<p>My son (junior in hs) is interested in majoring in Computer Science (or related). Most searches for top schools point to the big leagues (acceptance rate and size): Stanford, U of IL/WI/CA, MIT, etc. We would like to find a place that is much smaller, 5000 or less, and perhaps Liberal Arts in the event that he changes his mind. I would appreciate hearing about solid computer science programs offered at liberal arts schools. Last weekend he visited his sister at a LA school in MW and spoke with a CS prof. Helpful, but prof admitted that while they offered a CS major, there was not much depth to classes offered and that it was really a better fit for someone looking for CS minor. Suggestions please. Thanks so much.</p>
<p>mwigal : A couple of items you should be aware of CS programs in general. By and large, the best CS schools tend to have developed historically in the large schools over the last 30 years. Many of them are offshoots from the Electrical Engineering departments. Often the CS departments also tend to have emerged from the math departments. In that context most LACs are generally going to be at a disadvantage relative to the larger publics and Ivys in terms of serious CS programs. Another factor to keep in mind is that if your son is interested in a job right after school then a LAC will be a real disadvantage as few companies visit the small LACs. Another point is that if your son changes his mind, what major would he contemplating changing to ? A small LAC might have fewer options… Having said all that a couple of options for your son :
a) Swarthmore : they have a terrific engineering program for a LAC- really good CS program too.
b) Harvey Mudd : Another terrific small school with a very good engineering & CS program.</p>
<p>A final note : The CS programs affiliated with the EE department are more practical and career focused often. Those with the liberal arts school (even at large schools) are more theoretically focused - math offshoots. So keep that in mind. Also if your son really wants small classes but does not have an aversion to large schools, then the honors programs may be a way to go.</p>
<p>My son is studying CS at a mid-size (6K undergraduate) private university (Vanderbilt). The university includes both a School of Engineering and a College of Arts and Sciences. Computer science is in the Engineering school, but students take their humanities, social sciences, math, etc. in CAS. It is definitely not unheard of for students to switch out of engineering and into a CAS major. It is also not uncommon at this particular university for CS students to have a second major or minor in CAS; other engineering majors, not so much. While the university is highly ranked overall (by the USNews guys), the engineering school itself does not boast a rank high enough to get mentioned on these boards. Nonetheless, my son had research opportunities t/o his undergrad. years, all summers included, covering a range of projects; several professional publications including one on which he is the main author; he has presented his work at conferences; and he has a quite well-paying job waiting for him when he graduates this spring, in the CS center of the universe. So I guess rankings aren’t everything.</p>
<p>You might also look at a a place like University of Chicago, which offers a computer science major even though there is no engineering component. My son almost went that route, but opted for an environment he thought would be more likely to offer him hands-on research opportunities.</p>
<p>If you are looking in the MW, consider Rose-Hulman.</p>
<p>If he is likely to change his mind to another science he might not mind being at a tech college. Places like Rose-Hulman, RPI, WPI all offer other science majors. I also think it’s worth looking at some of the smaller universities. Some place like Rice with its residential college system has a lot of the advantages of the LACs without the disadvantages. Carnegie Mellon is probably a bit bigger than you want and hard to get into, but it does have other options and it’s easy to transfer out of the School of Computer Science if it’s not right for you.</p>
<p>How about a small liberal arts-like university? Dartmouth comes to mind. Enrollment ~4000. They appear to have a comprehensive CS program, although I don’t know what its national reputation is in the CS hierachy: [Welcome</a> to the Dartmouth Computer Science Department](<a href=“http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/]Welcome”>http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/). Plus the school is very strong in liberal arts.</p>
<p>Check out Brown. Really solid CS department in a small-ish, liberal arts university. Rice is also a good suggestion.</p>
<p>I have to say, you never know: my son is a graduating senior computer science major at Colgate U, tiny CS department, BUT he had a fabulous paid internship last summer with a large SW development company, and had an incredible post-grad job offer in hand from them Oct. of his senior year. He starts there in June!</p>
<p>Moral of the story is to look closely at the schools your son is interested in no matter the size (if they offer a CS major) and ask questions about where their graduates go immediately post-grad. He did the right thing already by asking at his sister’s U. But I think his options are much broader than an internet search would indicate! Good luck!</p>
<p>One of my virtual nieces is a computer science major. That’s what she has wanted to do for a long time, but she turned down Carnegie-Mellon’s SCS (and other similar choices) because she wanted the atmosphere and options of a small LAC (including the possibility of shifting to linguistics, and studying abroad as a norm). She is a sophomore at Carleton and remains happy with her choice. She hasn’t lacked for research and internship possibilities, that’s for sure.</p>
<p>My S wanted to do a computer science degree, but through a college of arts and sciences, not through an engineering school. Quite a number of good schools offer this option: Rice and Cornell, I believe, among the top-rated cs schools, and I’m sure others as well. To my son, the size of the school didn’t matter as much as the flexibility of the curriculum. He is at UVA–our instate flagship, a great deal for us financially–doing a double major in cs and math, and loving it. UVA is not a famous engineering school but it offers a good all-round undergraduate experience, its CS department seems solid, and there are lots of research opportunities and internships available to CS undergraduates. Placement seems great.</p>
<p>10X more students than you want, but University of Texas in Austin has a crazy good CS program (College of Natural Sciences) that works hand in hand with the School of Engineering, especially through the Freshman Research Program and couple that with a great Liberal Arts School (COLA) you have multi faceted choices. There are many students who do Plan II (a liberal arts program) and double major with Computer Science or an Engineering Field, (out in four years) who graduate with the best of both worlds and two degrees. And although a very, very large university, if the student does Plan II or Computer Science, they are in a very small group that keeps it focus on the student. IMO, a best of both worlds case study.</p>
<p>Case comes to mind. Harvey Mudd is great, but it would be hard to switch out to a non-science major (although maybe a transfer to another Claremont school would work).
