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According to the author, the course is "for underclassmen who are majoring in engineering or sciences", but she is a humanities student who wants to "explore ST

According to the author, the course is "for underclassmen who are majoring in engineering or sciences", but she is a humanities student who wants to "explore STEM fields." Isn't it obvious that the course is not designed for her learning purpose?

eropple 5y ago
"A humanities student"? She's a humanities student who had taken up through linear algebra! I have a CS degree and I never learned linear algebra in high school or college--I learned about the topic later! The idea that a 200-level course should be unapproachable for an interested person with a stronger mathematics background than I have, with an ostensibly mathematics-based degree, is absolutely silly. I took 300 and 400-level classes in economics, in English, in history and philosophy. I never felt unwelcome or incapable.
- Jtsummers 5y ago
  > I have a CS degree and I never learned linear algebra in high school or college Really? I mean, you probably did have linear algebra in high school, it was just "disguised" (you may not have seen matrices and vectors, but probably did solve linear equations of multiple variables). I'm surprised about the college thing, though. I thought every CS degree (in the US at least) required at least through linear algebra (linear algebra with applications, probably not linear algebra with proofs and theory).
  - eropple 5y ago
    I knew what a matrix was. I don't remember having to actually ever use them for anything. I learned what a (mathematical) vector was offhandedly in college, but I think it was from talking to someone, not in a class.
lthornberry 5y ago
I'm assuming the issue is that there isn't a math pathway for humanities students who want to take math electives. This is the closest thing she could find. This was the case at the Ivy I attended. There were classes designed to fill the one-course math requirement, but they were all below the level of the math I'd done in high school. There wasn't anything for someone who was decently good at math and genuinely interested in it, but not planning on a math-related major.

eropple 5y ago

"A humanities student"? She's a humanities student who had taken up through linear algebra! I have a CS degree and I never learned linear algebra in high school or college--I learned about the topic later! The idea that a 200-level course should be unapproachable for an interested person with a stronger mathematics background than I have, with an ostensibly mathematics-based degree, is absolutely silly. I took 300 and 400-level classes in economics, in English, in history and philosophy. I never felt unwelcome or incapable.

Jtsummers 5y ago
> I have a CS degree and I never learned linear algebra in high school or college Really? I mean, you probably did have linear algebra in high school, it was just "disguised" (you may not have seen matrices and vectors, but probably did solve linear equations of multiple variables). I'm surprised about the college thing, though. I thought every CS degree (in the US at least) required at least through linear algebra (linear algebra with applications, probably not linear algebra with proofs and theory).
- eropple 5y ago
  I knew what a matrix was. I don't remember having to actually ever use them for anything. I learned what a (mathematical) vector was offhandedly in college, but I think it was from talking to someone, not in a class.

lthornberry 5y ago

I'm assuming the issue is that there isn't a math pathway for humanities students who want to take math electives. This is the closest thing she could find. This was the case at the Ivy I attended. There were classes designed to fill the one-course math requirement, but they were all below the level of the math I'd done in high school. There wasn't anything for someone who was decently good at math and genuinely interested in it, but not planning on a math-related major.