D might be interested in CS but not if it means being surrounded by the geek boys that hog the computer lab at HS. This is what she is sure would happen at a big university or tech school - maybe she’s wrong but she’s pretty set. To my horror she will graduate from a solid charter HS without a single tech class.
Can anyone recommend a 7 (5) sisters or LAC that has a good CS program geared toward the well rounded, nerdy but not geeky, girl?
My recollection is that Harvey Mudd has a CS intro class limited to people with no prior programming experience.
I’ve just found a few threads dedicated to this so I’ll change the focus to actual experience in the program.
Anyone here a student or have a daughter in a women-heavy LAC CS program?
Harvey Mudd and CMU would be two obvious candidates, but are also incredibly hard to get into.
I’m not sure that LAC’s will necessarily offer less of what your daughter is trying to avoid. It’s certainly department specific, but I think any school that isn’t specifically tech or STEM-focused could offer a CS program that is sufficient in environment for your daughter. Check departments for women’s initiatives and results, and for posted gender ratios as well.
This is 100% fine and usual - you don’t need any prior experience to be incredibly successful in CS. There’s an argument that math success could be more important in high school for prospective CS students even.
Yes, math, math, math.
My daughter and a couple of friends took CS at the high school level. The teacher was thrilled and let the girls work collaboratively - actually anyone could work collaboratively but the boys all wanted to work alone. Each girl wrote their own code but they talked through ideas for how to approach different problems.
The collaborative motif has been her experience as a STEM major at a women’s college. Organic chemistry was not taught as a weed-out course. The had study groups and they all wanted each other to succeed. They worked hard but they were not competing against each other.
My other daughter took programming at Harvey Mudd and really enjoyed it. She had high math skills but the teaching was excellent.
@“Snowball City” would you care to share the school? (PM if you don’t wish to be recognized)
You might check out Mills College in Oakland, CA. The program gets a fair amount of support from nearby Silicon Valley companies.
Consider Hamilton, whose first-place team in this coding competition was coeducational:
https://www.hamilton.edu/news/story/comp-sci-department-hosts-college-computing-conference
The accompanying career fair was led by a female student.
On this link you will find the full list of competitors and results:
Thanks. Hamilton was on the list before our attention turned to CS. It’s pretty remote but not impossible. (We aren’t looking at anything in Maine)
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19190340/#Comment_19190340 may help. Check school web sites for any changes.
D1 graduated from Tufts two years ago. Had never taken comp sci before freshman year, had absolutely no intention of majoring in it. There was a big push at the time to bring more women into the major. D1 says that as far as she knows, it’s a massive and thriving place for women now. I’m sure there are brogrammers as well, but they’re going to be anywhere.