<p>Hey everyone, I'm applying this cycle and looking to finish as many pre-reqs as I can so the schools will see, but if they're too difficult, I can drop one. I was wondering how difficult you believe it is to take these classes together? I have 22 units total this semester, but the other 14 or so are pretty easy, so these will be the bulk of my time. Thanks!</p>
<p>Also, how would it change the outlook of my app to apply with differential equations planned for spring instead of getting an A in the class for fall?</p>
<p>I would recommend waiting to take differential equations until the spring semester. There is no advantage in finishing your prerequisites classes by fall. As long as you put on your application that you are going to take differential equations is the spring, you will be fine. </p>
<p>is it differential equations and linear algebra together or just de? </p>
<p>de is basically integration techniques, it’s very easy conceptually but requires a bit of practice to identity which type of DE you are dealing with and what is the best way to solve (intergrate) it. </p>
<p>la is a bit more involved conceptually if you didn’t learn or forgot how to deal with matrices and vectors. </p>
<p>Overall LA&DE is much easier than Calc 3 IMO. </p>
<p>If the other 14 units are really easy and you’ve managed to get this far with As I don’t see it being an issue to take them together. </p>
<p>It’s Intro to both, not sure what that means but it’s only 4 credits so I can’t imagine it’s both as an intensive course. And yeah, the others are just fillers for my honors stuff like intro to psych, intro to sociology, English, and C++. Not sure if by vectors you mean the same as physics (I could be sounding really stupid right now) but I have taken physics so I have worked with vectors.</p>
<p>No. Vectors in Linear is not used in the same sense as vectors in physics. It’s much more technical in definition. In fact, it only exists because it fits certain criteria. </p>
<p>Vectors in linear are the same as vectors in physics. However, vector spaces, subspaces, and basis are things you have not covered in physics that come up in linear algebra. Generally you’re off to a good start if you’ve at least dealt with basic vector operations, then that section will just be review. At my school L.A. Is
Separate and a pre-req for Diff Eq. Diff eq feels like a continuation of calc II, whereas LA feels like a continuation of algebra II, with some (usually simple) calculus involved. Calc III I found easier than II. </p>
<p>I personally wouldn’t take them together if I didn’t have to. It can be done. Plan to study a lot. </p>
<p>Don’t take DE before Calc3. I did the same thing last semester(taking both together), and dropped DE with a W eventually. There are a few chapters( mainly Partial Integration Chapter) in Calc3 that you need to understand before dealing with differential equation, otherwise it all becomes too confusing and hard. Coming from a B-A student ;)</p>
<p>I’m suprised calc III is not a pre-req for diff eq. Because you do use that material. Also some linear. Maybe my cc is pre-req happy. </p>
<p>The calc 3 material in la/de isn’t too hard to learn on the fly, i mainly remember partial derivatives which isn’t that bad. </p>
<p>I took Calc 3 and linear algebra in the same semester this year. I didn’t see the big deal, and I had a lot of personal b/s going on.</p>
<p>As far as DE, I haven’t taken it, but I am familiar with it, and it would be doable with Calc 3. Any integration techniques you would use can be self taught anyways. </p>
<p>I took both courses in the same term. For Diffy Q’s you really don’t have to know and master every technique of integration. The most common techniques you will use by far is substitution and parts. You will have to know your basic properties of math (logarithms, partial fractions and more). Partial fractions pop use a lot when you do inverse laplace transforms. </p>
<p>You don’t need to know calc III to do well in Diffy Q’s. It does help. I remember in the beginning of the term being slightly confused because it was my first exposure to certain things, partial fractions for example; however, its not an insurmountable task. You will probably have to study a little more than the other kids. No big deal. Besides for early chapters, I found problems to be a simple algorithm. After practicing for a few times you should get it. If not, there’s youtube. </p>
<p>Calc III, I didn’t find difficult until the very end (cylindrical, spherical coordinates). Not because of the math, but there was set up work you had to do sometimes before you could solve the problem. And that is when you get to the hard stuff.</p>
<p>I personally found Calc III to be the ■■■■■ class. You learn complicated ways to calculate something you already knew. In my class, the prof had us calculate a triple integral. After a few minutes of work, many students had an answer. He looked at the problem and within seconds he figured out the answer. We students were astounded to how he found an answer so quickly (He makes up his own problems, so he doesn’t know the answers before hand). Later he told us, the triple integral we solved was simply the volume, in which we could have used simple algebra to solve >.<;;;.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses everybody, I’m glad I could get some insight from people who have already done the same. </p>
<p>@ninjex oh god haha I can just imagine…</p>
<p>Personally, I found Calc 3 to be much easier than DE so you might want to wait on DE till the last semester. I think DE was difficult for me cause the work professor assigned. Most of his problems the “DE” part was relatively straight forward, but the integration parts used nearly all the tricks learned in calc 2 (trig sub, identities, etc). I learned more calc 2 in DE than I did in calc 2 class.</p>
<p>Do you guys think it would hurt my app that badly if I waited on taking DE until spring? I’ll a TAP student and should be around the average GPA admitted for my major</p>
<p>@uclaplz I can only speak from personal experience, but I knew plenty of students (mostly engineers) who took de their last semester and most got into their first choice schools. Unless you’re some type of math major I don’t think it would look bad. At the same time I read that at least UCSD likes to see all the math courses completed for their stem majors, but those were rumors I read when people on college confidential were posting there admissions.</p>
<p>I’m a Math/Econ major haha. I’ll have 7/9 pre-reqs done for UCLA after fall if I don’t take DE, and no school in my district is offering discrete mathematics.</p>
<p>if you finish your prereqs before the summer you should be golden. My friends who didn’t finish their prereqs in the fall were in no disadvantage. Some made into UCB, others. Sd, La and Davis</p>