Anyone studying CS at any of the Colleges That Change Lives? My S is interested in studying CS but would also like to be at a small LAC. Most of the CTCL have tiny CS departments which could be good or bad, depending on the strength of the faculty. Any CS majors (or their parents) that can give first hand experience? We have not narrowed our search but like Allegheny, Wooster, Knox, Earlham, Denison, St. Olaf (a reach) so far and are open to considering others. He is focused on the Midwest primarily.
Try looking at the CS department web sites for faculty rosters, course catalog, and schedules to see what upper level CS courses are offered and how often. A good CS department should offer on a regular basis (minimum once every two years, but that gives no choice as to when to take it, and may be inconvenient if it has a schedule conflict with another desired course; every year or semester is better) many upper level courses like:
algorithms and complexity
theory of computation
operating systems
compilers
networks
databases
security and cryptography
software engineering or projects in other courses
hardware design courses
other electives like artificial intelligence, graphics, etc.
St. Olaf is known for math, and College Navigator shows a lot more math and CS majors there than at the other listed schools.
I don’t know much about Cornell College (the CTCL school in Iowa, not Cornell University in NY), but it appears to have an unusually high number of CS majors for its size (which is small even by CTCL standards). It operates on the block plan (one course at a time), which may or may not be appealing.
Luther College in Iowa is not a CTCL, but appears to resemble St. Olaf in some respects, including Norwegian heritage, strong music programs, and a relatively high (for a CTCL school) number of math and CS majors.
Earlham seems to have a pretty good program (judging from the course listings, although I haven’t checked current schedules to see if most of them are offered each year.) The faculty roster shows only 5 professors (including 1 visiting and 1 emeritus). You should verify that that is enough to cover student demand. According to a recent CDS, only 10 CS majors graduated in 2016-17. I would think these numbers are fairly typical for the CTCLs. My kids went to Friends (Quaker) high schools, where Earlham seemed to be considered a good alternative to the most selective Quaker colleges (Swarthmore and Haverford).
Another small, midwestern college you might want to consider is Macalester. It’s a bit more selective than most of the CTCL member schools (maybe even compared to Reed/Whitman/St.O). Need-based aid may be a bit better, though, and the Twin Cities location would be livelier than some of the CTCL settings.
IMO a good way to manage the strengths/weaknesses of a LAC for CS is to combine it into a liberal arts double major, for example with econ, bio, or linguistics (if available). Add complementary internships and a senior project/thesis in a corresponding field (such as econometric modeling, bioinformatics, computational linguistics). If the goal is to develop technical knowledge in straight-CS areas (e.g. compilers/operating systems/networks) you’re probably better off at a state university.
I would assume that the CTCL out West would have good placement in the IT sector. Schools like Evergreen State, Puget Sound, Reed, Whitman and Willamette.
I agree that some of the LACs out West might be worth a look.
However, I’ve noticed that some midwestern LACs indicate their CS grads are getting jobs at highly-sought employers (such as Google and Amazon). Examples:
http://earlham.edu/computer-science/
https://www.macalester.edu/mscs/aftermac/
https://apps.carleton.edu/curricular/cs/alumniprofiles/
These pages only list a few names of students and employers, so it’s hard to say whether these outcomes are typical. You might want to ask about that if you’re concerned.
But CS is a very marketable major; demand for IT professionals is widespread (for example in the Baltimore-Washington-Northern VA area).
In terms of CS, we know several CS students at Denison who have had excellent experience. It seems like a robust department, with something like 14 regular faculty, though some are co-appointed in Math department. In addition to CS, there is a new Data Analytics major which could offer complementary classes.
However, if St Olaf is a reach for the student, then so is Denison. Denison’s acceptance rate was 37% last year, and its middle 50% ACT scores hover around 28-32 (Class of '20 was 28-32, Class of '21 was 27-32, I think). Number of applications has been increasing 10% a year for several years, including last year.
Following up on @tk21769, numbers of CS majors for the CTCL schools do seem run in the 10-20 range (looking at the CDS).
Several Earlham CS alums have started businesses locally, in Richmond, and hire Earlham grads. It’s an affordable place to live and do business. An example:
http://www.greenfiling.com/company/
some EC CS students have incubated their ideas here:
https://richmondinnovates.com/
Not a CTCL school… but Grinnell College has provided students with great internship opportunities in CS for many years that have led to jobs in Silicon Valley. Of course, Robert Noyce (co-founder of Intel) was a Grinnell alum.
Agree Grinnell is superb – but the OP said St Olaf is a bit of a reach.
You might look at Trinity U in Texas. I don’t recall if it’s on the CTCL list, but my D applied there as well as at a bunch of CTCL schools. They are a bit bigger than the CTCL schools, but still small, have a huge endowment, and also have CS and engineering. Southwestern U, also in TX, has CS as well. I know of someone who just transferred into the major there, but I don’t know much else about it. The school itself expects students to work hard, and I would expect the program to be challenging.
I believe @janjmom has a son at Wooster…don’t recall if she has any research/knowledge of CS there? My son was originally thinking CS and is now leaning more statistics/math and econ double major. When we were researching CS we found many CTCL schools offered a good portion of the courses listed, but would need to sequence correctly as they aren’t necessarily offered every year. This didn’t overly concern us as many other majors are similar.
Also if your child can bring a few credits in with them either through AP, Dual enrollment, etc. it can help ease a few of the gen ed requirements and makes scheduling easier. My daughter did this and has found she can easily schedule classes even those that are offered infrequently. In our experience, the schools have been helpful when contacted about what would transfer.
@jcmom716 is correct - I am a Wooster parent. Although I do not know much about the CS major there, I do know that the college is very deliberate about scheduling classes, so that if they have seniors who need specific classes in their major in order to graduate on time, they make sure that the class will be offered. (This info came directly from the dean…I sat next to him at a dinner in the spring and we talked specifically about the challenges and benefits of a small liberal arts program!)
Hope this helps - at least a little!
All very helpful info/ideas. Thanks!