My son is considering majors in Comp Sci and/or Business. How do you compare the programs at Brown and WashU?
My daughter is at Brown. The CS program is highly regarded. She knows students with opportunities at Google, Microsoft, and various other companies we’ve all heard of. CS at Brown is super rigorous. I don’t think there’s much in “Business” at Brown. Applied Math is also very very strong.
What I value the most about where she is is this:
- She’s in an environment that is not cut-throat. It’s the Students vs. the Material. Not students vs. students. For a school of that caliber, it is a happy, positive environment. She is a quiet introvert, but she has found some very nice, wholesome fellow-nerds as friends.
- I love Providence. Everything a big city offers, ‘compacted’ into a cute town. She can walk to the Amtrak Station. (It’s the nicest, cutest Amtrak station I’ve ever seen) And, that’s how she gets home.
We visited Wash U. That is nice, too. My gut feeling was that it was less-diverse than Brown.
Thank you for your advice. It’s great to hear that your daughter is so happy. My kids do best with wholesome nerds as well. Are there enough kids there that don’t get involved in drinking and drugs?
We visited both schools and noticed that there was less diversity at Washu. I see that Brown does have a Business, Entrepreneurship, and Organizations concentration. My son may want a combination of comp sci and business, so we are looking at schools with both and the ability to change majors easily. Does your daughter know kids who have changed majors at Brown?
At Brown, you don’t even declare your concentration until the spring of your sophomore year. It’s less common to change concentrations, just because most people have made up their minds by then. Some do, however - I had a friend who switched from Applied Math to CS later on and was fine, since she’d already taken a lot of CS courses.
My son is currently pursuing an Sc.B. in a concentration in Computer Science and Economics while considering also taking additional CS classes for an Sc.B. in comp sci. but as bruno14 pointed out declaration is not until 4th semester. I agree with momcan that there really does not seem to be a formal business curriculum such as Penn’s Wharton school. I’m not sure the BEO program is what your son would be looking for. It might be worthwhile to review these links - the first is the Sc.B. concentration for Comp Sci and Economics and the second link is for the Economics dept. It seems that in lieu of a formal business program some of what your son may be looking for is available in the economics program - it’s at least worth a look.
https://cs.brown.edu/degrees/undergrad/concentrations/cs-econ_scb-reqs/
https://www.brown.edu/academics/economics/index.php?q=undergraduate/course-groupings
CS is excellent at Brown and generally held in higher regard than WUSTL. I wouldn’t go to Brown for Business, however. There is no Business major at Brown, and BEO has a poor reputation on campus as a “soft” interdisciplinary concentration for weaker students. Finance employers and business schools would much rather see a student with quantitative skills who studied Applied Math, CS or Economics at Brown rather than BEO. I don’t know much about WUSTL’s programs, but my D chose Brown over WUSTL, and it wasn’t a close call.
Agree with @spayurpets about Brown that “Finance employers and business schools would much rather see a student with quantitative skills who studied Applied Math, CS or Economics at Brown rather than BEO.” Also agree that I would choose Brown. CS at Brown is outstanding.
Thank you all for your advice. Does anyone have any info about Lehigh’s combined program in Comp Sci and Business?