Anyone have any info about CS at Whitman? Specifically in terms of preparation and availability of internships and job prospects after graduation. OOS Senior rn stuck between choosing Whitman for cs or UW for pre-science (no options instate currently). Thanks!
Whitman is a great school and I recommend it highly, however, the CS department is about three years old, so pretty new, they’re investing a lot into it but there isn’t a long track record yet. I hope someone with specific information can also answer. The great thing about Whitman though is that you’ll get small classes and a lot of attention, not to mention an excellent well-rounded liberal arts education and have a wonderful time.
Yeah, those are definitely all the things I find appealing about Whitman; however, what scares me about committing is the prospects of paying 200k for the degree and then not having any connections or options within the industry after. Wish it were older and more developed ughh
I totally understand. There is a pretty active alumni network in general and many alums are from tech hotspots like Seattle and the SF Bay Area, I can only imagine that you would get benefit from that. Have you corresponded with the CS Department at Whitman? You should ask them directly what they can do for you after you graduate, that’s what’s good about a small school, they’ll actually answer you. You can also contact the Student Engagement Center because networking, internships, and career placement is their job.
You make a very good case! Thank you so much, I’ll definitely do that.
Great. Good luck!
For anyone reading through this thread, here are the responses I received after emailing two different cs professors (Janet Davis and John Stratton):
I wish we had good materials on past CS internships, but right now we don’t. What appears in my blog is just the tip of the iceberg, but I wrote what I knew the most about, so it would be hard for me to elaborate further. I can say some other places Whitman students have interned at include Ingeniux, Key Technologies, Splunk, and the USDA. Since we are such a new program, we haven’t yet placed an intern at a large company like Microsoft or Amazon, but we are actively developing relationships and I expect it will happen soon.
Will you be visiting Whitman? If so, that would be a great question to ask of CS students you meet.
Congratulations on your admission, and best wishes for your decision! Hope to meet you this fall, if not sooner.
Best,
Janet Davis
I would say that some kind of internship or research opportunity has been available to pretty much every student that wanted one by the end of their junior year. Not every student that wants to intern at a competitive big-name company will be able to, but the Student Engagement Center here is very good about keeping connected with internships offered by Whitman alumni and industry generally, often exclusively for current Whitman students.
There is a similar story for full-time entry level positions after graduation. Doing a job search well is difficult for everyone, but students I have worked with who were diligent about applying to positions and preparing for interviews have always gotten a position they’re interested in lined up before they graduate. Again, the SEC has great people and materials to support you here, as do the faculty.
That doesn’t mean you’ll be handed an internship or position without even trying, but we have excellent support for guiding you through the processes of making connections, applying, and interviewing. If you’re diligent, I’d have high expectations for getting positions you’re excited about.
Will you be visiting campus again soon? Let me know if so, and I’d be happy to meet with you in person.
Regards,
—John Stratton
Thanks for posting the replies. I hope you’ll be able to visit both schools before you make the final decision. You’re very wise to do the research.
I just quickly skimmed so this might have been mentioned, but here’s a database of some whitties’ Internships. If you type in computer science, math, etc, you can sort it by major or keywords
https://www.whitman.edu/student-life/student-engagement-center/internships/whitman-internship-database
As a prospective math major/cs minor in curious too