Carnegie Mellon’s SCS is very hard to get into , but that would be a good choice otherwise.
UChicago
Big state schools often have excellent CS - perhaps doing a honors program at one of those.
St. Andrews in Scotland might work. They have a more flexible than English, less flexible than American system.</p>
<p>My S definitely wanted a small LAC experience for college, but also thinks he will most likely major in CS. Definitely did not want to commit to an engineering program for this. He tried to focus on how many professors there were in the department as a proxy for how serious the school was about CS, rather than just an offshoot of the Math department. Like JHS’s virtual niece, he is at Carleton. So far he has had good experience there with CS, though he is a freshman and has not yet actually declared a major or undertaken research. Other places he liked based on this particular criterion were Williams and Macalester.</p>
<p>I am looking forward to seeing other responses to the OP. And I certainly don’t want to hijack the OP’s thread. I am very interested in this topic, and have posted similar questions, leaning more to the math end.</p>
<p>I’d like to add 2 more thoughts for consideration – first, that almost all the LAC’s I have been investigating for my son, who absolutely at this stage in his college search wants a smaller school, is that the LAC’s computer science departments are all programming based and do not have hardware departments. One thing we re looking at is how physically close the LAC’s are to other larger or more technical schools, and how fluid they might be and open to having a student who grows out of their offerings taking courses in a particular department at a nearby school (eg Goucher physics students take upper level courses at Johns Hopkins).</p>
<p>Second thought… I didn’t catch what the grades/scores were of the OP’s child, but it seems like the historical threads I have checked on this, and many of the responses to my post, generated a usual suspect list of very competitive for applicants schools… and very competitive atmosphere schools at least for most students. (Not that the suggestions are not appreciated, … just looking to expand in another direction!)</p>
<p>In thinking of LAC’s for CS (and math and physics), are there any that offer the breadth and growth across the board of a traditional LAC, yet where the focus is more on problem sets (or at least equally so!) than on writing, writing, writing… and where the math and science is top notch? A laid back liberal science school for B students who are late bloomers? (Again, if the OP says this is not related to his or her student (I can’t remember the pronoun!) I retract the question and save it for a different thread!)</p>
<p>Union College (NY) might be a good choice for a B student - it has accredited engineering, but other choices as well. Average SAT scores in the 600s - from our school a B to B+ unweighted GPA was average. It’s pretty small - about 2000 students.</p>
<p>My son is a B student that is looking at a IS/IST major. He was considering CS, but really did not want a career heavy in programming, although he’s good at it and has gotten A’s in his programming classes, he wanted something focused more on technology. Anyway, a few colleges that he’s found are Marist (strong association with IBM), St Michaels in Vermont - this one is a good small LAC that offers good merit aid and we were told that 100% of their grads last year got jobs IN THEIR FIELD. University of New Haven, Arcadia, and Champlain. Two much more techy colleges, but good for B students and do have a good amount of humanity majors are RIT and Drexel.</p>
<p>For true LACs w/ CS, I’d recommend Harvey Mudd (tech-focused LAC), Swarthmore (very laid-back department, horizontal curriculum), Carleton, Williams (8 professors!), and Pomona (more liberal-artsy major with access to HMC resources). Macalester’s CS program is very math-heavy and still housed in a joint department. I recently met a Haverford CS major who wasn’t particularly happy with her home department (fortunately she has access to Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore CS, and Haverford’s math is excellent). I second Union for engineering, don’t know about CS.</p>
<p>For lower-selectivity LACs, you will run into the problem of many small LACs not offering CS at all.</p>
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<p>It may be good for him to go to a school that also offers CS, because many IT/IST major programs are mainly business oriented with what is probably too little technical course content. A full CS degree is not needed for IT, but selected CS courses like operating systems, databases, networks, and security can help an IT professional adapt better to new technologies and unusual problems.</p>
<p>May also want to check out Trinity College (CT). Long-standing engineering program in a small lAC. Strong on internships in the community. Also, I think it has a relationship with UConn and RPIs grad center in Hartford. Not as top tier as Swarthmore, Williams, etc.</p>
<p>Good point, ucbalumnus, which is why all of the colleges on my son’s list have a CS major as well. Son wanted to be able to take CS classes as electives. Also, IT is not quite the same as IST or IS. I bet we visited two dozen colleges and he applied to half of them!</p>