Keep in mind that there's also low wage competition from overseas, so you have to take that into a bit of consideration. Coders are a dime a dozen, anyone can learn to code. Not everyone can code great. C# has includes, they're just called libraries and references.poop wrote:Hidden/Spoiler:
Linear algebra is not y=x,y=2x, y=X^2. Linear algebra is vectors, matrices, determinants, eigenvalues, basic euclidean n-space, and other various topics. This falls way out of the range of high school algebra, except for basic matrices.Twilight_Warrior wrote:Considering the question wasswbf_lase wrote:I disagree about the downhill job. It's more of an uphill sprint in all honesty after Calc III.I merely stated that out of the three Calculus courses, Calc II is the hardest. I wasn't talking about the higher level math courses, which probably are harder than Calc III.redgroupclan wrote:How hard is Calculus?
But as for the mathematics you listed, we covered Differential Equations in Calc II.
And as for discrete mathematics... Integers (covered in the last part of Calc I and then continued in Calc II) and graphs (covered in pretty much every math course past algebra I) are discrete mathematics. The only thing I can think of that isn't covered in Calculus that falls under discrete mathematics are proofs (which are more time consuming than difficult) and some mathematical theories (which is again, just more memorization).
And linear algebra... y=x. y=2x. y=x^2. If you're in high school, you know this already.
Bottom line: while it is true that the more you know, the greater chance you have at succeeding in the industry, AFAIK, companies don't look at which courses you took, and if you take up to Calc III, all you need is one or two more math credits to get a minor in math. And that looks good on a resume'. Like Master_Ben said, unless you're building an engine completely from scratch (which you'll have a team for, anyway), you can pretty much learn whatever else you might need on the job, so long as you have the required Calculus down.
The type of differential equations you learn in calc 2 or calc 3 is the most simple of differential equations. Ordinary and Partial differential equations both constitute their own courses respectively, as you need these for many applications in CS. As far as discrete mathematics, calculus isn't even like discrete. Discrete focuses on non-continuous structures, where as calculus focuses on continuous. Graph theory, combinatorics, game theory, decision theory, number theory, etc etc etc, are not covered in calculus on a discrete basis.[/quote][/hide]
So in layman's terms, what type of problems do CS majors, in the real world, solve?
I am on that track right now, but could still switch to a Chemistry major or something with similar prerequisites.
@Redgroupclan] I would say that you might want to think about something else if you don't think you are fit for math. If you really want it you can always work your hardest, but if you still find yourself having trouble then you might find something else you are good at. IE. If you can get an A by next semester in your Geometry class then keep working at it, but if you work hard every night and still get a C, then find something else for your major.[/quote]
Heh, I just have a passion for math which is why I encourage it
. Here's a couple of problems that CS majors and related people have solved/are trying to solve/things you'd do:1. Mark Zuckerberg (Founder of Facebook) was a CS (if memory serves me right) major at Harvard while he attended, this obviously led to the creation of Facebook...
2. P versus NP. This is a rather complex problem, but it ultimately leads to breakthroughs in literally every market, science, view on the world, that you could imagine.
3. Cryptography research that allows you to have secure banking transactions.
4. The computers behind wall street. America's financial capital is run by elaborate servers, code, and algorithms that provide us to have the economy we do.
5. The internet... yeah, there were CS people there when that came out haha.
6. McDonalds. Yeah, its quite common to work at McDonalds as well if you have a CS degree.
In all honesty, I know people who have higher ranking jobs in CS without a degree IN CS than people who were CS majors. It's a tough market for everyone right now, CS is no exception. The great part about it though, is that you can find jobs in really any situation you want. Hospitals, Banks, Government Offices all need computer scientists to run their servers, write their code, and make their businesses profitable utilizing the internet or communications.
Granted, you won't need all the maths I listed to do a simple hello world program, but if you go to work for a bank or something, you're going to need to know ODE's and PDE's if you want to work in quantitative finance as a CS major... (It's also very hard to get a job as a quant if you're a CS major from what I hear). It's funny how much of finance is looked at from things like signals processing.
