Non-Traditional Student whom needs some advice please

[cla7907]

Hello,

I'm returning to school in the fall of 2011 to pursue a second bachelor's degree - I intended to triple major in: [Physics, Math and Astronomy] and then enroll in a PhD program to study high energy particle physics.

It has been a while since I attended college and, as a consequence, I'm divorced from the college math courses previously completed. For this reason, I am starting from the very beginning and I'm taking two courses I already passed some time ago because I want to be well-versed in mathematics.

I attached a small spreadsheet outlining my proposed course of study. If someone will look over it and give me there opinion, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Before offering me an opinion, I would like you to consider:

1) I will have to work full-time, until I am able to earn a scholarship. I'm thinking by the second year I'll be able to obtain this type of funding based on GPA.

2) The outlined math sequence.

Please note: I earned a 3.84 GPA during my first B.S. in Marketing/Psychology and I have full confidence I will perform at a higher level as I'm returning to school more mature and focused.

Thank you very much for your time and response.

-cla7907

 

[chiro]

Hey there and welcome to the forums.

I can't comment on chemistry and physics courses but I have a comments about the math courses.

Since you want to do something with applications in either two or all majors (math,astronomy,physics), I would suggest you do a course in numeric analysis.

Also its going to depend on what 'niche area' you want to get into. Some areas like say astrophysics might require you to have a course in differential geometry, while in another area you might want to have courses in functional analysis.

Personally I would substitute the abstract algebra course for something for applicable like numeric analysis, PDEs, or a course on statistics (not the probability part).

Also if you plan to do stuff in astrophysics, I would take a programming course in C/C++ or Java. If your math course is decent, they will give you exposure to MATLAB or something equivalent.

I have to say that's probably the most ambitious schedule I've ever seen.

Its great that you are so ambitious, but just remember to leave room for the unexpected. This is a very very full on course load. Doing chemistry, math and physics courses at the same time requires a particular kind of mind and a lot of hard work. I would see how you go in the first year before planning the rest of your work.