<p>I applied to Swarthmore last December and wanted to know more about the CS department there.
The reason why I am looking at small LACs versus larger technical universities is because I know almost nothing about CS (at least at the moment) and because I was thinking of double majoring with something in the humanities (either Art History, English, Philosophy- something like that). I don't really fit the nerdy hacker math-y profile, and I would be very anxious in a highly competitive environment like MIT or Berkeley. Is the CS department at Swarthmore even worth looking into, and, if so, would it be a good fit for me?</p>
<p>I think you’ll adore the Swarthmore CS department. It’s very much on the nurturing and cozy side; all of the professors are on a first-name, open-door basis; and there’s a sense of community among CS students, too. Moreover, the curriculum is designed horizontally (not a prereq-heavy vertical sequence) and very open to interdisciplinary work.</p>
<p>I came into Swarthmore as a possible English major, with a ton of high school preparation/ECs/interests in that area. In fact, I still consider the humanities my strongest subject area–but I’m now a Linguistics and Computer Science double major. I don’t identify at all with the typical “hacker” profile, and while there are certainly those kinds of CS students at Swat, there are also many more who only got into CS because they took the (especially designed to be friendly) intro CS course for a distribution requirement.</p>
<p>I probably wouldn’t be a CS major anywhere else, but I LOVE the department at Swarthmore.</p>
<p>Swarthmore’s CS department is super nurturing. They have weekly lunches, and I remember at least one ice cream study break in the Science Center courtyard. I took intro CS last year. There were two or three paid tutors in every class walking around to help students. There were two scheduled tutor sessions every week, and if you needed more help, you could request a personal tutor. At the beginning of the semester, the professor invited every student to her office just to get to know them and understand their past experience with CS (or lack thereof).</p>
<p>I’m curious about job opportunities in CS graduating from Swarthmore. Do top tech companies recruit at Swat, or do you need to do an internship to get noticed? Can one get a job straight out of school, or do most go to grad school?</p>
<p>Here is the data collected by Swarthmore for computer science graduates in recent years:
Computer Science Employment:
Programmer, STATS LLC, Chicago, IL
Software Engineer, Salesforce.com, San Francisco, CA
Software Developer, Wireless Generation, New York, NY
Technology Analyst, Merrill Lynch, New York, NY
Software Engineer, Boston, MA
Software Engineer, Wireless Generation, New York
Computer Analyst, JPMorgan Chase & Co., New York, NY
Teacher, Springside School, Philadelphia
Research Assistant, Marks Colorectoral Surgical Practice, Lankenau Hospital, PA
Project Leader, Wolfire Software, Berkeley, CA
Associate Project Manager, Clarix Informatics, Radnor, PA
Financial Software Developer, Bloomberg LP, New York, NY
Technical Director Resident, Pixar Animation Studios, Emeryville, CA
Software Development Engineer, Microsoft, Bellevue, WA
Software Engineer, Susquehanna International Group, Philadelphia, PA
Software Engineer, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Palo Alto, CA
Computer Science Teacher, Teach For America / Chicago Public Schools, Chicago, IL
Software Developer, Epic Systems, Madison, WI
EFL teacher, Korea</p>
<p>Computer Science Graduate/Professional School:
Ph.D., Computer Science, Computer Science Department, Johns Hopkins, Whiting School of
Engineering
Ph.D., Computer Science, Washington University in St. Louis
Masters, eventual Ph.D., MS in Computer Science, University of Toronto, ON, CAN</p>
<p>The list libartsmom puts up is old. Last year two students (friends) were accepted to and chose to attend Carnegie Mellon for PhD in CS. Three soon-to-be-alumni (and possibly a fourth) are taking jobs at Google. Swat does very well.</p>
<p>I’m very glad to hear that. Although I guess the point of my main question is, is the good placement record based on the strength of the Swarthmore program, or do most people need to get summer internships and such in order to be noticed?</p>
<p>I guess I don’t understand your concern… how do you think Swatties tend to get summer internships? I suppose there might be some evidence pointing to Swattie success relating to parent connections / resources in related areas. But Swatties get placed into internships (and later in to jobs / grad) because of their education, just as other students at other top schools do.</p>
<p>Actually, slight update. Last year four CS majors got into and chose to attend CMU for grad school. Given how small CMU’s entering CS PhD class is, this is kind of ridic.</p>
<p>I’d just like to second everyone’s comments on the CS department. I came to Swat confident that I would major in bio and go on to a career in ecology. I took intro to CS with bio applications during spring semester freshman year, because it seemed vaguely useful for such a career, and was blown away by how friendly and approachable the department is. They were so nice and welcoming that I couldn’t resist taking another course, and then a job as ninja (the department term for students who run the help sessions for students in intro classes), and then becoming a minor, and then a major. Now I’m finishing my junior year, and I’m still also a bio major, but all of my academic social life is in the CS department, and I’m constantly tempted to switch career plans to computer science.</p>
<p>Also, to add to the list of successful grads, another senior last year ended up going to UT Austin to study artificial intelligence (super prestigious program). I’m pretty sure she did all of her research with professors at Swat, although I’m not 100% positive. Obviously, grad schools want to see that you’ve done research in addition to taking classes, but research opportunities that grad schools respect are certainly available at Swat.</p>
Bump! How does the computer science program at Swarthmore look today? I’m really attracted to the idea of a prestigious liberal arts school having a great cs program (like harvey mudd, except on the east coast). Anyone have any more recent input on Swarthmore’s computer science program?
Current sophomore. There are many problems in the CS department (huge classes, lotteries happening), but the professors are very accessible and the labs are fun/not too difficult. The CS program is really welcoming. I will have taken 6 by the end of my sophomore year here and I have talked to almost every one of my professors for more than two hours 1-on-1. They seriously love teaching, and allow for some students to do summer research. Lots of students here are interested in starting cool projects. I’m interning at a big 4 company next summer. There’s really nothing that you can’t do here while getting an amazing liberal arts degree.
Our D has taken several classes and really enjoyed them, especially Artificial Intelligence with Prof. Meeden.
My son is a sophomore majoring in Computer Science (and probably double majoring in Engineering). You might also look at the Engineering minor which is not at all hard to combine with a CS major. There are a lot of interesting cross-listed courses. He has enjoyed all of his CS and Engineering classes, as well as the LAC environment.