r/college • u/parnicks • 1d ago

Career/work Upper level math?

Hello, I'm a freshman chemistry and math major trying to figure out what math track would be most helpful for me in the future, any insight would be appreciated. My final four math course are the ones I'm questioning. I have to take either Abstract Algebra or Intro to Analysis, and then three more upper level math classes (which can include one of the two aforementioned classes). Right now I an planning on Abstract, Analysis, and then Into to Discrete, and Discrete Math Modeling. I've been considering options like Fourier Analysis and Intro to Numerical methods, but I can't find much on what would be most relevant and helpful for chemistry.

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u/561JOEY 1d ago

Numerical analysis and math modeling probably, abstract algebra the least helpful but the coolest so if your really into it it’s a fine class moves fast though

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u/Status_Camel_7242 1d ago

I recommend taking the following courses: 

  1. Partial differential equations (PDEs): covers heat equation, wave equation, basic Fourier methods, and a handful of ODEs (laplace, poisson, exponential decay etc). Which should give ample background needed to understand equations in physical chemistry. 

  2. Computational math course: essential for data analysis (a requirement for any chem subfield) 

  3. deep learning course: note not “machine learning” which covers least squares, decision trees, linear classifiers, etc. but deep learning, which covers deep neural nets, convolutional neural nets,  and generative models. 

  4. Abstract algebra: I would normally advise a chem major to avoid pure math courses, however; it seems your school requires one of analysis/algebra. Analysis will be an absolute waste of your time and energy. It introduces rigorous notions of convergence and limits to formalise high school calculus (think proving the integral of x is 1/2*x2). Abstract algebra is quite interesting and may be of interest if you’re into physical chemistry. However, it will be far less useful than the aforementioned courses. I recommend trying to replace abstract algebra with another computational or applied math course.