Computer Science at Davidson?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Davidson College
1

<p>Can anyone comment of the strength and merits of the CS department and faculty at Davidson? I also note offerings in Genomics and Bioinformatics, so any information on those would also be appreciated.</p>

<p>Thanks. We visit in October.</p>

2

<p>Bump. Anyone?</p>

3

<p>The CS department at Davidson is admittedly limited but I don’t know of any liberal arts schools, other than Harvey Mudd, which have a truly exceptional CS program. It is pretty small but the faculty are very great. They are very approachable and it’s probably one of the fastest developing programs here. CS has also been very well incorporated into the other departments. The Genomics and Bioinformatics programs are supposed to be pretty impressive but I can’t say too much about them first hand. I hope you had a great visit.</p>

4

We looked at computer science at LACs for my oldest. He ultimately wanted a bigger school. Questions for you:

With a smaller program, you need to dig into their course catalogs, and see what sounds interesting to your student. Is this the right fit? Review the actual professors on staff. Remember that one or two in a department may be on sabbatical at any given time. If there are classes that are especially interesting how often are they actually offered? How hard is it to get your prerequisites done?

I like Davidson, which is why I’m on this board. But in your case, I would lean toward a LAC that belongs to a consortium with one or more other schools–that increases your options. For example, Amherst is in a consortium with U Mass and other LACs. Swarthmore, which has its own engineering already, is in a consortium with Penn, Bryn Mawr, Haverford and others.

5

Thanks. Posted this a long time ago, and since then we visited Davidson.

Very nice school, but S ended up not applying. One reason is that CS is not anywhere close to a point of emphasis, but they “hope to make it a major in 5 years”, according to the one Prof we spoke/met with. My S also did not like the considerable Div I sports emphasis, which is not up his alley.

Great school, just not for him.