In my opinion, a degree is supposed to make you very well-rounded in the specific area (in this case SWE/CS). If a student wants to pursue a career in academia or scientific computing, knowledge in calculus, linear algebra, analytic geometry, etc. will come in handy.
In my country (Eastern Europe) specifically, a bachelor’s in computer science can also allow you to get accepted into master’s and potentially a PhD program in mathematics or physics.
My software engineering degree required me to do “Calculus and Linear Algebra” 1 and 2, as well as “Multivariate Calculus and Ordinary Differential Equations”. I can’t say that I’ve used any of it in my work, but at least linear algebra has obvious applications in computer science. Not so sure about calculus.
Discrete mathematics was much more directly useful.
Yeah me neither and my degree was 30 years ago. My best guess is they want to see if you can get competent with a bunch of new techniques and then apply them. That skill is the same whether it’s calculus, physics, or JavaScript.
When I went to uni, an assistant professor once openly said that the math courses were to filter out morons. He used nicer words which I can’t remember now.
In my org there are SWEs that write metrics-based alerts for their running software and often need to take derivatives for example. That may not need 3 calculus classes, but beyond that there’s also the thought process that goes into it that’s applicable to the job.
Shouldn’t one calculus be enough?
Software engineering degree is bloated
Yeah, I never understood why I needed calculus for my software engineering degree, much less three classes worth.
Its about the development of reasoning. Cal 2 is also where you learn about series which helps in building approximations and proofs.
In my opinion, a degree is supposed to make you very well-rounded in the specific area (in this case SWE/CS). If a student wants to pursue a career in academia or scientific computing, knowledge in calculus, linear algebra, analytic geometry, etc. will come in handy.
In my country (Eastern Europe) specifically, a bachelor’s in computer science can also allow you to get accepted into master’s and potentially a PhD program in mathematics or physics.
To make algorithms with, you slacker
My software engineering degree required me to do “Calculus and Linear Algebra” 1 and 2, as well as “Multivariate Calculus and Ordinary Differential Equations”. I can’t say that I’ve used any of it in my work, but at least linear algebra has obvious applications in computer science. Not so sure about calculus.
Discrete mathematics was much more directly useful.
Yeah me neither and my degree was 30 years ago. My best guess is they want to see if you can get competent with a bunch of new techniques and then apply them. That skill is the same whether it’s calculus, physics, or JavaScript.
When I went to uni, an assistant professor once openly said that the math courses were to filter out morons. He used nicer words which I can’t remember now.
In my org there are SWEs that write metrics-based alerts for their running software and often need to take derivatives for example. That may not need 3 calculus classes, but beyond that there’s also the thought process that goes into it that’s applicable to the job.
Linear algebra would’ve been a much more useful requirement
I also had to take that
Only for data science, not if you’re going to do webdev. There is no “one course fits all” for software development anymore
We’ve had one calculus, yes, but what about second calculus?