My son is looking for really strong CS schools and we’re from Michigan, so UMich is at the top of his list right now. I’m thrilled to have such a highly ranked program in-state, and I appreciate the huge advantages that come with the size of UM’s program (breadth and depth of faculty and course offerings, internship and recruiting opportunities, etc.)
What I’m wondering, though, is whether there are some downsides to the enormous size of the program. (Am I right that there are over 1000 CS students and several hundred grads / year?) Here are some of the questions I’d love to hear answers on from current / past UM CS students or faculty:
- How many courses in a typical CS major would have over 25-30 students in them? Just the first couple, or many of them?
- How many courses in a typical CS major would likely be taught by graduate students? And is that a bad thing, (sometimes/often/not really)? It's usually the #1 issue brought up when comparing research universities to liberal arts colleges, though I'm guessing the truth is more mixed than the stereotype.
- I'm sure there are tons more opportunities for internships / jobs than at a small college--but is there also way more competition for them? I'm wondering if a place like Carleton, with 100 CS majors, might still have at least 1/10th the opportunities that UMich does with 1000+ CS majors.
- What other pros/cons come with having such a huge CS department?
- Oh, while I'm at it: How's the male-female ratio in CS these days?
Thanks for any info / input!
Probably 1000 undergrad declared CS major from all years combined, not per year.
I found a few hard numbers from Winter 2017 published by the Registrar at UMich:
"…selected undergraduate program enrollment numbers for comparison:
Business Administration: 1730
Computer Science (College of Engineering): 1017
Mechanical Engineering: 810
Economics: 737
Psychology: 645
Nursing: 675
BioPsychology: 609
Political Science: 564
Computer Science (College of LSA): 373
Between Engineering and LSA, that makes 1390 declared CS majors. Wow.
The same spreadsheet has stats about male-female ratio as well.
Engineering: 864 M, 175 F
LSA: 274 M, 89 F
Total: 1138 M, 264 F
(or about 81% M, 19% F)
I wonder if that’s pretty typical for the field–or maybe even pretty good balance compared to many places?
Source: http://www.eecs.umich.edu/eecs/about/articles/2017/CS-1-and-2.html
Yes, that’s for all undergrad declared CS major, not per year/class. It is around 1/3 of that per year. The whole engineering freshmen class is less than 1800.
Those figures are for all four years, not per year.
Of 7,960 students who graduated in 2016, below were the most popular majors:
Economics 506
Business 497
Computer Science 481
Psychology 435
Biological Sciences 346
Political Science 308
Mechanical Engineering 299
All other majors have 200 or fewer students per year, which for a university with a faculty as large as Michigan’s (50-100 professors per department), allows for a relatively intimate experience.
http://obp.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/pubdata/factsfigures/degreesummarystudyfield_umaa_2015-16.pdf
Certainly not unique to Michigan’s Computer Science but there are some struggles getting enough competent faculty quickly enough for this continuously growing field.
https://www.michigandaily.com/section/academics/eecs-department-struggles-satisfy-record-demand
Thanks for sharing that, @wayneandgarth – my son is contemplating whether he wants to go to a big school like UM or a smaller LAC, and this article offers some more helpful information.
On the one hand, it’s incredible to think of being able to study CS in a department of nearly 150 experts in the field who together cover nearly every imaginable area of specialization. On the other hand, it sounds like the level of competition even to register for desired/required classes is intense, and growing. It makes me wonder about the level of competition for professors’ time and attention as well.
The article also talks about the pressure on the CS higher-ups to increase class sizes to reduce the wait lists (and reduce the number of angry, frustrated students). One of my original questions was how many CS courses in a typical major would be huge lecture sections and how many might be smaller, more like the 20-25 one might find at a lot of LACs. If anyone reading this is actually a student (or faculty) at UM, I’d love to get some first-hand information on that question: Are most courses taught in large sections? I tried to find out by looking at the current course schedule, but I don’t think I can see (without a student account) how many students each course allows.
TwoHearted, I am sure CS classes at Michigan will be large. There is no way you can have close to 500 CS graduates annually and not have large classes. But the quality of the program and faculty, and the University’s history and tradition in the discipline, makes it a very potent hunting ground. Last year, 49 students were placed at Amazon, 41 at Microsoft, 36 at Google and 33 at Apple. Over 150 students (30%) placed in what are quite possibly the four most sought after tech companies. You are not going to get those types of placement odds out of some LAC.