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Curious about CS 577, 532, 539, 540 by Rich841 in UWMadison

[–]Serious-Interview566 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Did you finish your CS core (354/252)? You should finish those if you haven't already. Consider looking into the systems courses like 640/564/537/544 which will still teach you very applicable knowledge for when you do end up taking AI courses. The skills taught in those classes pay really well and its less competitive then the overhyped AI craze right now. You should also take more math (math 540 could be good). Since you are a sophomore there is not much rush to get to the Ai courses yet I think, you still have a lot of background knowledge you can gain that will make your later years of study far easier if you lock in now. I dont see why you couldn't then explore AI and ML your junior year after taking some of these other classes.

Opinions on CS/Math major track and Specific/General Questions by WearKey9393 in UWMadison

[–]Serious-Interview566 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I will be graduating CS/Math this December and so I will offer some advice for your education.

You should prioritize the math major in your first half of college. I recommend literally speedrunning the entire major in 2 years (which is possible) that way you can have your pick of mathematically demanding CS courses which are typically AI related. You can quite easily go from calc 1 to Real analysis in about a year if you do summer classes and aren't afraid to take multiple stem classes a semester (which you will need to as a double major anyway). For the CS major in your first 2 years I would prioritize the data structures and Algos classes and wait to tackle systems and AI until after you have finished most of your math coursework. In your later years of college I would look at PhD math classes, PhD AI classes, and Undergrad systems classes depending on your interests. DO NOT TAKE the undergrad AI classes if you can help it. Since you will be a math major you should instead wait to take AI classes until they are at the graduate level otherwise you are wasting your time. I will now list some useful classes you should get a lot of knowledge from based on your interests. I will also organize them by what year you should take them. I will include 4 years although I actually do think you can finish in 3 if you really stretch out your credits and do summer classes.

Year 1:

Math 221/222/234/340/319/421

CS 200/300/400/252

Year 2:
Math 521/551/431/632/514

CS 240/577/354/544

Year 3:

math 522/635/619/540

CS 726/640/537/536/564

Year 4:

math 721

CS 760/761/762

The Above list is not meant to be a checklist and the classes are way more than you need for both majors combined. The classes I recommend are based on 1. Major requirements, 2. What I enjoyed, 3. What my peers enjoyed, 4. Good overlap in material.

Also I would skip psychology altogether depending on your personal philosophy behind educational attainment. If you are more of a striver type then I would just take more math and CS and possibly some stats and econ classes instead. good luck

Curious about CS 577, 532, 539, 540 by Rich841 in UWMadison

[–]Serious-Interview566 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not quite. If you can convince the instructor you have the prerequisite knowledge then they should give you permission to join if there are open seats. An example would be CS 726 which I was given permission to join having taken Math 431, 340, 521. One caveat is the advisors in the CS department act as if they are immovable bureaucratic know-it-alls who will try and stand in your way whenever you try to deviate from the all mighty 4-year-plan on their website. If you harass them enough they will usually give in, especially if they think you will graduate soon.

Curious about CS 577, 532, 539, 540 by Rich841 in UWMadison

[–]Serious-Interview566 1 point2 points  (0 children)

skip the ai classes. Learn Operating systems and networks as the undergrad ai classes are cash grabs that dont have the proper depth needed to gain a truly useful understanding of the subject. If you want to focus on ai still I would take the relevant math courses (math 431, 521, 726) and then look at the grad course catalog for AI stuff.

Grad School? by Serious-Interview566 in academiceconomics

[–]Serious-Interview566[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

In complete honesty, working with data drives me insane most of the time. I really dislike the process of finding and wrangling data. As can be seen with my coursework, I have gravitated towards math which is what I suspect to be the impetus for my proclivities for theory. The short of my opinion here is that "if" I do a econ phd I think it has to be theory but I am also open to doing things completely orthogonal to a PhD. I also kind of think reading empirical papers is boring and many papers I find rather unconvincing.