Hello!
I’m currently a senior at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in the USA. The admissions page for the masters of science program specifies a requirement of 12 credit points in the field of theoretical Computer Science which I’m somewhat worried about.
My university is almost entirely practical although theory is incorporated into the curriculum. I have taken Design & Analysis of Algorithms (which I understand doesn’t count) for 3 credit hours and Formal Languages & automata for 3.
Design & Analysis is described in the course catalog as:
```
Asymptotic complexity of algorithms. Analysis of iterative and recursive algorithms; amortized analysis. Design paradigms: greedy and dynamic programming approaches. Interplay of data structures and algorithms. Graph algorithms. Introduction to the theory of complexity classes and NP–completeness.
```
Formal Languages is described as:
```
Regular expressions. Regular, context-free, context-sensitive and unrestricted grammars and languages. Finite and pushdown automata. Turing machines, recursive and recursively enumerable languages. Decidability and the halting problem.
```
As I understand it American credits are worth 2 credit points so these 2 courses would give me 12 credit points, although again I’m a little unsure regarding design & analysis.
These are the two courses closest to theory regularly offered at my institution. There is an advanced version of Formal Languages, along with a Theory of Computation course, however both of them are graduate courses and the professor who usually teaches them will be on sabbatical for a while :(
I do have the ability to challenge either course (and plan on doing so for ToC) but can only do so once, so I wanted to see if it’s a all or nothing kind of thing. If I can’t pass the challenge exam am I screwed ?
I’m really sorry for any inconvenience answering my dumb questions, I really appreciate any input yall can offer ^^;
Thanks !