my transcript, but will be at a high novice to intermediate level in italian, french, german (heritage speaker, using to fulfill language requirement), and latin (i may want to pick up spanish later too)
-intro to linguistics, history of the romance languages

Gen eds/music requirements, other electives (idk if these are relevant, feel free to skip over):
-First years seminars (I took film music and global medicine), classical mythology (literary), US History (AP credit), a Forensic Chemistry class (science), intro to women and gender studies (social analysis) , US Gov (AP credit)
-2 semesters of music theory, 2 semesters of music history, orchestration (if I can fit it in), intro to composition, various ensembles and private lessons
-auditing dance technique classes (Modern 1, Jazz 2, Contemporary 1, etc)

2

I’m not a crypto person, but the number theory and analysis classes look right, as does the statistics …
Probably a good idea to ask on something like stackoverflow or a math or physics board instead of a college board.

Best of luck!

3

I’m not a crypto person, but the number theory and analysis classes look right, as does the statistics …
Probably a good idea to ask on something like stackoverflow or a math or physics board instead of a college board.

Best of luck!

4

You may want to add the CS courses in operating systems, networks, and software engineering (or other courses with projects) for general usefulness in CS. You may want to add theory of computation, since strong cryptography does depend on the computational difficulty of such things as factoring large prime numbers.

5

Ok, thank you both!

I’ll try to fit some of the other courses in too (depends on when they’re offered), especially theory of computation.