Ask HN: Advice about studies?
Note: I wrote this whole post up on a HNers project (thanks jmonegro :)) - wrttn.in
You can read it in a more nice format here: http://wrttn.in/48e08e

Firstly, I want to say something that needs to be said. This community and the content that it produces and encourages helps and inspires many others, including myself.
Up to this point, I have been but a lurker, admiring the work of others from the shadows of my keyboard, wanting to comment on some posts but then deciding against it for now, until I sort some stuff out (major life-org project underway... more on that in a second).

I am currently residing in Melbourne, Australia, and studying the Victorian Curriculum of Education in my second last year of school before Uni (our school year runs from about Jan-Nov/Dec, with 3 breaks in between that and the long break from Dec-Feb).

After being unsure of where I wanted to head, I believe that around March this year (might have been towards the end of 2009), I stumbled across the world of tech startups, and immediately realized that this is the direction that I should have been heading in four years ago.

So, to bring it back to the reasoning behind this post. Yesterday at school (where only a few have even heard of Digg and I don't know anyone who reads Tech Crunch or HN), we received forms asking for our subject choices going into next year.

At the end of last year, I was only thinking within the scope that is forced upon us (not everyone, and yes it is possible to break outside of that) of 'what job do you want to have', with the assumption that I would study something for a few years at Uni (which, by the way, here generally involves a 3 year undergrad course in a course that can be quite specialized - eg I could do a Bachelor of Mechatronics Engineering) and then moving on to a job in a corporate firm and working my way up. I had always had ambitions of working from myself, possibly spawned from the fact that my dad started up a successful business (mechanical engineering, nothing techy), and my strong self-drive.

Off track again.. must keep this for another post.. Anyway, so since then I have had my epiphany, and have become interested in many topics surrounding web & tech startups, especially collective intelligence, decisions and recommendations (think along the likes of Hunch). And given that I have the chance to update my subjects for next year, I came to the realization that HN should be a perfect place to ask about the subject choices I could make to better lead me to Computer Science (previously I had thought working for my self & using IT would be Business Mgmt and Business Info Systems - so I am glad that I discovered startups), and especially recommendation systems and technologies.

Quick background: In Australia, the admissions process works very different. Even though I am aiming to attend an American Uni (more on that at another time), I will quickly explain it. It is based on 4 official tests (in general) and an external exam (or 2) that we sit for each subject we study in year 12 (our final year). These scores are used to build an ENTER score, and sometime before receiving this score we enter in our course preferences, and then if this score is high enough we get in to the top course, otherwise it moves to second preference, etc. So the complete focus is on the numbers, no extracurriculars or essays.

Currently, I am studying units 1/2 (units 1/2 are studied in year 11, units 3/4 studied in year 12): English, General Maths, Mathematical Methods, Physics, Accounting, and Economics Unit 3/4.

My choices are as follows:

- Drop Accounting? Drop Physics? Take up IT Programming (I talked to a teacher a while ago about having him teach python or ruby to a small class in which I would basically be able to do as I pleased)?

- I will be pursuing Methods without a doubt, as it is a subject that is on the list of requirements for almost every degree and the good Unis in Melbourne (though I want to go in the US - topic of a future post)

- Should I do Specialist Mathematics (not taken by many at all, thought to of as a very hard subject by everyone), or Further Mathematics (ridiculously easy, easier than the work I did last year), or no second maths at all? I am not allowed to do 3 maths (....), without question.
Specialist summary: 'Specialist Mathematics consists of the following areas of study: ‘Functions, relations and graphs’, ‘Algebra’, ‘Calculus’, ‘Vectors’ and ‘Mechanics’.' (calculus is also taken in Methods). A summary of the available maths is available here: http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vcaa/vce/studies/mathematics/mathematicsstudysum.doc for anyone interested :P I think I like maths, but not the easy and repetitive stuff we get in school :(

- Should I do a Uni Enhancement study (2 units of uni taken in 3 hours a week outside of school, that has the same impact on my VCE score as another subject, and would be taken in place of another subject)? In actuality, I discovered today that I would not need to decide this until later, as we are required to fill out our selections as if we are not doing any Uni Enhancement study, and then later on we can drop a subject and pursue this.

So, to lead into recommendation systems and computer science, which should I take?
Basically the only subjects required for studying computer science at Melbourne's top 2 Unis are either Methods or Specialist Maths, along with Chemistry or Physics - so no issue there, and that basically confirms that I need to continue Physics.

Regarding recommended subjects for CompSci, I saw this: http://www.cs.vt.edu/undergraduate/recommended, which indicated that I should be doing physics and chemistry (which I chose not to), computer science courses (not available - best thing we have at the moment is IT Programming which uses VB6 :P! As I said above though, I might be able to convince a teacher to let me teach myself python/ruby and he would also teach the class that), and as much math as possible - which would indicate that I should do specialist maths?
Would there be a significant benefit in be picking up chemistry?

Okay, now that I have reached this point, through writing this I have basically decided for doing Specialist maths, continuing Physics and Methods, and then selecting IT & accounting if they will let me do 6 subjects instead of 5, and probably dropping accounting to take Uni Computer Systems (which uses Java :P) - http://www.monash.edu.au/study/enhancement/info-tech.html is the only possible one I could do.

If you think it would be better for me to cut all the background stuff out and the stuff that could/should be moved to future posts, I will be happy to do that.

Still, I would love opinions on whether I should be doing Specialist maths or further maths, and if I should take Accounting at school. And as a side note, what projects and learning could I undertake outside of school in the field of recommendation systems? (feel free to link me elsewhere, though I have already bookmarked posts on rec engines found through searchYC).