What courses are recommended to take in undergraduate to apply MFE

[Marco kk]

Hi, I am currently a sophomore student in UC,San Diego with majoring in applied math. We need to choose two series of math courses as part of the requirement. Here is the list:

1. Combinatorics: MATH 154 or 158, and MATH 184 or 188
2. Differential Equations: MATH 110 and MATH 130
3. Numerical Methods: Any three from MATH 170A-B-C, 175, 179
4. Optimization: MATH 171A-B
5. Probability: MATH 180A-B-C
6. Statistics: MATH 181A-B, or any two from MATH 181D, 181F, 185, or 189

I plan to take most of the courses in No.6 (statistics), which covers statistics, computational statistics, inference,etc. I do not know how to choose the other one. I am taking math180A (Probability) this quarter, but the professor is really bad. I do not think I will be confident in taking this series. I wonder for the list 1 to 4, which one is helpful in MFE or quant area. I learned from someone that No.2 (PDE) is helpful, but I am not sure. NO.1 is about graph theory and combinatorics, it it useful?
Also, I plan to take some data science courses or minor in it, which cover data structure, data mining, machine learning,etc. Does learning dsc is helpful and required in quant area? I took CSE courses before,(basic java, python). Coding is kinda hard for me. So I am not sure if dsc is helpful. If it is helpful, I will try my best to take these courses even thought it might be hard for me.
Thanks so much. I really appreciate your help!

 

[finkv]

My 2 cents. Don’t tailor your degree out of any advice you are given online. Finish the pre requisites for any program you want to apply to, and then take classes which are relevant but you like. You will learn more and be happier.