No, I'm saying not to take the PHYS 1/2XX courses at all. But if you do, you're doomed either way; trying to prepare now won't help you. Calculus AB material definitely won't help you--you're looking at first year calculus when you need to know tensor products. Not going to happen.



Java's syntax is based on C's, and both are imperative/sequential languages. Beyond that, there is very little similarity between the two languages. You will write code in entirely different ways between the two.

It probably won't benefit you if you tried to learn these languages in advance. You may accidentally miss big concepts or pick up bad habits. They use Scheme in first year because the syntax doesn't pose an obstacle in learning the language, which allows you to tackle really hard problems right away.



MATH 145 is classical algebra. It is a course based in number theory, but also gives a broad introduction to classical algebra, including the study of fields, rings, and groups.

MATH 146 is an introductory linear algebra course. You'll learn about vector spaces, vectors, linear (in)dependence, bases, properties of matrices, and the determinant... possibly an intro to diagonalization.

MATH 245 is a very broad, abstract algebra course that covers some fundamental concepts about the structure of vector spaces. Interesting content that we covered includes the Jordan canonical form, the rational canonical form, Markov chains and transition matrices, inner product spaces, dual spaces, quotient spaces, and then some more analysis-oriented stuff like norms (including of matrices), convexity, etc...



I don't know what gr. 12 data management covers. STAT 231 = AP Statistics. STAT 230 = a probability course mostly taught at the high school level, with a little bit of first year calculus background required. A lot of the content in STAT 230 was covered in the stats unit in my grade 12 math course.

Get high marks and enjoy life. I did none of the things you just listed and still did well in math. If you really want to do something, co-op employers like independent programming projects. Make a program you'd enjoy making.

Stewart (Early Transcedentals) isn't that great of a book, and isn't the one used for MATH 147/148. You'd be better off getting a copy of Spivak.

I recommend that you learn whatever things you're interested in, and take things easy!

Basically. In high school, you solve very similar cookie-cutter problems, and you do a lot of calculations/computations/algebraic manipulation. In university, you do proofs, and focus on the understanding of the mathematics, rather than just the doing.

Stewart focuses on the more high school-esque way of teaching math. MATH 147/148 are simply not taught that way. You will learn a large amount of theory that isn't in that textbook.



Uh, basically? Well, I mean, a few people do well, but they're either super geniuses, do really well at memorization, or cheat. The university didn't set things up that way--it's the idiotic physics department. Among other things, they fired a couple of their best lecturers a few years ago.



Well, I found them quite irritating, but on the other hand, it *is* harder to find work without co-op. In co-op, you must do worthless professional development courses and work reports, you pay an extra fee, and you get access to jobmine. Your schedule is far less flexible and you have higher marks requirements, and you are stuck following jobmine regulations if you use it, and get no benefit from your fee if you don't. So yeah.... I dunno. It's your choice. Remember that you can always drop co-op before your 2B term.



If you're not an expert in a field, you'll lack the foresight to understand where you could go wrong. I mean, obviously if you don't know much about C, it is very hard for you to know where things might go wrong.

For instance, there are some subtleties about pointers that are difficult to glean on one's own, especially in terms of appropriateness of use, utility, and the like. It's hard to understand code efficiency in an entirely self-taught manner. In terms of more complex languages, Haskell is extremely difficult to use without instruction, and C++ can be abused so badly without knowing how to properly use it that it's scary.

Familiarizing yourself with the syntax of C is great. Trying to tackle really complex programming challenges at this point might not be appropriate. Of course, this is general advice, so YMMV. Maybe you're a super-genius programmer, waiting to be discovered...

Replied... hope that helps some.



I don't really see this as an issue. The degree title "Software Engineer" is regulated. That doesn't mean only graduates from an SE program can be SE people. I mean, if I chose to, I could have a job title on my resume saying software engineer (literally, seeing as I'm working for a startup and my coworker/boss told me to choose my job title :P). I have many friends with "Software Engineer, Intern" on theirs. So the fixation on the word seems silly.



I'm not aware of this, but I usually find politics and bureaucracy wasteful and silly.



I've never heard of financial engineering... ever. Management engineering makes sense: you do a general engineering degree, with a bunch of studies in management... e.g. not real engineering. And agricultural engineering is a very old term, and applies to... engineering with an agricultural bias.

So to answer your question briefly, I don't really think the term is watered down, nor am I concerned with its use. A savvy fellow can easily determine between a real engineer and a poseur.

Hi greygoose,I would have a question for you if you don't mind.
I'm interested in pure math and computer science and I don't want to miss anything important in pure math. What majors should I declare? I applied to the CS program.

Another one, are the pure math and cs proffesors strong enough to answer questions or to solve problems beyond what is taught at the university? Or are they there just to present some basic notions from a book?

What's available for a first-year to take besides CS 145 and MATH 145 and MATH 147 ? You said PMATH 352 and what's next? I would like to take more pmaths or second year courses.

Does anyone get OSAP and is in a possesion of a car? Do they give u less money because u own a car?

QUADRUPLE POOOOOST



You are eligible for all pmath courses as a CS major. You don't have to declare anything more. (Remember that the converse does not apply, so don't drop out of CS.)



They're professors. They went through at minimum an undergrad degree, maybe a master's, did a PhD, and years of postdoc. Maybe they can't answer your specific question, but I think you are severely underestimating the amount of education your professors have. These are not dull high school teachers we're talking about.



Take some arts courses in your 1A at least. There are, quite literally, no other options. And remember that you need 5.0 (10 courses) of non-math credit to graduate.

In your 1B term, some things open up to you... such as overrides into MATH 249, PMATH 352, etc. Not necessarily recommended, you'll see when you get there.



I don't know, I'm not on OSAP. You don't declare a car on your application, so I don't see why they would. Granted, cars are expensive as hell, so they're not going to give you more money just because you have one... you don't need one in Waterloo, either.

So, there are several things:

1. Is it better to declare CS major in 2B? (CS245, CS246 are for Honours Mathematics Students) for the purpose of reducing tuition?

2. How feasible is my first year plan? It looks like this:

Semester 1A:
MATH 145
MATH 147
CS 145
PHYS 121 + 131L
MTHEL 131

Semester 1B:
MATH 146
MATH 148
CS 146
PHYS 122 + 132L + 124

3. If I do not declare CO (or any math) major, I could just take random CO, PMATH, AMATH courses?

I have a couple of questions:

1. What exactly do you mean by personal development and academic career? Do you learn more (about programming/compsci) in CS(all advanced courses) than in SE?

2. Is it true that SE students tend to get better jobs and why?

3. Is there a point in getting a masters/phd degree in CS (at UofT or at some more prestigious American university)? Would it help you get jobs or gets you better jobs? It seems like CS would be better than SE for graduate studies.

Thank you so much for your inputs!

Is it possible to do a computer science minor with mechanical engineering? The math that engineers take is different from the math/cs math courses, so will it be pretty much impossible to get a minor?