Physics/Mathematics/Computer Science Triple Major?

<p>Hello. I plan to attend a large public school (specifically Uwashington) and I was curious if my plans for a triple major are feasible?</p>

<p>I want to specialize in quantum computation, and possibly, teleportation. As such, I plan to focus in pure math, theoretical physics, and theoretical computer science. I don't have a problem with a few summers and possibly an extra year of being an undergrad.</p>

<p>I am currently a soph in high school, and planing to skip into cal AB/physics AP my junior year and bypass precal/"honors" physics.</p>

<p>So, am I within reality? Any suggestions for the quantum comp field?</p>

<p>Wow, you want pain. I'm a mathematical physics/CS major (but due to my horribly inflexible college, I have to finish the MP major before starting into 200-level CS in autumn), and I just can't see how anyone could survive that many courses in that field.</p>

<p>Are on speed or cocaine? How do you keep up? I got winded just reading this post!</p>

<p>redstapler, I am in a very similar situation as you! Like you, i am a high school sophomore going to the University of Washington interested in triple majoring in physics/mathematics/blah (in my case, blah = astronomy). However, I was accepted by the UW Academy so i'm going next year! As for the UW - umm, most students are generally urged to take first year honors calculus (single var and linear algebra) in freshman year, then advanced honors calc (multi-variable and complex analysis) in soph year, allowing the student to take advanced math courses later on. I dunno about diffy eqns though - no course is explicitly labeled diffy eqns... Physics - you'll start with intro stuff in freshman year but since it isn't honors i would urge you to self-study AP Physics C if possible so you could skip it all.</p>

<p>Also, what do you want to do over the summer? Take courses, or do REUs? (research experiences for undergraduates) Search for REUs - there are so many of them! If you want to get into a good graduate school, prior research experience is essential - so maybe it's better to do REUs over the summers instead of taking additional courses - and then stay for an additional year.</p>

<p>the best places to triple major however are at easy-going schools, (ie: Brown), if u guys werent science geeks i would suggest a school like amherst (im a history/english/poly sci interested person), but look for others where u can intertwine core classes with classes needed for ur major......and remember to live once in a while</p>

<p>First off, congrats on UW Academy. I'm moving into a new state, so that prevented me from doing a similiar institution in Texas. It's just plain old high school for me... I plan to do the Stanford Gifted Edu Online Thingy over the summer, which would allow me to skip into Cal BC. Then I can take Linear Algebra/Diff Equations my senior year. I think my only difficulty will be the administration, but I can put up a good fight. Where are you in math? Do you think this would be reasonable?</p>

<p>I want to do REUs over the summer. By far. </p>

<p>Thanks for your reply.</p>

<p>I wouldn't call myself I science geek, but just that science is slightly prevailing over my other interests. To be honest, if I won the lottery, I'd read all day. Thanks for the advice.</p>

<p>Umm, I don't think you can do diffy equations right after Calc BC - you also need multivariable calculus. Oh, and Stanford EPGY is great - if I missed anything from going to college early, I would miss the opportunity to take Stanford EPGY (and one more residential summer program).</p>

<p>Currently, I am taking IB Calculus, the equivalent of AP Calculus AB and am self-studying for the Calculus BC exam. However, I may have to retake single-variable calculus + linear algebra at the UW next year because it's suggested that people who already took calculus (and who got a 4/5 on the AP exam) take the honors course combining the two.</p>

<p>I do not know how difficult it will be to negotiate with the administration (or more accurately put, bureaucracy) of a large public research university over replacing the university's own honors courses with external courses from another institution (I will see how that goes when I negotiate with the administration come next September). Furthermore, mathematicians are against going too far in math without exploring math in greater depth. </p>

<p>A good article on this phenomena:</p>

<p><a href="http://maa.org/features/faceofcalculus.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://maa.org/features/faceofcalculus.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I'm not extremely into science either - if I won the lottery, I'd probably play computer games all day, and sleep for the rest of it.</p>

<p>If you would like to see how things go for me, e-mail me at <a href="mailto:simfish@gmail.com">simfish@gmail.com</a></p>

<p>I know a guy who did that at MIT. He was a Marshall Scholar. He was also in Business Week (<a href="http://stm1.chem.psu.edu/%7Epsw/news/bw01Alex.html)%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://stm1.chem.psu.edu/~psw/news/bw01Alex.html)&lt;/a>. They outlawed triple majors at MIT, but those three majors were known as the holy trinity of MIT.</p>

<p>It's probably not a good idea to skip Precal and Physics Honors- while both classes are slow as hell, it's good to have a good foundation in them. If you're sure you want to, make sure you thoroughly study them on your own.</p>

<p>Its not very hard if you go prepared. Forget all of that "basic" crap. High School and Basic College physics is useless. You would do yourself better to just learn some classical mechanics (not the AP level crap) and jump into QM and QFT. With, just do the normal stuff, analysis, diffeqs, linalg, absalg, complex analysis, topology, algtop etc...
Computer science should be pretty straight forward.</p>

<p><em>Just</em> learn classical mechanics? Have you ANY idea what that course is like?</p>

<p>If you consider yourself good enough, you should be able to do it. Its not particularly hard.</p>

<p>I think you are getting ahead of yourself.</p>