What math class should I take?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>Right now I'm determining my fall schedule (going into junior year of CS) and am trying to choose a math class that might be pertinent to my studies. </p>

<p>Which of the following classes would be most useful/interesting?
-ODE's
-PDE's
-Graph Theory
-Computational Geometry
-Other: please specify</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

2

<p>CS? Probably graph theory. As far as others go, make sure you have had…</p>

<ul>
<li>Discrete Mathematics</li>
<li>Probability and Statistics</li>
<li>Linear Algebra</li>
</ul>

<p>Naturally, the following would be good to have had also:</p>

<ul>
<li>Calculus I, II, III</li>
<li>Introductory Differential Equations (usually ODE)</li>
</ul>

<p>Anything above these core courses I have mentioned is strictly optional, although you might consider any of the following:

  • Applied math (including PDEs, complex variables, and a bunch of other stuff)
  • Algebra & number theory (including abstract and crypto, etc.)
  • Information theory (coding, data compression, crypto)
  • Combinatorics (combinatorial designs, enumeration, graph theory)
  • Numerical analysis (all kinds of courses on this)</p>

<p>If you’d like, I would check out math classes at your institution and make some suggestions… or something. I’m sure others would as well.</p>

3

<p>If you haven’t taken a linear algebra class yet, take one. Try to pick one that emphasizes vector spaces and linear transformations in the abstract. Linear algebra shows up everywhere and is hella useful.</p>