I thought I’d solicit opinions on doing CS at LACs. I am looking for LACs in the north east or mid atlantic specifically. What are the pros and cons? Depth and breadth of offerings, quality of peers, access to internships, job placement record, vibe on campus with reference to CS etc.
Thanks.
I think you have to start with the course catalogues. CS staffing is extremely competitive and inevitably certain advanced courses get taught in alternate years. Google is a perennial top employer at most LACs. The major Pro is whatever attracted you to the LAC in the first place; the fact that you can also study one of the most popular of all applied sciences there is an added plum. This biggest Con is that no one is ever going to confuse Wesleyan with MIT; whatever pride or satisfaction you have in being a student there is largely an internal one.
Not just the catalogs, but also several semesters of past schedules may be needed to estimate the frequency of offering of each upper level CS course. Here is an example comparison from several years ago, but current offerings and frequency may differ now, so it should only be used as an example for building your own comparison, not as a basis for choosing colleges: Computer science at some smaller schools (including liberal arts colleges)
Also, some LACs, like other colleges, have overflowing interest in CS courses or majors, so they may have to impose some sort of limits. For example, Swarthmore limits the number of CS courses that CS majors can take.
I can’t provide first-hand feedback. You are quite likely already aware of these lists, but for people who come here to this thread looking for info, I want to share it for them as well:
Amherst, Swarthmore, and Williams were the liberal arts colleges in your geographic zone of interest that were called out in the general list of schools strong in CS.
When the focus turns to small colleges (where additional info such as the percentage of such majors at the college and the number of alumni at top tech employers), then these liberal arts schools in your geographic zone made the list:
Amherst, Smith, and MoHo are also in the 5-college Consortium with UMass Amherst, which is an excellent CS school - so students get the small LAC experience but can access the resources of a large flagship university as well.
This is interesting. Thanks.
Some considering cross registration access may want to check whether the desired courses are easily available to cross registration students. If UMass’ CS courses are full with UMass students, they may be even harder to get into for cross registration students.
For doing CS at LACs, the main issues, IMO, are:
The availability of any CS specialty the student is interested in and the degree of depth (including research) the school offers in that specialty.
The frequency of offerings not only in the specialty CS courses, but also (sometimes) in some of the foundational CS courses (systems, algorithms, theories, etc.) that are often prerequisites for more advanced CS courses.
Thanks everyone for your valuable perspective.
I would not worry about job placement. And you will get the courses you need to complete your major in CS at any good LAC that offers CS. It might not be your first choice courses or schedule but you’ll graduate. Internships are key for filling in gaps in skills set. My husband and I both are CS grads and now hiring managers. Would hire a CS major from a top LAC in a heartbeat.
Thanks
I got my CS degree at a small school of 3000 and was very satisfied with the teaching. Typical class size was about 20, which made all the difference in the world to me. This was after attending a school of 50K my freshman year.
I’d add BC and Brandeis to the list…maybe not technically LAC’s but not huge universities or tech focused either.
I assume it’s for a kid who wants strong humanities AND the CS piece?
This is debatable :-). I am just looking at this from a class size perspective. Some interest in Bio and Chinese.
Thank you. Would you mind telling the name of the school?
Bio Chinese and CS at an LAC spells Middlebury to me!
University of Alaska Fairbanks. I transferred from Ohio State.
That is interesting. Big move from Ohio to Alaska :-). Alaska will get a lot of resistance simply because of the distance.
This is interesting. Never thought about Middlebury that way.
Interesting recent post on reddit about CS at Middlebury:
If there was a more ironic moment for this question it would have been Friday…
If a student wants to be a CS major, we will make sure they get all the classes they need. I will say that this does not always mean that students will necessarily be able to take every course they want, when they want to take it. This is the reality at any small liberal arts school. Our most popular electives (like machine learning and software development) are offered more often, but some electives in the catalog are taught by only one professor, and they are on a longer cycle between offerings and are subject to availability of the faculty member. This is true at large research universities as well, but the courses that operate that way tend to be more esoteric.
My comment about irony is because in Friday we just announced to the students that we would need to ration the electives seats this coming semester due to a perfect storm of circumstances that has caused us to have a staffing shortage in the fall. However this should be cleared up before your son would be affected by it.
There are certainly opportunities for students to do research here. On the credit bearing side, students can do a thesis their senior year. I would say every summer we also have perhaps 8-10 students helping faculty on research project. This could possibly get higher, but most of our students find summer internships.
https://www.reddit.com/r/middlebury/comments/tqejgx/comment/i5yzyms/