How much knowledge of math do I need before taking bachelor of software engineering ?

Question

I asked this question before, but now I knew who to form it correctly after doing some research for months. It always puzzles me what someone need to know before enrolling in bachelor of software engineering in terms of math. For example: supposedly the person who's enrolling understands all the basics of math (e.g. addition, division...) with little advanced topics such as algebra etc.., what are the basis he/she required to know before studying the math involved in software engineering ? I see this topic unclear in many places, some people argue it's not required, but they don't provide sufficient proof for that claim.

My questions:

1) How much mathematical knowledge someone needs before enrolling to a bachelor degree of software engineering ?

Another way of asking the question:

2) How much mathematical knowledge someone needs before taking calculus, linear algebra,discrete mathematics or any math taught in a computer science class ?

For example I heard when studying calculus the student must study first linear algebra as I remember from what I read, calculus is all about continuous topics of linear algebra so the person who's willing to study that must have knowledge of the prior topic (linear algebra).

Answer 1

I assume that you are a high school student.

The mathematics you will need to complete before graduating high school and applying for a bachelor's degree in software engineering depends on how you want to go about it. For any engineering major, I strongly recommend taking some calculus before leaving high school and going to the university. I would then recommend taking it again at the university level. For someone whose profession will be engineering, a solid foundation in calculus is tremendously helpful. Ultimately your job will involve a lot of differential equations and linear algebra.

The prerequisite classes for calculus are algebra, trigonometry and precalculus (though sometimes precalculus is not necessary). You must take all of these classes as well.

However, the best advice I could give you is to start getting involved with software as soon as you can. You can take courses on websites like Coursera for free, and you can use StackExchange to help you with any confusion you may have. Getting to know programming before you get into the university will help you tremendously with your coursework, and it will give you a leg up on a lot of topics.

Answer 2

I have degrees in Math and Computer Science. The Computer Science degree requires a certain amount of math - I believe through Calc 2 and a couple classes off the "linear path" like Math Logic. It only takes a couple more classes for a minor after that and a few more for a major.

As for what knowledge you need prior to calculus, I suppose you need pre-calc, often taught in high school. Otherwise you will have to take that in college as well. Linear Algebra isn't on the same course path, but is usually taken after calc 2 or 3.