Computer Science Program at Pomona College?

Parents Forum
21

<p>Computer science in many schools is an offshoot of the math department, especially at the LAC’s that offer them. Even Occidental college which is a LAC in SoCal offers computer science. </p>

<p>Also, Pomona has 3+2 program with Caltech where they complete 3 years at Pomona and the remaining 2 years at Caltech to get a degree from both institutions. Obviously not easy to get into but if that is something that appeals to him it will give both the LAC experience plus a degree from CalTech</p>

<p>[Caltech</a> Undergraduate Admissions: 3/2 Applicants](<a href=“http://www.admissions.caltech.edu/applying/32]Caltech”>http://www.admissions.caltech.edu/applying/32)</p>

<p>Also, even if your S went to a LAC, if he does well, he can get into a graduate program for a top intsitution</p>

22

<p>Thanks everyone for all your posts. So very helpful! And thanks CountingDown and ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad for your offers to PM. ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad, how did you know that I had no idea how to PM?</p>

<p>ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad, we have not eliminated the uc’s. We have thought about ucsd, mainly b/c it is the only uc that has the dift smaller colleges, and thus more of an opportunity for my son not to feel lost in a large environment. Thanks for your input as a dad about whether kids can change when they get to college, plus the link to the stats about admitted freshman at ucla.</p>

<p>CalAlum, I was hoping someone would post what you post!! Thanks for letting me know that it is possible to major in CS at a LAC and do well. Do you know if he took the majority of his CS classes at Harvey Mudd or at Pomona College? I know Pomona College has their own CS dept, altho it is much smaller. Also, do you know if he found his two wonderful internships w/ the help of Pomona College, or through his own initiative? Knowing the answers to these 2 questions would help tremendously!</p>

<p>tk21769, thanks for expressing your view that being a CS major at a LAC does not necessary result in you being at a disadvantage. I had googled the issue and to my surprise, found a paper called “A 2007 Model Curriculum for a Liberal Arts Degree in Computer Science” by the Liberal Arts Computer Science Consortium. I looked at your links and they are very informative, esp. the ACM paper. I’ll have my son look at all the links.</p>

<p>CountingDown, I am very grateful for your tip about USACO. I never heard of it. Sounds wonderful. Likewise, I found Colorado_Mom’s suggestion about summer CS camp helpful. Does anyone know of any program in Southern CA in CS for hs students?</p>

23

<p>OP, I think there are folks who pop in to answer questions for folks working through the self-study curriculum on USACO, too. (or at least a place where folks can ask and get a reply)</p>

24

<p>@donutheadmom:
He took his computer science courses at Pomona, and he also got his internship through Pomona.</p>

25

<p>Wrt post #21: Occidental does not offer CS, really at all. They have maybe 1-2 basic programming courses and offer to let you commute to Caltech for more.</p>

<p>And here is a piece of data, Swarthmore’s post-grad plans by major for classes 2004-2009. Although Swat offers engineering, the CS department is noted for being interdisciplinary and not necessarily engineering-based.</p>

<p>Companies hiring:

  • STATS LLC
  • Salesforce.com
  • Wireless Generation
  • Merrill Lynch
  • JPMorgan Chase
  • Springside School
  • Marks Colorectoral Surgical Practice
  • Wolfire Software
  • Clarix Informatics
  • Bloomberg LP
  • Pixar
  • Microsoft
  • Susquehanna International Group</p>

<p>Grad schools:

  • Ph.D., Johns Hopkins
  • Ph.D., WUSTL
  • Master’s/Ph.D., University of Toronto</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.swarthmore.edu/Documents/administration/careerservices/grad%20stats%20by%20major%202004-2009.pdf[/url]”>http://www.swarthmore.edu/Documents/administration/careerservices/grad%20stats%20by%20major%202004-2009.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

26

<p>CalAlum, thanks for following up on my questions. Your answers were exactly what I was hoping for! </p>

<p>CountingDown, thx for the additional info about USACO (and the rest of the amazing input you have shared). Keilexandra, Swarthmore sounds like a great fit for my son. Just not sure whether he wants to venture that far from California, but thanks for your impressive list of info about grad schools and employers. Thx also for your info about Oxy. </p>

<p>Everyone, you all have been absolutely great in terms of your generous gifts of information. I have learned an enormous amount from all of you!</p>

<p>Thanks to ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad and CountingDown, some UC schools are now also a possibility, esp. if they have good CS programs that are not too huge.</p>

<p>If any of you hear of any CS Summer programs for high school students in CA, or of any West Coast LAC’s with good CS programs, please do post. Thanks!</p>

27

<p>

</p>

<p>You are right, Occidental allows you to take classes at CalTech or get into the 3/2 program at Caltech or Columbia. I thought they had a program.</p>

<p>OP if you are willing to look at West Coast Colleges, you might want to consider Reed College in Portland Oregon. They have a 5 year program with University of Washington. Unlike 3/2 programs where you have to apply once you get there and be admitted by the other institution, this is done by Reed College. Unfortunately they all require a fifth year of study. The only 4 year programs in a LAC appear to be Pomona or Harvey Mudd. The other school with a good reputation for engineering is CalPoly at San Luis Obispo.</p>

