Could someone who has taken math 303 explain what it is? Is it a real world application math class to learn how to translate phenomena into mathematical expressions, or is it a class that just uses a computer to approximate solutions to given math problems (kinda like CS 228 - Numerical Methods)?

It's anesthesia bottled up in a class.

I took it FS 2003. Had Dr. Hering. The book is terrible. There's no problems in there to practice on to learn what he wants you to learn. There are problems in the book but they don't cover exactly what he teaches. That's the biggest problem I had with the class.

The first month or so is using weird linear algebra tecniques to solve contrained optimization problems. Then we did some regression analysis, some analysis on probablilities, one other project that I don't remember and don't have my file stuff for, and then we got a packet of problems about a month before the end of the semester, we had to pick one and do it and present it. The problems all looked like CS158 problems but with input sets so large it was impractical to use the pencil and paper methods of 158. The analysis on probabilites was kind of like a hybrid between binomial trees and probability analysis.

The class is a little slow and as long as you block out the theory the stuff can be kind of cool. On the upside, there isn't a lot of work to the class and if you are even halfway decent at writing lab reports what work you do have is easy. If you are looking for a pretty easy A and need a 300 level math class there is nothing wrong with this one.

Yeah, I forgot to mention that my class just had 1 test (a midterm). No quizzes either.