<p>My son is very interested in applying to Rice. He has not been able to visit. He did see on the website that there is a robotics team and that is something that is of great interest to him! Can someone talk about the strength of the computer science program. He is particularly interested in research opportunities for comp. sci. undergrads. as well as whether there is a chance for him to study/intern abroad using his computer science knowledge. Also, he was curious as to how many undergrads there are in the comp. sci. dept. Any info. would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>My son is a senior majoring in CS (well, to be precise, he’s double majoring in that and ECE). CS at Rice is really as good as it gets. He also got into the program at Carnegie Mellon and several other great CS schools but chose to go to Rice because of the merit scholarships he received as well as the culture and social aspects of Rice. The professors are stellar (with many teaching at schools like Stanford and Cornell before coming to Rice). He’s had the opportunity to do significant research starting in his freshman year and has been published. The small program enhances the students’ ability to have research opportunities and to get to know your professors well. I don’t know the exact number of students, but a number of his classes also have grad students in them. And he was able to get a great internship this past summer in NYC doing software engineering. All in all, no regrets. Hope this helps.</p>
<p>I graduated in May 2009 with a BS in the CS degree so my knowledge is slightly outdated (they were restructuring the CS curriculum a bit, at the time) but possibly still relevant. I’ll try to answer your questions as best as I can.</p>
<p>The Rice CS program is different from your run-of-the-mill CS curriculum in that it stresses theory over programming. Instead of classes such as “Java 101” or “C++ for Dummies”, all the classes, from the intro class, are geared towards theory with only some info about the programming language to choose to get tasks done (most classes have multiple options). This has both its pros and cons.</p>
<p>Pros: You are learning the actual science instead of being a code-monkey, you’re kind of simulating real-world scenarios where not everyone has time to take a semester worth of coursework to learn a language.</p>
<p>Cons: You are pretty much on your own from the start so if CS is not something you come in with your mind set on, you may struggle/lose interest.</p>
<p>I understand that they have made a few modifications to this, in addition to settling on Python as a language for intro classes. There also has been a push in the biotechnology realm recently, with an intro class dedicated specifically to that purpose.</p>
<p>The curriculum itself is pretty diverse. There are essentially 2 tracks you can go into: theory or software engineering. There are additional tracks that you can check out on the CS website, but these are the big ones. If you are into research, there are several opportunities available, from your freshman year itself. The number of faculty is relatively small (we share some with the EE and CAAM departments) so you can get to know a professor’s area of research really well if you choose to. I chose to go down the software engineering track so I never did research, but I’d still say about 30% of CS undergrads go into the research track.</p>
<p>The software engineering track, imo, is pretty exciting. The crux of the curriculum is encapsulated in two classes–Comp 410 and Comp 415–both headed by Dr. Wong. Both have the class of students (usually around 10 or less) function as an independent software company working for an external client with their own project. In 410, the client is a Rice professor; in 415 it is an actual client from an actual company (past clients have included JPMorgan Chase, Schlumberger, etc.). The way the course works is really beneficial for those looking to make a career out of software engineering. The skills I learned there have served me in my workplace on a daily basis. And it works great on interviews!</p>
<p>The number of undergrads itself is usually pretty small. In 2009, I think our class had about 15 people graduate with a CS degree (these are just approximate numbers, of course). I understand that number has been shrinking since the early 2000’s, so the CS department is looking for ways to get people interested in the curriculum again. I don’t know how useful it has been so far, though.</p>
<p>Thank you, Hummer and BlackeyedSusan for your responses. I will pass the info. along to my son. We will be attending a Rice regional information session in Sept. or Oct. Hopefully, he will be able to ask some questions!</p>
<p>My son graduated a year ago and really enjoyed the Comp Sci program. He had a paid internship in Japan at one firm and another one at Microsoft and now works full time there. Every university feeds certain companies and Rice has a very good reputation with Microsoft. So many of his fellow Rice grads work with him there and at other Seattle companies. He is so happy there and felt Rice prepared him very well for his job.
He loved his time at Rice and made so many friends that probably will last him a lifetime!</p>
<p>I don’t think he could have picked a better school!</p>
<p>Just wanted to update this quickly with early news that an Owl majoring in computer science has just won high standing in the quest for the Outstanding Undergraduate Researchers Award…</p>
<p>This extremely selective award is sponsored by the Computing Research Association (CRA), an association of more than 200 North American academic departments of computer science, computer engineering, and related fields; laboratories and centers in industry, government, and academia engaging in basic computing research; and affiliated professional societies.</p>
<p>CRA’s mission is to strengthen research and advanced education in the computing fields, expand opportunities for women and minorities, and improve public and policymaker understanding of the importance of computing and computing research in our society. More information.</p>
<p>I feel like Rice’s comp sci program is rigorous but still allows you to sample some other classes. I personally chose Rice over CMU’s CS program. I feel like at CMU it’s definitely a lot more intense but I feel like it’s only for people who are 110% set on CS. They are restructuring the CS curriculum, so the following thresher article may be of some help to you:
[Computer</a> Science curriculum change - News](<a href=“http://media.www.ricethresher.org/media/storage/paper1290/news/2010/11/19/News/Computer.Science.Curriculum.Change-3960957.shtml]Computer”>http://media.www.ricethresher.org/media/storage/paper1290/news/2010/11/19/News/Computer.Science.Curriculum.Change-3960957.shtml)
I think Rice graduates 15-20 CS majors every year. Good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks for the CS article link. My son has his alumni interview next week. We were planning on visiting the school in Jan. but not sure if that will work. Do you think that will count against my son as the AdCom. reviews his application? Rice is a reach for him–34 ACT composite (34-math, 36-science); co-capt. of very successful Robotics Team; has created and runs several CS-based businesses; UW GPA-3.7; Wt. GPA-4.4–all honors and AP classes. Hoping for the best!! Thanks for all of the information!!</p>
<p>From my interview experience, the alum didn’t expect me to have visited… though it definitely worked pretty considerably in my favor that I said I had. Alumni understand geographic constraints though, and as long as you can prove in an interview that you know about the school/are interested in something specific about it/have some questions about it… you’re in good shape.</p>