<p>[Reed</a> College | Admission | Reed College Admission Office](<a href=“http://web.reed.edu/apply/academics/is_dd_div.html#computer_science]Reed”>http://web.reed.edu/apply/academics/is_dd_div.html#computer_science)</p>

<p>*Computer science</p>

<p>This five-year program leads to a bachelor of arts degree from Reed, and a bachelor of science degree in computer science from the University of Washington in five years. Admission to the program is limited to five students per year, based on the recommendation of Reed College.*</p>

28

<p>A lot depends on what your child wants to do and what experience they already have. Mine will be far enough into the CS/math lines that most LACs would run out of courses in one or the other. But, for most , this is not a problem. And a LAC is great in terms of changing majors. Harvey Mudd is a wonderful school (and high on my child’s list right now),but it’s not a great choice for someone who is not pretty well committed to math/cs/engineering - and already a bit experienced. I think some kids might start there, then realized that CS is not what they thought and be a bit stuck. (Of course, they could probably transfer out to another Claremont school.)
I looked around for summer CS programs recently for a friend whose son is just getting interested and found there wasn’t much at the intro level that wasn’t just ‘fun’. (WHich is not to say fun isn’t good - just not good for figuring out a major…)</p>

29

<p>mazewanderer, thanks for the info about Reeds’ program. We will look into it! </p>

<p>Nemom, I agree w/ you completely about having a student who is not completely sure about whether he is committed to math/science/cs going to Harvey Mudd. It is one of the reasons we doubt HM will be a good fit. Thx for confirming what I have found, that there is not much out there re: Summer CS programs for hs students. I searched, and could only find a camp in No. Ca. I was wondering how did your child become fairly experienced in CS/math? Was it through classes in his high school? Community college classes? Reading CS books? Friends w/ knowledge/experience? I would appreciate learning how other kids get fairly involved in CS/math while still in hs. Thx so much!</p>

30

<p>

</p>

<p>There are many on line programs (for example Johns Hopkins, Stanford etc.). John’s Hopkins has a center in LA and they do offer some computer classes but you need to qualify for them.</p>

<p>My S took both an online class and a AP Java Programing class. That helped him get an internship in a medical reserach institution where he did programing.</p>

31

<p>“Harvey Mudd is a wonderful school (and high on my child’s list right now),but it’s not a great choice for someone who is not pretty well committed to math/cs/engineering …”</p>

<p>Add life sciences, chemistry and physics to HM’s strengths. But calling HM an LAC is a bit of a stretch; about 0% of HM grads take degrees in non-science or non-technical fields.</p>

32

<p>Mine has had some unusual opportunities - I’ll say no more for general confidentiality. But there are online courses which are okay. The JHU gifted program has an online Java class that is excellent, partly because there is some interaction with an instructor. Some hs classes are very good too. Alas, the rigorous AP CS AB is gone, but the AP CS A is still around and not a bad choice. Getting involved in robotics is another way to get a taste of programming and engineering at the same time.
Taking summer courses at a local community college/college/university or high school could work too. Really, the way to learn if you like to program is to just get out there and program.
And, yeah…HM is not really a LAC in the usual sense of the term. It’s part of the five college consortium which functions collectively as a LAC in some reasonable definition of the term - more along the lines of the Oxford system of colleges than anything else.</p>

33

<p>@donutheadmom: Stanford’s EPGY offers a good range of computer science courses online for high-school students: [EPGY</a> Computer Science Department](<a href=“http://epgy.stanford.edu/courses/cs/]EPGY”>http://epgy.stanford.edu/courses/cs/)</p>

<p>My daughter took the two C programming courses and really enjoyed them. They provide a good foundation for anyone interested in going further, regardless of the programming language.</p>

34

<p>I find this thread interesting. I had always thought Pomona’s strength was in humanities.</p>

35

<p>Because the Claremont Colleges together form a consortium, students at any one of the colleges can draw on the strengths of the others. Claremont McKenna offers some computer science classes, as does Harvey Mudd. Pomona students can take the computer science classes offered at Pomona, but they can also enroll in any cs class at one of the other colleges. The result is a broad and deep program, as you can see here: [Pomona</a> College - Computer Science](<a href=“http://www.cs.pomona.edu/courses.html]Pomona”>http://www.cs.pomona.edu/courses.html).</p>

36

<p>Pomona is also strong in math and statistics, in the top 10 of future PhD earners (by percentage of grads) in the country.</p>

37

<p>My impression when we visited Harvey Mudd was that the Harvey Mudd and Pomona CS faculty got along very well with each other and they often participated in each others departmental meetings and were fairly closely aligned. However there was some friction between the Harvey Mudd and Claremont McKenna faculty. However that should not affect student taking classes in another college in the consortium. Also if you notice the link pointed out by CalAlum, some of the classes that are part of the Pomona curriculum are offered by Mudd only. So a student at Pomona gets a lot of the Mudd exposure without having to be a full time Mudd student. A Pomona student can even get the Computer Science Clinic at Harvey Mudd. So I think that a Pomona student will get a very good grounding in CS if they use the facilities at Mudd.</p>

