Hey everyone! I’ve been accepted to the CS department at Howard with a full ride and I’m still deciding whether I should attend or not. How good is the department? What about the average CS class size and the professors? I’ve been told that the infrastructure at Howard is terrible and the CS labs are hopelessly outdated, so I’d be grateful if someone who’s familiar with the situation were to tell me if this is correct.
I’ve also been offered a place at a honors programme in Europe and it’ll probably cost me ~4k-11k dollars per annum depending on the amount of scholarship I receive in late March. This one has a lot of presentations, tutorials, and class interaction, and given that I have a tendency to get lost in the background in large uninteractive classes, I think I’ll do very well there. How does Howard compare? I really love the honors programme, but I’m wondering whether the small classes, prestige factor, and international environment are worth spending a small fortune on? I’m planning to settle there later, so I imagine I’ll have an easier time if I already have friends and connections there.
Hi @Edstyles123. My son is in a similar position as he has also been offered a full ride to Howard and he is looking to do some combination of Computer Engineering and Computer Science. I also have a daughter who is already at Howard as a Chemistry major so I have had a good look at Howard and their facilities.
While I have definitely seen some better facilities while visiting colleges, Howard’s CS Program has been rising due to it’s Google connection (look up Howard West) which aims to start a pipeline of underrepresented minorities to Google with their employees co-teaching some classes with Howard professors while also sending top Howard CS students to Google’s main campus for hands on learning. My daughter knows a few CS majors and her friends have been getting prestigious co-ops and internships at some of the world’s top tech companies.
It would be better if you could find a way to visit the campus and see for yourself if Howard meets your criteria. My son will probably visit the campus one last time as he wants to talk face to face with the CS and Engineering departments. My son has seen one of the best CS programs in the world up close (He spent last summer at Carnegie Mellon), so he will definitely have some specific questions. Congratulations on the full ride scholarship and Good luck in making your final college choice.
Howard CS program is pretty great, there is a pipeline to google, and many students end up working at Microsoft. Many recruiters come by
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Hello @ChangeTheGame, I was wondering if you might update us on your son. Did he end up going to Howard?
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Hey @ThreeToSend. My son (HU24) is finishing up his sophomore year as a Computer Science Major at Howard. He has been doing very well in his classes and did research at a top 10 USNWR CS school after his freshman year.
He has applied to internships in the Tech industry for this summer and will hopefully hear back soon about his summer plans, so things have gone pretty well despite him having some complaints (a couple of CS classes not really teaching him what he “thinks he really needs to know”).
Thank you so much for responding!
Has he had any issues with the housing situation?
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For both of my kids HU22 and HU24, they have not had the major issue (mold) that came up in the student protest last fall, but have had the following occasional irritations.
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No hot water for short periods (a couple of scheduled outages and 1 unscheduled outage that lasted 3-4 days) which seems to happens every winter.
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The fire alarm going off at 3am a couple of times a semester (other students set off each time).
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The air conditioning had issues for a day for 1 of my kids and the heating had issues for about 48 hours.
The dorm rooms and the dorms themselves are pretty nice as both of my kids are in some of Howard’s newer dorms.
Thank you so much! We’re considering HU for my son who is interested in Computer Science.
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Over 95% of the freshman men stay in one of 2 dorms (Cook and Drew Halls) which are older dorms that I am not very familiar with (Howard went completely remote during my son’s freshman year. Your son can look at student dorm tours on YouTube to get a better idea of those dorm room setups.
My son’s class has ~100 CS majors and they have been getting unbelievable summer opportunities, so hope to see your son join HU26.