Memoirs of the Cast Away

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

For a second, I was freaking out

But then I saw a post on slashdot about what math classes undergraduate computer science majors should take. Then I saw this comment:

For students who want to actually do research in computer science: They're in the wrong department. The best preparation for graduate work in computer science is an undergraduate degree in mathematics. If they insist on getting their undergraduate degree in computer science, I'd recommend as an absolute minimum three calculus courses, two general discrete math courses, one linear algebra course, one course in number theory, two courses in statistics, one course in real analysis, one course in complex analysis, two courses in numerical analysis, one course in linear programming, one course in formal languages and automata, one course in graph theory, and one course in combinatorics. Depending upon the student's interests, I'd also recommend courses in group theory, galois theory, and coding theory.
Thank God! I thought I was going to be a failure.