- #1
TristanH
- 12
- 0
[Sorry for the long rambling post here]
Hey folks, I've lurked on this Forum for some time, and you all sound like smart people so I figured I'd ask some advice. I've been a programmer for years, and what I do is starting to get old. I started programming as a kid, almost entirely self taught from books. I really enjoyed programming and knew I wanted to do it as a career. When entering college, I got a little scared of the sample class schedule presented for Computer Science majors. As a result, I ended up going for a degree in Business with an emphasis in Computer Information Systems and Marketing. I continued self teaching myself programming during school, as the computer classes from the Business school were jokingly easy.
Professionally I've had pretty lucrative career, but the sort of web development I do is getting be pretty boring. I basically just write code that maintains and displays data from databases which is no longer in any way a challenge. There *is* more to what I do, and I think (from what other people tell me) I'm very good at my job. I have clients hire me all the time to fix problems no one else can figure out, and I seem to have kind of a gift for problem solving in general most of my peers don't have. I'm not sure I want to change careers exactly, but I need to expand my horizons professionally beyond what's in the computer section at Banes and Noble
I also find there isn't much I can read in my field I don't already know that isn't high level computer science stuff. Of course there are new languages developed every day I could learn, but in many ways this is different clothes on the same old thing.
At the same time, I read a lot on the side. I've read a lot of Physics and even some Math on the side and have really enjoyed it. Thus I've considered either going back to school and get a degree in Math, Computer Science or Physics or seriously studying this stuff on my own.
First, I'll hit on the issues I forsee with the academic option, then I'll note the problems I've run into with the self study option.
Relevant to both is I did take Calculus I and II (single variable) as a freshman, almost 10 years ago. I got a B and C- in them respectively, but I could have done much better
Academic Option
===================
My main concern with the academic option is my academic background. As I've said, I have a BA in Business, not Math, Engineering or Hard sciences. Also, my GPA as it is is only about 2.75 and is lower in the later terms than in the earlier (My career was taking off in the later years, so I put more emphasis on work that school). Thus I think it would be pretty close to impossible to enter a masters program in any of the fields that interest me. Could I get a second Bachelor's in Math or Computer sci? Does anyone ever do this? I've also seen that most masters programs allow people to take prereq. undergraduate classes, but it seems like you have to be accepted to the program before you can take more than 3-4 classes. Also, its been 5 years since I've graduated, and 10 years since I took a math course, so I think I'd have trouble finding someone (in the academic world) to write a letter of recommendation. My one plus is I'm very good at standardized tests, so I'd probably do quite well on the GRE, but I don't think schools put a lot of weight on that. Does anyone have any advice on what to expect in taking the academic route with a non-Mathy background?
Self Study Option
==================
I've tried studying academic Math and Science on my own and I've had mixed results. This started when I read a book on Game Theory ( "Games and Decisions: Introduction and Critical Survey" by Luce and Raiffa ) which I really enjoyed, making me realize that math could be a lot of fun. Then I broke out my old Calculus Textbook ("Calculus: Early Transcendental Functions" by Larson et al), and tried to relearn some of the Calculus I'd forgotten. This book wasn't very conducive to self study, so I picked up Morris Kline's "Calculus: An Intuitive and Physical Approach". In my first attempt at working through the book (years ago), I got stuck pretty early on and gave up on it for a while. I picked it up more recently and got much further finding help on Forums and IRC, but it felt like it went slow. I moved on to other things after getting about 25% through the book over about 2 months. I'm not sure if it went slow because of some math deficiency, an overzealous expectation of how fast I should be going, or if I was just rusty. Recently I've been reading "Godel Escher Bach" and I've been loving it, which sort of triggered the idea of looking at math again.
I've also tried studying some science textbooks on my own. I never took Chemistry in High School and always regretted it. So, I picked up Pauling's "General Chemisty" and "Chemistry: The Central Science" at the library but had trouble with them. Pauling seemed over my head, and with C:TCS I had trouble figuring out what's actually important to learn. Modern Textbooks have so much filler! Also, with chemistry specifically it seemed I was missing a lot not having a lab.
Finally, in studying Computer Science on the side, I do pretty well but I seem pretty limited by my lack of math experience.
So I don't know what I should do on the Science/Chemistry front but have some options on the Math stuff, which I'd like some guidance on:
* Finish going through Kline
I feel like I'm missing a lot in my math experience not having worked with Proofs at all thus:
* Find a More rigorous calc text such as Apostol or Spivak
* Work through Euclid's Elements, then move back to calc with a better foundation
Sometimes I feel like I've spent too much time reviewing stuff so I thought of:
* Reading a multi-variable calc book and refer to single variable books as needed, so I can be sure I be sure I'm learning new stuff
Finally, I'd like to get some sense of how much practice I should be getting with maths, and how quickly I should expect to progress.
Any advice on which option overall (Self Study or Academic) would be better (if any)?
Thanks for the input. Regardless of the option I take, I look forward to working and chatting with you all.
