Hi, I'm a rising senior physics major at a small liberal arts college that doesn't have a nuclear engineering program. I want to go to nuclear engineering grad school, and maybe focus on computational nuclear engineering (which makes heavy use of the Monte Carlo method) .
I'd like to get some advice on math classes I should take for this coming academic year. I've already taken math up through multivariable calculus and a semester combo class of linear algebra/differential equations.
My options, with course descriptions, are below.
**** Fall Semester ****
I only have room for one of these:
Discrete
An introduction to mathematical reasoning and to the kind of mathematics appropriate for the study of properties of (possibly large) finite systems. Topics include proof techniques, mathematical induction, elementary number theory, combinatorics, relations, and graph theory. Applications will be made to the construction of models useful in the social and physical sciences and to the study of algorithms in computer science.
Probability
An introduction to the major topics of probability including sample spaces, conditional probability, discrete and continuous random variables, exception and variance, and limit theorems (law of large numbers, central limit theorem). Time permitting, topics in stochastic processes or statistics are introduced.
**** Spring Semester ****
I can only pick two of these:
Applied Statistics
Calculus-based introductory course in statistics. Exploratory data analysis, questions of causation, probability, continuous and discrete random variables, distributions of sums of random variables, confidence intervals, significance tests, use and abuse of tests, one and two sample procedures, inferences in linear regression, and analysis of variance.
Linear Algebra
Matrix algebra, finite dimensional vector spaces, linear transformations, determinants, eigenvalues, and applications.
Complex Variables
A study of analytic functions, power series, complex integration, conformal mapping, and the calculus of residues with applications to physical science.
Numerical Analysis
A survey of numerical mathematics and continuous algorithms. Topics may include number representation, error analysis, finding roots of equations, interpolation, numerical differentiation and integration, solving systems of linear equations, and numerical methods for differential equations. FORTRAN will be introduced.
If you can let me know which math courses I should take, if any, for preparing for computational nuclear engineering, that would be huge. Thanks.
