What extra math class to take?

[fruitcat]

I'm trying to decide which supplementary math class to take community college before my grad program starts. I've already taken Stats 1 & 2, and Calc 2, I'm trying to decide between differential equations and linear algebra. I only have time to take one of these in the spring, as I'm still working full time, and the summer semester dips into when grad classes would start. 

 

I've been accepted into most of my top choices for environment/energy management, (I haven't picked yet! D: ) talking to professors and looking through course catalogs, it seems like it would between these two, leaning toward linear. Applications would be for economic and financial modeling, as well other general types of quantitative analysis skills that I'm looking to learn in grad school. Asking my mathy econ friends, they have varied horror stories about both subjects, so I'm anticipating it to be a challenge either way. I'm not the most naturally gifted at math, but managed to get As in all of my previous community college math classes because I was able to focus on one subject at a time, so I'd rather knock this out in a safer, and frankly, less challenging environment. Thoughts? 

[limonchello]

On 4/5/2017 at 5:19 PM, fruitcat said:

I'm trying to decide which supplementary math class to take community college before my grad program starts. I've already taken Stats 1 & 2, and Calc 2, I'm trying to decide between differential equations and linear algebra. I only have time to take one of these in the spring, as I'm still working full time, and the summer semester dips into when grad classes would start. 

 

I've been accepted into most of my top choices for environment/energy management, (I haven't picked yet! D: ) talking to professors and looking through course catalogs, it seems like it would between these two, leaning toward linear. Applications would be for economic and financial modeling, as well other general types of quantitative analysis skills that I'm looking to learn in grad school. Asking my mathy econ friends, they have varied horror stories about both subjects, so I'm anticipating it to be a challenge either way. I'm not the most naturally gifted at math, but managed to get As in all of my previous community college math classes because I was able to focus on one subject at a time, so I'd rather knock this out in a safer, and frankly, less challenging environment. Thoughts? 

My MSc Finance SO says don't waste your time taking either, no necessary for a graduate program in environment/energy management . He says if anything take a class or pick up a book on price theory or financial commodities.

 

hope that helps. Knowing more about the programs might give a different perspective, but it's not like you'd be taking a MSc in Mechanical Engineering.

[fruitcat]

Thanks @limonchello! That makes a lot of sense, I was looking over class prices again yesterday, and even though they are pretty affordable, it's still a few hundred bucks that I could be saving for grad school itself. I'll probably still go through Khan Academy's videos on these topics. 

[nobraintrain]

Linear algebra might be quite handy in modelling. As for diffeqs, it's much harder, especially if you only had cal 2.