@circuitrider Are you typing in secret ink? 
At the top 40 or so liberal arts schools, it isn’t that hard to complete a 4 year degree in 4 years, even if you decide to change tack re: majors after the first year or so. Nor is it hard for most students to get the classes they want. Good, hands on advising is practiced at many of these colleges as well. Hence, fairly high graduation rates.
If a specific course is required for the major, it is generally offered every semester. If it’s an advanced required course, it may be that everyone takes it together (ex: all seniors in a certain major take the capstone course/senior seminar first semester of senior year). Electives come and go (and maybe come back), but one can always choose a different one if the first choice isn’t offered in time. Or at some schools, take that or a similar elective elsewhere in the consortium.
This is what major advisers are for, helping students map out a plan. so they finish on time.
If any doubt remains, note that the 4-year graduation rates for some of the LACs mentioned on this thread land among the highest in the country:
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/highest-grad-rate
FWIW, my personal experience was in agreement with #18. The recommended math & science courses for a physics major at the Arts & Sciences college I attended followed essentially the same sequence for freshman and sophomore year that the engineering college students there took. That’s why I was able to transfer from the engineering college to the arts & sciences college and still graduate on time as a physics major.
I think it would have been very difficult to complete a physics major without having taken the prescribed coursework over the first two years. At my school.
An arts & sciences student considering a physics major there could still “experiment” to an extent, but limited by the need to take a particular physics course and a particular math course each semester. [And, IIRC, a programming course and a chemistry course, but maybe he/she could make these up later…]
^@monydad, the takeaway for me was that you switched from engineering to the arts and sciences and seem to be ilving a perfectly productive life.
You may take away whatever you like, however the productivity of my life was never addressed on this forum so far as I can recall. The only thing posted to CC I am aware of that may bear on that issue is that evidently I have over 7,800 replies on College Confidential.
What I actually intended to be taken away is that there is a course sequence for a physics major that starts freshman year, so a liberal arts major eyeing that goal would be best advised to keep that in mind for course selection, and ought not just take whatever they want and have completely unfettered “experimentation”.
Let me put in a plug for the University of Rochester. You can go the BS or BA route for CS, with all the benefits of a major research university, but without the need to take take an engineering school path to get the BS (e.g. no physics and chemistry). It’s truly a 21st century Computer Science approach. There is another path for Computer Engineering too, and you don’t have to pick your path (Engineering versus Liberal Arts) as you apply, as at my alma mater, Cornell. My daughter loves it there. She’s been challenged, but she has been given the opportunity to figure out the exact right path as she has taken classes there. I loved my Cornell experience, but what Rochester offers is somewhat unique. Whatever school you research, check out the curriculum. They are not all the same.
@monydad wrote:
A couple of Math courses freshman year and just about anyone with the aptitude should be well-positioned for the all-important, Electricity and Magnetism gateway course that most places allow you the end of sophomore year to complete. There’s usually a lab section attached to every entry-level Physics course. So leave room for those, too.
But, the rest of that time can be spent taking “whatever they want.”
One caveat: Large research universities with an engineering school attached to them may make you jump through more hoops - so, by all means, check with your faculty advisor - if you have one.
???
FWIW I have never heard of any “all-important E & M gateway course”. The intermediate E& M course I took Junior year had a number of prerequisite physics courses that obviously needed to be taken as an underclassman . The intro E&M course students took freshman year also had physics prerequisites (intro mechanics), not just math prerequisites. And was not considered any “gateway course”, they were all important.
The engineering school had nothing to do with the physics department requirements, which were pretty typical.
The freshman physics curriculum (non-honors)was out of some very standard physics textbooks which are used ubiquitously across the country, for teaching physics to underclassmen. Sears & Zemansky, Halliday & Resnick, etc.
So sure, talk with an advisor. But the bottom line is, no responsible physics advisor would (normally) suggest blowing off the freshman physics sequence, during freshman year, without acknowledging that this may cause some issues and limitations down the road.
I’m done talking about this, it is not worth my time.
The reason that colleges of various kinds exist is because there’re students of various kinds. For some students, a college with a relatively open curriculum is best. For some others, a college with a rigid core is more suitable. Some students value depth in their discipline more while others value breadth. The “best” college, by whatever metrics, is only “best” if it works for you, using your own metrics.
I do want to make another point, though, about relying too much on advisers on course planning/selections. Unless the student is content with just a generic program within her/his major, s/he should go through the college catalog (or the equivalent) from cover to cover, highlighting all the courses her/his potential major(s) require and all the electives s/he is interested in and all their prerequisites. S/he should take a look at the historical course schedules for the past few years as well to figure out potential scheduling conflicts, mapping out her/his plan as detailed and as far as possible (subject to changes/adjustments, of course).
Hey, no need to shoot the messenger. I’m just quoting the Michigan website, a pretty good research university, IIRC. They have exactly four prerequisites for the major, two of which are labs. A 200-level E&M course is listed as one choice among sixteen, including the labs.
They do advise the following:
And, that’s for a B.S. degree.
https://lsa.umich.edu/lsa/academics/majors-minors/physics-major.html
At Wesleyan, an unusual case of a LAC that has produced multiple Apker Prize winners in the same lane as Michigan and other much larger schools, the Physics prereqs are remarkably similar, considering it only awards the B.A. degree. The same caveats about Math. The biggest difference is that everybody takes Intro E&M: https://www.wesleyan.edu/physics/about/index.html
I think you all should be more concerned whether this OP is strong enough in math. That score is 670. Though OP has a 4.0., we have no idea of the math rigor and no AP scores. Nor whether there’s any physics experience. It’s a real possibility he/she could get weeded out of CS, (without further info.) The fact he or she knows some programming langs may not be near enough. Add to that, it seems a lack of organized math-sci ECs.
BA versus BS degree title is not particularly relevant. Also, E&M is included in the lower level physics courses for physics majors everywhere, so not sure why it would be the “biggest difference”.
^Well, either Intro E&M is a “gateway” course or it isn’t. You and MONYdad seem to disagree on this. `()/’
@lookingforward wrote:
You raise a good point. OP’s search for a less technical degree path to CS shouldn’t be premised on the idea that the work will be less rigorous. My whole point is that she will have more freedom to explore other disciplines and that the risks of making “naive” mistakes in doing so are less in the arts and sciences with proper advising.
New College of Florida’s computer science program is both very good and growing. I strongly suggest you look into it.