Course selection & study guidance for my Masters program

[warhammer]

I will be beginning my Masters degree in Astrophysics in the coming months. My thread deals with 2 aspects:

1. I have a mandatory CS course & want to request suggestions/recommendations on reference materials, textbooks, tutorials etc. on how to tackle it. For context, my programming skills & computational knowledge as such is extremely poor, mostly because of my own lack of efforts. So, I am starting at a rookie level & need appropriate guidance in context of this course. I have attached a screenshot of the said course.

2. In the approaching weeks, I would also need to make a course selection for my 1st semester. My general idea would be to balance courses belonging to both Observational & Theoretical factions to give a well-rounded edge. But this is my idea, and I am not exactly sure if it is appropriate/I believe some guidance in this regard might be pertinently useful. I have attached 2 screenshots below for the same.

 

[warhammer]

Hello all. I am extremely disheartened to not receive any responses..
Some guidance in this regard would have really made a big difference..

On other note, could anyone reading this post please share other forums/avenues where I might raise my query, I will be very grateful.

 

[CrysPhys]

* For (1), why don't you simply contact the instructor (if listed) or CS department representative, and ask them what texts will be used for the course?

* For (2), will the department be assigning you an academic advisor to assist you in your choices?

 

[warhammer]

* For (1), why don't you simply contact the instructor (if listed) or CS department representative, and ask them what texts will be used for the course?

* For (2), will the department be assigning you an academic advisor to assist you in your choices?

Thank you for responding.

In case of (1): I've already reached out to them & I was told that it will be updated in a month-2 months time before the session starts, since any info conveyed would have to be in an official capacity & therefore improper before it is released formally. In this situation, I had nowhere else but to direct this query here so that I could start brushing up on my basics.

(2): No, there would not be any such assigning, ultimately leading me here to a possible recourse/informed discussion over my choices..

 

[gwnorth]

It's unlikely that the program would provide no guidance on course selection at all. I presume this is a university in France?

In any case how should we advise? You haven't said in which field/topic of research your interests lie, what your long term goals are, or what your level of undergraduate preparation is.

 

[warhammer]

It's unlikely that the program would provide no guidance on course selection at all. I presume this is a university in France?

In any case how should we advise? You haven't said in which field/topic of research your interests lie, what your long term goals are, or what your level of undergraduate preparation is.

Yes it is a French institution.

Sorry for not stating it earlier, I'll do so now- I'm inclined to work on Galactic-Stellar Evolution & would like to be in Theoretical Astrophysics over Observational (I understand that in many cases, a person needs deft know-how of both). My long term goals are to eventually take up a PhD & try to enter academia in Galactic-Stellar Evolution only. I would characterise my UG prep at 7.5/10, with a decent grip on overall topics, of course some being my strengths & some where I'm a bit weak.