I was wondering about Chemical Engineering for him, but it seems the jobs are very “niche” and may be limited mainly to a few areas of the country? I seem to recall my son’s Cornell ChemE friend having many, many fewer job options than his CS cohort (but I could be wrong about that, or she may have been in a particularly niche specialty within ChemE.
Stanford has been mentioned in a few of the posts. Compared to other colleges, it’s particularly big on joint degrees, degrees with integrated content between different programs, etc. They offer a CS + X program which combines CS with what is usually a humanities major, integrating content between the two in a way that reduces the number classes required for each major. As I understand it, CS + X students typically graduate having taken the usual ~180 credits that one would take for a one bachelor’s. ~40% of CS/Engineering undergrad students do a co-terminal master’s degree where they simultaneously pursue a BS and MS degree . They also have programs that combine CS, with things like business and law degrees. When I was a student, I did a program that was designed to foster tech entrepreneurship by combining a bachelor’s in engineering with 2 master’s – one in an engineering related field and one in a business related field. I am not aware of a program specific to CS + Chemistry, that integrates content between the 2, but I expect one could be self-designed with integrated content/goals. Or a student could do the default dual degree type program and/or minor.
One aspect of selecting a college that is often ignored is how location fits with where you’d like to live and work after graduating. Stanford is in Silicon Valley and many key SV companies were founded by Stanford alumni/students and have related networking/internship connections, strong presence in job fair, including smaller startups. I expect this SV connection and related typical 6-figure starting salary relates to why CS has become Stanford’s most popular major in recent years. Chemistry is far less popular than CS, with likely under 20 students per year, most of whom are probably planning to pursue a career in medicine. However, it is still an excellent and well ranked program. In contrast, MIT/CMU would likely have better connections among nearby companies in their respective areas.
Wesleyan is a somewhat larger LAC than Amherst, with significant investment in the hard sciences. They’re very good at “mapping” out courses in its broad curriculum that potentially satisfy different niches:
My son definitely did not want to go on for a PhD. and didn’t have to with a CMU degree. Many students, especially ones with AP credits do get a Masters Degree where you can do a research project. I’m sure they would be open to a science oriented one if that was of interest.
Actually I think at leasthalf of the CS grads in my son’s class ended up on the west coast and many did internships at the usual suspects there during the summers. My NY kid spent two summers in CA (Internship at NVidea the first summer and Google the second.) and ended up at Google when they made him an offer after the internship. Alot of MIT and CMU kids also end up on Wall Street.
The field of Computational Chemistry uses computer based models/simulations to augment traditional lab based experiments. It is used by pharmaceutical companies to accelerate drug discovery in the Boston area (which is the world’s largest biotech hub). In this application it relies on quantum physics to model chemical phenomena to solve biological problems.
The boundaries between physics, chemistry, and biology are a man-made convenience - Mother Nature knows no such boundaries.
Googling the subject revealed a research group at Tufts but no specific degree program. The Biotechnology/Bioinformatics degree has some overlap. There seems to be lots of activity in Texas (with specific degree programs at some universities) as well as some other petroleum states. I suspect that the refining companies are heavy users of computational chemistry as well.
The University of Northern Texas has a large computational chemistry group and is an NSF REU site (which means undergrads from any school can apply to their summer research program)
Tufts is an NSF REU site for the interdisciplinary area of “Computational design of biosynthesis pathways for cell-based and cell-free production of chemicals” - again any undergrad can apply to this program for summer research.
https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/careers/college-to-career/chemistry-careers/computational-chemistry.html
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/424732/drug-discovery-with-computational-chemistry/
http://viceprovost.tufts.edu/researchnews/yu-shan-lin/
http://ase.tufts.edu/chemistry/lin/index.html
https://chemistry.unt.edu/nsf-reu-program/nsf-reu
http://engineering.tufts.edu/research/undergradresearch/REU
A school where CS is in Arts and Science might be helpful. University of Pittsburgh maybe?
Check out Case Western Reserve University as well!
University of Illinois has a top 5 CS department, top 10 chemistry department, and a CS + Chemistry major:
Forensic science can also combine the two
Wow, thanks for the great pointers, @FranktheTank and @Mastadon
Consider some of the strong Midwest flagship U’s. They tend to have highly ranked math, computer science and chemistry majors, among others. It can be possible to get first class lab/research experience, take grad level classes and plenty of other field electives. U of Illinois is mentioned above- U of Wisconsin in in the same ballpark but has a nicer campus (ask the many from Illinois who prefer OOS tuition to their own good flagship). Historically it was the state flagships of the Midwest that developed strong CS departments- at a time the east coast didn’t have the major (go waay back to the 1960’s- UW had a CS building).
Your son needs a strong school that fits his academic ability and offers strong departments in STEM fields. Having a good math background is useful for computer science (and going beyond cross listed courses). Once he is in college your son will refine his path.
As a computer professional, I can tell you that the school he attends won’t make a bit of difference. Employers are interested in whether he can do the job. Too many students pass up perfectly good scholarships for a chance to attend elite schools only to find out that their student loan payments are more than they bargained for. Most of the time the payments easily offset their salary gains. It’s no way to start a career. The best bang for the buck is a scholarship. Everybody wins. Now he has an employable degree without debt.
That said, coolguy40, those top schools get way more companies recruiting there, giving the students way more varied opportunities. My Cornell kid had employers from across the country vying to hire him. My UVM kid is not seeing nearly the same opportunities, and sending resumes out cold doesn’t have the same impact. Part of that is different majors (CS at Cornell vs MechE at UVM) but I’m surprised that my super-bright MechE kid is having trouble finding a job after getting an engineering degree at a solid ABET accredited school (he’s a senior right now).
I think there are opportunities at many schools still I really learned to appreciate the Carnegie Mellon CS network. in 2008 my son had an internship cancelled at the last minute, but a CMU grad who he was on a listserv with told him NVidia had some slots so he worked there that summer. The next summer another CMU friend put his name up for Google. They still made him interview and do the testing they require to make sure you really do know what you say you know, but it gave him the foot in the door. People do end up all over the country from CMU.
Plenty of employers recruit at less than top schools, particularly larger state schools. For example, the first school I searched for was Penn State. I see that 537 employers attended their fall career fair . All the University of Pennsylvania career events I checked hand much smaller numbers of employers recruiting on campus. The article at http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/08/25/san-jose-state-university-sjsu-silicon-valley-tech-jobs-apple-cisco-hewlett-packard/ states San Jose State has over 20,000 registered recruiters, and has more alumni at Apple and at SV tech companies than both Stanford and Berkeley…