I’m a father of three great kids with interests and skills that are different than that of my wife and I. One son has broad interests that include computer science and we wanted to look into liberal arts colleges that have strong computer science programs.
Can anyone provide insight into the computer science program at the following schools: Amherst College, Bucknell U, Clark U, Colgate U, Macalester C, Middlebury C, Vassar C, Villanova U and Williams C? Also, if there is a liberal arts college (LAC) not listed above that has a very strong computer science program, please mention that as well. Thank you, in advance, for your help.
Look in their catalogs to see what junior/senior level CS courses are available. Look in their schedules to see how often they are offered (if the catalogs do not say).
Some CS courses to look for:
algorithms and complexity
theory of computation, languages, automata
operating systems
compilers
databases
networks
security and cryptography
software engineering or project course or projects in other courses
hardware courses like computer architecture and design
electives like graphics, artificial intelligence, etc.
Sometimes, a LAC with a small or limited CS department has a cross registration agreement with a school with a larger CS department (e.g. Amherst with University of Massachusetts - Amherst). Check to see how convenient such cross registration is (administratively, whether the desired courses are often full, commuting, etc.) if you intend to factor that into the decision.
Thank you for your helpful comments. I do know that Amherst - University of Massachusetts Amherst, Smith, Mount Holyoke and Hampshire College have very convenient cross registration among each other. Any comments on the CS departments / faculty at Amherst, Bucknell, Clark, Colgate, Macalester, Middlebury, Vassar, Villanova, Williams, LACs would be helpful.
Here is a list of more advanced CS courses that are offered at smaller schools and LACs, based on checking course catalogs. Many of the schools do offer other CS electives besides those listed here. Cross-registration courses are not included.
AC TC OS CM DB NW SC SE AI GR HW
1 2 1 2 2 2 2 < Amherst
1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 Bucknell
+ + 1 ? ? + ? Carleton
Clark
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Colgate
1 1 2 2 2 2 1 2 Grinnell
E 2 2 2 2 2 E E 1 2 Harvey Mudd
2 2 2 2 2 Holy Cross
1 1 2 1 2 1 2 Macalester
1 < ? ? ? ? < ? ? Middlebury
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Minnesota - Morris
? ? New College of Florida
? ? ? ? ? ? North Carolina - Asheville
E 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Oberlin
E E ? ? ? Pomona
? ? ? Reed
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Swarthmore
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Truman State
? ? ? ? ? Tulane
E E 1 1 ? 1 ? 1 Vassar
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Villanova
1 1 2 2 < * < 2 2 Williams
E = every semester
+ = 2 out of 3 quarters
1 = every year
2 = every other year
< = less frequently than every other year
? = frequency of offering not listed in catalog
* = projects in other courses
My son is also looking for a LAC that’s strong in CS. If you’re willing to look a bit further afield, two schools that have emerged in our search as strong contenders are Trinity U in TX (really a LAC, despite being classified as a “Regional University” in that it only has ~2500 students and a small handful of grad students, all in Ed) and U. of Puget Sound in WA. Both of those schools have more than typical numbers of faculty in CS for LACs and more than typical numbers of majors (both over 20 last year) and have only one or two blanks in the chart @ucbalumnus posted.
We visited Trinity last weekend and were super impressed with their program. They have a huge endowment ($1.2 bn) and just opened a brand new science center with spectacular CS facilities. They also have 8 CS faculty members, which may be the most I’ve seen at any LAC. We’re headed to UPS in a couple of weeks and I’ll report back what we learn from that trip.
Just looking at number of CS majors, two other schools with very large CS programs are Carleton and Swarthmore (though both very tough admits, of course). CS at Carleton is apparently about to overtake Bio as the most popular major at the school. We’ve visited there as well and loved it.
By the way, you can find the number of majors in particular disciplines by using the very handy widget at http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator. Just enter a school and then click on Programs/Majors. I’ve found it very useful. Interestingly, it only lists 16 majors last year at Trinity, but they told us they had 23. It may still be showing numbers that graduated in 2014.