I'm a junior college student planning to transfer next fall. I'm a math major debating whether to double-major in astrophysics once I transfer. I've already finished all my lower-division major requirements at the JC I go to (calc 1-4, a linear algebra course and a discrete math course) and an upper division combinatorics and graph theory class at a CSU, so I was planning to do an independent study for next semester to brush up on the math I had forgotten or dive into some interesting math topics. I have two questions:
- What topics should I focus on to help me prepare to transfer? I know that it can vary by focus and interest, but what upper division classes are coming up for math (pure math specifically) and what's the best way to build a foundation to succeed in them? Some of the schools I applied to are pretty "sink or swim" competitive so I want to prepare as much as I can for the first half of the semester.
- For the second half of the semester I was hoping to dive into a math topic that interests me. I tend to like pure math topics and logic puzzles. I was thinking maybe something to do with linear algebra, abstract algebra, number theory, or cryptography. What are other fun math topics that would serve me well to have studied and how should I choose?
Any suggestions/comments/knowledge would be helpful, thank you!
