# Mathematics degree for Theoretical Computer Science? [closed]

I want to go to grad school in theoretical computer science. I don't like programming. I am in France.

Should I pursue a bachelors in math or in computer science?

• There's a world of difference between a monkey coding C++ and a human coding in Agda. In any case, at this level the important thing is who your advisor is going to be, not what programmer you will officially enrol in. – Andrej Bauer Mar 28 '14 at 7:04
• Why do you want TCS rather than just Mathematics, if you do not like programming. Many TCS people are also good programmers, and being a good programmer is nothing as unworthy as you make it sound with your derogatory words. The day you are as bad at programming as Ken Thomson, Dennis Ritchie, Don Knuth and Leslie Lamport (to name just a few I have in mind), we can talk again about it. – babou Mar 28 '14 at 9:43
• $\text{(Programming : Arithmetic)}$ :: $\text{(Algorithms : Algebra)}$ :: $\text{(TCS : Pure Mathematics)}$. Research isn't a hierarchical ladder to climb, but you're more likely to be able to do it well if you do some foundational exercises. It is possible that your personal vision of mathematics gives you enough insight into computation that doing exercises in programming may not be necessary (thinking of results that rest on number theory or graph theory here), but even then it is still likely to be helpful, because it will give you intuitions for ways to solve problems. – Niel de Beaudrap Mar 28 '14 at 11:18
• Do the downvoters care to explain their votes or comment on how to make the question better? – usul Mar 28 '14 at 12:12
• Not a downvoter, but his question is strangely formulated. Why does he want to study TCS in particular, what interests him? Why does he imagine that pure mathematics might be helpful? Might he be better off researching pure mathematics but tending towards the complexity of testing certain mathematical properties? And is it programming in itself that he finds distasteful, or the priorities of his instructors (an emphasis on industrial application perhaps)? – Niel de Beaudrap Mar 28 '14 at 12:58