To CS concentrators: 22 vs 45

Uroogla
Thu, 04 Aug 2011 17:20:56 +0000

If you go Math-CS, 22 and 45 will both be wastes of your time. If you go APMA-CS, 22 will be more useful, but not by much. 22’s time commitment will vary greatly - all problems for homework and exams are rewritten each year, so it’s hard to say if it’d take much time or not. If you have a background in proofs (and if you’re considering Math-CS, you must), 22 will be pretty easy review, though. The only real part that wouldn’t be review is graph theory. I’m a former 22 TA, and I’m surprised it’s being offered again - we were explicitly told it would not be and so made no effort to organize information for posterity. Oops.

I’m skeptical of 45’s value for an APMA or Math concentrator, and you’d frankly get more out of Math161+162 or APMA165+166. I’d take 22, probably find it easy given your background, and not worry too much about the schedule. The one concern is that they are exceptionally picky in their proofs. Points are taken off unless you follow exactly their proof templates, which can be somewhat silly - all induction proofs must have a statement like “Let P(x) be the property that 1+2+…+x = x(x+1)/2,” for example. Actually, I’d consider trying to get out of this requirement altogether - Pascal would likely be your advisor, and he’s pretty reasonably.