<p>Can anyone offer any reflections on their experience (or that of their friends or relatives) with the CS department at Princeton?</p>
<p>I've heard some murmerings that the CS faculty are stretched pretty thin right now as a result of the recent explosion of CS majors. Does that sound accurate?</p>
<p>It’s awesome. :P</p>
<p>I’m in the class of 2014. I’m not sure what to say about the faculty being stretched thin…it is true that the number of majors has dramatically increased, though part of that is that it seems like all the ELE majors have switched to COS. I haven’t done independent work yet (I’ll be doing that next year), so I’m not sure how that’s going to work out (since it’s 1 student to 1 professor and all) but I haven’t heard of anyone having problems yet. True, my classes haven’t been incredibly small, but all of my professors know me on some level. And the department is hiring, too, and there have been some really cool classes by guest professors in the past few semesters. So, no, I haven’t noticed any real problems. Though apparently the lack of preceptors is one reason why they’re hiring more undergrads to offer homework help / grade assignments (which isn’t a negative thing).</p>
<p>More to the point, though: my experience. The size of the department means that I know a LOT of students who share my passion for CS. There are tons of hackathons and trips and lectures etc. Lots of informal meetups, too. Most of my classes have been really good. Princeton is also heavily recruited by both large companies and some NY-based startups. I’ve learned a ton of stuff over the past 2 years and it’s an exciting field to be in, and an exciting place to be studying it. Don’t underestimate how great it is to be surrounded by people who are excited about the same things as you are.</p>
<p>Basically I’m just having a lot of fun here; I adore our department. Do you have any other specific questions?</p>
<p>Great info, tiger14! Good to hear you’re having a positive experience. I’ll pass your comments along to my D.</p>