Is studying computer science major at a liberal arts college a disadvantage when compared to other unis?
(In terms of internship opportunities, job opportunities, and graduated studies placement.)
Though tangential to CS, this article touches on programs and career outcomes at several liberal arts colleges: https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_4546120.
It depends on whether the specific school has a CS department that offers sufficient coverage of the usual upper level CS topics, such as algorithms, operating systems, networks, databases, software engineering, security, artificial intelligence, etc…
For purposes of a career in software development, there doesn’t seem to be any difference between the top LACs (Pomona, Wesleyan, Williams or Carleton) or a research uni following a non-tech, liberal arts and sciences curriculum. You may have to stagger the timing for some of the upper level courses at a LAC, but otherwise, the outcomes are very similar
There can be distinct advantages to studying computer science at a LAC. Here is a perspective from one of them.
Studying computer science at a liberal arts college rather than a large research university influences the way students approach the subject, giving them a wider context for technological applications. “They notice problems that someone a little more siloed wouldn’t have thought of.
”In addition to ethical grounding, a liberal arts perspective can also help nascent computer scientists by providing the communication skills that are increasingly important in the workplace
Reply #4 makes the false assumption that CS students at a research university do not study any liberal arts, or are necessarily less free to do so, than those at a liberal arts college.
Regardless of what type of college the student attends, it is how the student chooses and pays attention to his/her in-major and out-of-major courses that affects the issues described in reply #4.
You make a good counterpoint @ucbalumnus, but I will add that computer science at some LACs, requires a student to take a class on technology and ethics, while at a university it may only be a choice, so that is a slight yet important distinction. Though one could also argue that studying computer science at a large uni, would provide perhaps more breadth and depth in CS classes offered.
An ethics course requirement may exist at research universities as well. For example:
https://eecs.berkeley.edu/resources/undergrads/eecs/degree-reqs-upperdiv
Of course, many research universities and liberal arts colleges may offer optional courses on such topics.
Really, the point is that these distinctions are very much individual school and student choice based, not whether the school is a research university or a liberal arts college.
@circuitrider, For example, Bowdoin and Colby do they have good computer science Department?
I’ll weigh in on this idea (and agree with distinct advantages at a LAC) @ucbalumnus has a point but what he is missing is more subtle, the influences of being surrounded by many LA students has a much more compelling effect then just having to take some required classes.
If your goal is software development, a basic CS training at an LAC would be more than sufficient. However, if your goal is to be on the cutting edges of CS, you’ll need theoretical CS training and lots of higher level math. No LAC (other than Harvey Mudd) can adequately prepare you for that (assuming you don’t plan to go to a grad school after graduation).
I’ve known several CS majors at Haverford and they have done very well securing lucrative internships and excellent jobs after graduation.
OP - I didn’t like what saw at either Bowdoin or Colby. Normally, if a LAC lists 8 faculty members in a department you want to see at least twice that number of courses offered in a semester and I didn’t see that, suggesting they may be short staffed.
LACs strong in CS tend to offer over a dozen courses per semester. At this level, you can be reasonably confident you would be able to choose courses appropriate for your level, interests and goals.
“They notice problems that someone a little more siloed wouldn’t have thought of."
That also happens with research uni grads, a lot more, even given there bigger. Most if not all the innovations that have happened in CS over say the last 20 or years, whether it’s Java, big data, open source, AI, have come from Stanford, Berkeley, CMU, MIT, you know research universities. They saw problems, and came up with solutions. Jobs who only went one semester at Reed is the one LAC person who can compete with grads from the research unis.
I’ve seen CS majors at many different colleges do extremely well with jobs once graduated (well in pay and doing what they like). It really depends upon the student and their computer knowledge more than the college IME. Even a very small, name really unknown Christian LAC had a graduate get multiple > 100K offers.
Jobs in computers are one field that really doesn’t seem to be college dependent. That said, if you don’t have any idea about what you are doing with computers, you’ll want a school that teaches you those things and even then you might feel overwhelmed. I suspect many know a ton going in. I know many of our high schoolers heading that route already know a ton. I bet they keep learning outside of their classes as well as from them.
One thing to consider is if you decide to change majors, are the other majors (in engineering, for example) varied and strong?
Following this. S2 is very CS oriented, but so far, seems to be more interested in a LAC than a big school.
I’m assuming that Carleton is reasonably good in CS, though no CMU, Caltech, or Waterloo. Any thoughts on CS at Grinnell, or Swarthmore?
Seems that CS is THE hot major right now.
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@57special: This chart, created by @ucbalumnus, could be helpful for a preliminary analysis of the CS programs at liberal arts colleges: http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/math-computer-science-majors/1814245-computer-science-at-some-smaller-schools-including-liberal-arts-colleges-p2.html. Note that offerings may have changed in the three years since the information was compiled, so you would benefit from looking through current course catalogs for up-to-date information.
@merc81 Thanks! There is a lot to chew on, there. Still doesn’t speak to the quality of the teaching, but that is harder to quantify.