Thanks,
Tristan
Hey folks, I've lurked on this Forum for some time, and you all sound like smart people so I figured I'd ask some advice. I've been a programmer for years, and what I do is starting to get old. I started programming as a kid, almost entirely self taught from books. I really enjoyed programming and knew I wanted to do it as a career. When entering college, I got a little scared of the sample class schedule presented for Computer Science majors. As a result, I ended up going for a degree in Business with an emphasis in Computer Information Systems and Marketing. I continued self teaching myself programming during school, as the computer classes from the Business school were jokingly easy.
Professionally I've had pretty lucrative career, but the sort of web development I do is getting be pretty boring. I basically just write code that maintains and displays data from databases which is no longer in any way a challenge. There *is* more to what I do, and I think (from what other people tell me) I'm very good at my job. I have clients hire me all the time to fix problems no one else can figure out, and I seem to have kind of a gift for problem solving in general most of my peers don't have. I'm not sure I want to change careers exactly, but I need to expand my horizons professionally beyond what's in the computer section at Banes and Noble
I also find there isn't much I can read in my field I don't already know that isn't high level computer science stuff. Of course there are new languages developed every day I could learn, but in many ways this is different clothes on the same old thing.
At the same time, I read a lot on the side. I've read a lot of Physics and even some Math on the side and have really enjoyed it. Thus I've considered either going back to school and get a degree in Math, Computer Science or Physics or seriously studying this stuff on my own.
First, I'll hit on the issues I forsee with the academic option, then I'll note the problems I've run into with the self study option.
Relevant to both is I did take Calculus I and II (single variable) as a freshman, almost 10 years ago. I got a B and C- in them respectively, but I could have done much better
Academic Option
===================
My main concern with the academic option is my academic background. As I've said, I have a BA in Business, not Math, Engineering or Hard sciences. Also, my GPA as it is is only about 2.75 and is lower in the later terms than in the earlier (My career was taking off in the later years, so I put more emphasis on work that school). Thus I think it would be pretty close to impossible to enter a masters program in any of the fields that interest me. Could I get a second Bachelor's in Math or Computer sci? Does anyone ever do this? I've also seen that most masters programs allow people to take prereq. undergraduate classes, but it seems like you have to be accepted to the program before you can take more than 3-4 classes. Also, its been 5 years since I've graduated, and 10 years since I took a math course, so I think I'd have trouble finding someone (in the academic world) to write a letter of recommendation. My one plus is I'm very good at standardized tests, so I'd probably do quite well on the GRE, but I don't think schools put a lot of weight on that. Does anyone have any advice on what to expect in taking the academic route with a non-Mathy background?
Self Study Option
==================
I've tried studying academic Math and Science on my own and I've had mixed results. This started when I read a book on Game Theory ( "Games and Decisions: Introduction and Critical Survey" by Luce and Raiffa ) which I really enjoyed, making me realize that math could be a lot of fun. Then I broke out my old Calculus Textbook ("Calculus: Early Transcendental Functions" by Larson et al), and tried to relearn some of the Calculus I'd forgotten. This book wasn't very conducive to self study, so I picked up Morris Kline's "Calculus: An Intuitive and Physical Approach". In my first attempt at working through the book (years ago), I got stuck pretty early on and gave up on it for a while. I picked it up more recently and got much further finding help on Forums and IRC, but it felt like it went slow. I moved on to other things after getting about 25% through the book over about 2 months. I'm not sure if it went slow because of some math deficiency, an overzealous expectation of how fast I should be going, or if I was just rusty. Recently I've been reading "Godel Escher Bach" and I've been loving it, which sort of triggered the idea of looking at math again.
I've also tried studying some science textbooks on my own. I never took Chemistry in High School and always regretted it. So, I picked up Pauling's "General Chemisty" and "Chemistry: The Central Science" at the library but had trouble with them. Pauling seemed over my head, and with C:TCS I had trouble figuring out what's actually important to learn. Modern Textbooks have so much filler! Also, with chemistry specifically it seemed I was missing a lot not having a lab.
Finally, in studying Computer Science on the side, I do pretty well but I seem pretty limited by my lack of math experience.
So I don't know what I should do on the Science/Chemistry front but have some options on the Math stuff, which I'd like some guidance on:
* Finish going through Kline
I feel like I'm missing a lot in my math experience not having worked with Proofs at all thus:
* Find a More rigorous calc text such as Apostol or Spivak
* Work through Euclid's Elements, then move back to calc with a better foundation
Sometimes I feel like I've spent too much time reviewing stuff so I thought of:
* Reading a multi-variable calc book and refer to single variable books as needed, so I can be sure I be sure I'm learning new stuff
Finally, I'd like to get some sense of how much practice I should be getting with maths, and how quickly I should expect to progress.
Any advice on which option overall (Self Study or Academic) would be better (if any)?
Thanks for the input. Regardless of the option I take, I look forward to working and chatting with you all.
Thanks,
Tristan