<p>*
CS 30 Computation and Cognition Offered by Pomona. Spring semester.</p>

<p>CS 51 Introduction to Computer ScienceOffered by Pomona. Each semester.
CS 52 Fundamentals of Computer ScienceOffered by Pomona. Fall semester.
CS 55 Discrete Mathematics Offered by Pomona. Spring semester.</p>

<p>CS 62 Data Structures and Advanced Programming
This course serves the same role as HMC CS 70 as a prerequisite for upper division computer science courses at any of the Claremont Colleges. Spring semester.</p>

<p>CS 81 Computability and Logic Offered jointly with HMC. Each semester.</p>

<p>CS 105 Computer Systems Offered jointly with HMC. Each semester.</p>

<p>CS 121 Software Development Each semester.</p>

<p>CS 124 Non-Traditional User-Interfaces Offered by HMC. Fall.</p>

<p>CS 125 Computer Networks Offered by HMC. Fall semester.</p>

<p>CS 131 Programming Languages Offered jointly with HMC. Each semester.</p>

<p>CS 132 Compiler Design Offered by HMC. Alternate years.</p>

<p>CS 133 Databases and Knowledge-Based Systems Offered by HMC. Alternate years.</p>

<p>CS 134 Advanced Operating Systems Offered by HMC. Alternate years.</p>

<p>CS 136 Advanced Architecture Offered by HMC. Alternate years.</p>

<p>CS 140 Algorithms Offered jointly with HMC. Each semester.</p>

<p>CS 143 Applied Algorithms There will be a research-oriented final project. Prerequisite: C</p>

<p>CS 151 Artificial Intelligence Offered jointly with HMC. Alternate years.</p>

<p>CS 152 Neural Networks Offered jointly with HMC. Fall semester.</p>

<p>CS 153 Computer Vision Offered by HMC. Alternate years.</p>

<p>CS 154 Robotics Offered by HMC. Alternate years.</p>

<p>CS 155 Computer Graphics Offered by HMC. Fall semester.</p>

<p>CS 156 Parallel Computing
Offered jointly with HMC. Alternate years.</p>

<p>CS 157 Computer Animation Offered jointly with HMC. Alternate years.</p>

<p>CS 158 Machine Learning
Prerequisites: CS 151. Alternate years.
CS 159 Natural Language Processing
Prerequisite: 81. Alternate years.</p>

<p>CS 160 Information Retrieval Offered occasionally.</p>

<p>CS 181,182 Seminar in Computer Science</p>

<pre><code>Selected topics in computer science. May be repeated for credit. Permission of instructor required. Each semester.
</code></pre>

<p>CS 183,184 Computer Science Clinic</p>

<pre><code>Two-semester, industry-sponsored project in computer science. Prerequisite: CS 121. Offered by HMC.
</code></pre>

<p>*</p>

38

<p>I thought the Pomona CS program seemed great. My son applied last year. I remember the Chair of the dept was the author of his AP CS Java book. You can take most of the CS classes at Harvey Mudd. My son also was accepted at Mudd and I think he liked the Mudd geek culture more than Pomona, but I thought Pomona was perfect.</p>

39

<p>So many people are intimately familiar with the Claremont colleges here–any opinions on Pitzer? Is it a very strong college, and does it have a decent program in the sciences? I can’t get much info off the specific CC Pitzer site, very few participants there. Though it sounds like all you have to do is get into one of the Claremonts and then take classes/major at one of the other schools if yours doesn’t have what you like.</p>

40

<p>Had S1 not been so nuts about Mudd, I thought it was worth seriously considering Pomona – the two math and CS faculties interact a lot. Alas, he would not apply to both. A friend of his (a mathy guy) took Lin Alg at Pomona and said it well and truly kicked his butt!</p>

<p>OP, S1 was largely self-taught; though his public HS offered lots of courses (AP CS AB in 10th grade, plus lots of post-AP stuff), he was usually well beyond. He started programming website stuff in 4th grade, when he took pre-Alg in 5th and needed a graphing calculator, he started programming routines and games on it; in middle school, he did programming projects every year for science fair so he could pick up a new language. USACO filled a HUGE need during HS, and by soph year he was asking for algorithm design books and theory of computation stuff. He went to HCSSiM after soph year to get more math to support his programming, and came home resolved to major in math and CS. </p>

<p>At his HS program, the kids do a senior research project and have to find a mentor. S contacted a couple of profs at our flagship, chose to work with one, and then S would go over once a week during the second half of junior year to talk about papers the prof had assigned. Most of his research was done at home (sitting under a tree with the laptop, his music and the dog), and he’d go in to see the mentor a couple times a week, mainly to shoot the bull. We went on vacation that August, he spent a lot of time walking on beaches and thinking, and wrote his paper on the plane flight home. Showed it to his mentor after it was done.</p>

<p>We never did the EPGY or CTY summer/online courses; he was happier working at his own pace on what interested him.</p>