Which courses should I take this semester?

Lanza52

Hey guys!

I'm currently scheduled to take General Chemistry 1 w/ lab, General Physics 1 w/ lab, Calculus w/ AG 3 and Differential Equations this semester. But I was reading on a site that Linear Algebra teaches you tools that are very useful when learning DE and Calc 2/3. So I'm considering dropping DE and taking Matrix Theory (my University's LA 1.)

Does this sound like a solid plan? Or should I stick with DE. I'd take them both, but that would put me above the credit maximum for my school =/

As a side note, quality of professor isn't too much of a worry. I tend to do most of my learning on my own regardless of the professor.

Thanks!

EDIT: Also, what about dropping Calc 3 instead? Which combo of two classes would be most beneficial?

pr0blumz

At the CC I'm going to now, we take all Calculus first and then Linear Algebra and DE in the same final semester.

Chaostamer

It depends entirely on your school, really. At my school, virtually every upper-division math course (that is, everything after and including Linear Algebra) is offered once per semester, one semester per year. Thus, if you miss a class, you need to wait another year to take it again. Because of that, I took my first course in Linear Algebra alongside Calculus III last Spring and took Differential Equations in the Summer so I could take PDEs over the Fall. Do you have any similar restrictions?

If not, I'd recommend taking Linear Algebra and Differential Equations concurrently in a later semester, since they complement each other nicely and Calc III is still quite fundamental.