Lori needs to pick an elective.

[Lorizael]

Fall 2016 is my last semester. I only need 10 credits (with classes generally being 3 or 4 credits) and I can basically take whatever I want. I've got my schedule mostly worked out (with astronomy and philosophy stuff) but I have room for another class. There are literally no restrictions on what I can take (ignoring prereqs and stuff) but for some reason I'm leaning toward an upper level math course. The two that seem most interesting to me are:

Math 416 - Applied Harmonic Analysis: An Introduction to Signal Processing

The goal of this course is to introduce the students to the modern mathematical techniques which are applied in signal processing and which are used in a variety of areas, ranging from engineering to medicine and finance. Topics include: Applied Linear Algebra, Fourier Series, Discrete Fourier Transform, Fourier Transform, Shannon Sampling Theorem, Wavelet Bases, Multiresolution Analysis, and Discrete Wavelet Transform. Emphasis will be placed upon mathematical foundations of applicable algorithms, as well as on the ability to implement these algorithms.

Math 430 - Euclidean and Non-Euclidean Geometries

Hilbert's axioms for Euclidean Geometry. Neutral Geometry: The consistency of the hyperbolic parallel postulate and the inconsistency of the elliptic parallel postulate with neutral geometry. Models of hyperbolic geometry. Existence and properties of isometries.

The signal processing class is probably more useful from either an astronomy or employment perspective, but the geometry class sounds like it might be more interesting (and maybe have some relevance to general relativity's crazy geometry, but I'm not sure). However, the geometry professor is apparently ****tier than the signal processing professor. Both would likely be hard.

Alternatively, I could actually try to have a reasonably easy final semester and take some variety of underwater basket-weaving. Anybody have thoughts on what kind of college course you would take if you could take any that you wanted to? The class you regretted not taking? The class you absolutely need to take before you get out of school? Monkeys.

[ZEE]

AAHZ deeply cares about this topic and believe that it has the capacity to change my life... forever.

[Lorizael]

This topic will, in fact, change your life forever. Already, the photons blasting off of your monitor have slammed into your eyes, triggering an electrical cascade that will slightly alter the architecture and firing pattern of your brain. There's no way to avoid it. Given your 80 billion neurons (maybe being generous in your case) and 100 trillion synapses, it would be essentially impossible to put it back the way it was before you viewed my post. All is lost. Give up now.

[Jon Miller]

If you are like me or many physicists I know, you should take an applied programming course.

JM

[ZEE]

This topic will, in fact, change your life forever. Already, the photons blasting off of your monitor have slammed into your eyes, triggering an electrical cascade that will slightly alter the architecture and firing pattern of your brain. There's no way to avoid it. Given your 80 billion neurons (maybe being generous in your case) and 100 trillion synapses, it would be essentially impossible to put it back the way it was before you viewed my post. All is lost. Give up now.

[Jon Miller]

If you haven't and you can, take this
ASTR 415 -- Computational Astrophysics (3 credits)
Or, next, this
PHYS 474 Computational Physics

JM

[Lorizael]

If you are like me or many physicists I know, you should take an applied programming course.

JM

There aren't any CS courses I can take except intro CS, unless I can convince them that my AP Comp Sci from 13 years ago places me out. A lot of my classes so far have involved programming (mostly just Matlab, though), and I'm also probably taking a computational astrophysics course in the fall that will focus on numerical integration, n-body techniques, fluid dynamics, and that kind of stuff.

amusing x-post

[Jon Miller]

Then try to get involve in a project.

JM

[pchang]

Pick the class with the highest number of hot looking girls. Usually some intro business class.

[giblets]

That seems like solid advice.

[rah]

See if there are any Home Ec classes.
You can seem sensitive.

Practical. Any programming class. Looks good on resume.

Or see if they have the two I took my senior year.
Fantasy in Lit. (the whole semester was on LOTR)
Science Fiction in Lit. (All classic Sci Fi books. and Jose P Farmer was a guest teacher for part of the year)
For padding grade point average.

And I took co-ed volleyball. Only two guys and about 30 women in the class and the other guy was about 5'4" so I was the giant in the class.
And since there were only two guys, we played with the net at the women's height. I was always the first person selected. I was quite gracious and met quite a few outstanding women.

[self biased]

I think you should wait until the last possible second, agonizing over your choices, and in the end pick the one that will make you more miserable.

[loinburger]

My favorite course in college was fencing

[rah]

Interesting, what made it so fun?

[The Mad Monk]

How about a nice intro to geology course? If you haven't already, I mean.