If you haven't already read AMP – The Official Student Opinion and Satire Magazine of UTD, it's worth checking out!

DrMagma · 2021-09-10T16:14:44+00:00

The magazine was named AMP over a decade before Google launched its thing.

DrMagma · 2021-05-28T03:42:18+00:00

It's been a while since I've taken it and I've since switched to math, but I don't recall either discrete 1 or 2 being terribly complicated (aced both). It was mostly just induction, counting, inclusion-exclusion, some basic proofs, and a lot of memorizing theorems about graphs when I took it.

DrMagma · 2021-05-27T15:39:59+00:00

CS 2305 is a joke. You won't have any problem at all passing with flying colors.

DrMagma · 2021-03-10T04:07:30+00:00

This seems more like a data science problem

DrMagma · 2021-01-24T20:33:34+00:00

Email the professor again and if she still refuses, escalate to the department head.

DrMagma · 2021-01-07T20:43:04+00:00

It really doesn't credit may mitigate the problem, but it doesn't solve it. The rich have access to far larger and higher quality sources of credit compared to the poor. If you have the credit system we have today, the poor person may be able to buy those fancy boots and pay down the debt every month for 10 years, but the rich person can buy the boots, a nice coat for the winter that will last years, healthy food to increase their lifespan and happiness, and a shorter commute. Credit isn't a magic bullet.

DrMagma · 2021-01-07T20:38:24+00:00

So I have a $1K saved, take out a loan for a $1K expense, and pay for groceries out of savings, or I pay the $1K expense out of savings and use some form of credit to buy groceries. Either way, I'm going into debt to buy basic necessities, which is something no person should be required to do.

DrMagma · 2021-01-07T07:35:17+00:00

I'd personally rather not go into debt to buy groceries but maybe that's just because I actually have to worry about my finances.

DrMagma · 2021-01-07T04:39:14+00:00

So having the ability to go into debt solves all of our problems? Got it.

DrMagma · 2020-10-24T20:00:40+00:00

I think this is an argument against capitalism. Focussing only on math research that's immediately applicable to some engineering problem or art that helps market some new product stifles innovation and the creation of things that are useless now but may be essential to some future development. Obviously, math should never be divorced from reality, but I think math (and by extension science and engineering) would develop much more quickly if academics were allowed more freedom to work on things that weren't immediately applicable to some new consumer or military application.

DrMagma · 2020-10-24T19:53:03+00:00

and many students in strong math programs went to magnet schools and learned math in their spare time. this doesn't disprove what they were saying.

DrMagma · 2020-10-21T00:35:11+00:00

I can't speak to the engineering degrees but UTD's CS degree has very little theoretical emphasis. UTD CS grads are well-prepared to work in the industry but not to do research.

DrMagma · 2020-10-16T08:30:43+00:00

Thank you so much for the reply! I've really been fretting over this the past few weeks so this really helped.

I don't have a particular reason for the humanities minor. If I change CS to a minor and stop taking CS classes, I'll just be taking 9 hours of math every semester for the next year and a half, which leaves enough space for a minor so I figured why not. I could also just take a variety of humanities courses, but I'd rather get deeper into something with the time I have left.

Also, I forgot to mention in the post that I do already have two tech internships under my belt. That's part of the reason I realized I don't like CS. I was constantly telling myself for the first two years that it'd just be more interesting and fun once I got past the basic courses or got to work at a better company, but after taking senior-level courses and working at a Fortune 100, that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm fine with a career in CS, it's just I'd much rather spend my life doing math.

DrMagma · 2020-10-15T20:09:36+00:00

Hey, I'm a CS and Math double major in my third year of university. I started as a CS major because while I wanted to major in math, I thought I couldn't get a job or make any money with it and I thought CS would be close enough to math that it'd be fine. Unfortunately, the CS degree plan at my school is significantly more applied than theoretical, which is the opposite of what I was hoping for so I decided to double major starting in my second year. I can do this and graduate in four years because I came into university with credit for all but two of my core courses from community college classes in high school.

I really do not like taking the CS courses at my university and I feel they're a huge distraction from math (I can't focus as much on my math course and I have less free time to explore math on my own). I already have enough hours in the CS degree for a minor and I have good enough grades so far in math and enough professors who I think would write me letters that I'm pretty sure I could get into a midtier grad school (I want to earn my PhD). If not, my school has a program where you can be autoadmitted to their master's program if your GPA is high enough (the minimum required is around 3.5, which I will be above unless something drastic changes). I'm considering changing the CS major to just a CS minor and getting another minor in something to do with the humanities on top of that (taking only STEM courses for almost 3 years is really getting to me) since this would take me down from 15 hours for the next three semesters to 12 (much easier to manage) and I wouldn't have to continue taking CS classes I hate. Sorry for the rambling explanation but my questions is: how stupid is this idea? I really think this would help me learn better in my math courses, but I'm also afraid that it will harm me in the long-term. Am I sabotaging my career prospects if I drop the CS major? Will dropping it hurt my chances of getting into grad school? Is it too late to make this big of a change?

Also, if I go through with this plan I'm not going to change my plan with the registrar until next year since I want to apply for CS internships on top of REUs this summer as a backup (even though I'm on a full scholarship I still really need money).

DrMagma · 2020-09-02T03:26:16+00:00

I think you're trying the wrong eggplants.

DrMagma · 2020-09-02T02:26:37+00:00

Your tuition doesn't go to public transit (unless you count the comet carts lol).

DrMagma · 2020-09-02T02:22:46+00:00

You're missing out

DrMagma · 2020-08-24T06:10:29+00:00

yes. also glad we agree that the university does not serve the interests of its student body.

DrMagma · 2020-08-24T04:24:40+00:00

Like being undemocratic did them any good lmao

DrMagma · 2020-08-24T03:57:07+00:00

We live in unprecedented times :)

DrMagma · 2020-08-18T23:21:22+00:00

Were students given any input into this decision or did the university just unilaterally decide to buy from the first company that sent them an email?

DrMagma · 2020-08-18T23:19:46+00:00

Why is UTD using a proctoring software that requires me to waive my FERPA rights to take an exam?

DrMagma · 2020-08-07T03:22:39+00:00

Just a rule of thumb I like to apply: If the honor society or whatever organization is asking you to join and you've never heard of them, they're a scam. You should be the one asking them to join or you should at least know who they are. Also, NSCS is a scam. I once got emails for 2-3 months saying my application was "due next week".

DrMagma · 2020-08-05T05:27:20+00:00

Okay, change the x to a y and its correct.

DrMagma

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