As I recall from a (very) long ago differential equations course at MIT, the intro DiffEQ course was very cookbook and, while necessary for some things like system dynamics, weren't super-interesting. (Not that I was ever very good at math.) I did always think it was cool though that you had "imaginary" i terms and they eventually disappeared and you had a real-world result.

Never took linear algebra but I gather it was embedded in other courses in various guises largely pre-computer.