<p>I have this little question bagging me around for a long time and finally i decided to post it here under your experienced expertise.</p>
<p>I have applied for a BS in Comp Sci to some LACs and also a few Universities.
I was wondering what the difference would be in education, internships and employment.
Like for example I have applied to Cornell College (yes College), Connecticut College and also Mississippi State. University of Rhode Island.</p>
<p>So what is the difference in studying Comp Sci from LAC and the same from a University?</p>
<p>Computer science programs at liberal arts colleges tend to be very small. For comparison: Cornell College has 2 professors in computer science while Mississippi State has 20. The size differential has a few immediate consequences. Small departments often teach core courses on a two-year rotation, which leaves no scheduling flexibility whatsoever. The number of upper-level electives might be limited in number and breadth. There’s probably not going to be much expensive equipment. (Don’t expect to find a robotics lab, for example.) On the upside, you would probably get to interact much more closely with your professors at Cornell than at Mississippi State.</p>
<p>If I had to make a sweeping generalization, I would say that computer science departments at liberal arts colleges tend to attract students who are interested in a liberal arts education. If you are happy taking 1-2 computer science courses each semester but you also really want to study history and psychology and astronomy, then Cornell might be for you. If you are looking for a hardcore computer science education, I would recommend a bigger department because otherwise you might run out of classes pretty quickly.</p>
<p>In terms of internship and job opportunities, I recommend you contact each department and ask them about the internships and post-graduation plans of their majors. They should be able to give you that information. Better yet, try to talk to a few junior or senior majors. </p>
<p>The majors at my small liberal arts colleges would tell you that they have a really hard time finding internships because (1) most of our classes are taught in Python and many CS majors don’t know any of the more commonly used programming languages, and (2) many of our electives are heavy on theory and math but have few immediate practical applications. Graduate schools and the big tech employers (Microsoft, Google, MIT Lincoln Labs, etc) value that background of our majors and a few students do get “prestigious” jobs each year - but the majority of our majors are struggling to find any job at all. Smaller employers seem to prefer students with less theoretical and more hands-on practical training. (For example, web design, database management and network security are common CS courses which are not taught at my college.) </p>
<p>You are not applying to my college and it’s unlikely that the colleges you are considering have the same curriculum. I wanted to mention it anyway because it took me by surprise. I hope that it might give you a better idea of what <em>you</em> are looking for as you are researching schools and programs.</p>
<p>That was great Barium! Thanks for the insight.</p>
<p>So I’ll be a tad less employable if I earn my CS degree from a LAC than from a University?</p>
<p>Now here’s a situation that if I get a good aid from Cornell but not that much from Mississippi State or URI. Should I go for the LAC or manage the University by any means possible?</p>
<p>I am not familiar with the programs at any of the schools on your list, so I cannot comment on which program would offer the best preparation for the job market. You will get much better advice from students and faculty at those colleges than from strangers on the internet.</p>
<p>Let me preface this by saying that I know next to nothing about URI, but I am very familiar with MSU. I don’t think those LAC programs can compete with the resources you would have at MSU, including but not limited to the High Performance Computing and Computer Security research labs. The CS department at MSU is much larger than those at the LAC’s, but not so large that you would lose facetime with professors; the student-faculty ratio in the department is only around 10:1. I would venture to say that you would be more practically employable with a degree from a larger university, especially an engineering-inclined school like MSU, than with a degree from a small LAC.</p>