It’s official – I start classes again on Tuesday. But I’m not in the Statistics Ph.D. program yet. Turns out, I’m a little weak on some of my math background at the moment, so upon the recommendation of the chair of the stats graduate application committee, I’m registered as a non-degree student so that I can take the classes I’m missing before officially applying to the graduate school.
So the first class I’m taking is an undergraduate math course called Real Analysis. From the looks of the course description and the prerequisite requirements, there’s a bit of a calculus foundation for the class. It’s been several years since I last studied the subject, so I think I’ll be spending a bit of time this weekend with my old textbook and rehashing some basic calc skills.
It’s been two years since I last took a class and several years longer than that since I took anything math-related (my graduate stats classes aside), so needless to say I’m a little rusty. But I’m excited and eager by the opportunity to get back into classes and especially by the opportunity to get into some of the math classes I never had the time or money for during my undergraduate education. It’ll be nice to exercise my brain academically again.
And I’ve got three days to get prepared. Sounds like fun!
Oh man! I remember Real Analysis (I was a math/stat double major in college… never got my PhD though. You go!)
Real Analysis was a killer. I loved it because it was exactly as your surmised, the foundations of calculus, but all discrete. Lots and lots of proofs!
Have fun!