My daughter has worked hard for her GPA (3.9) but did not do particularly well on the SAT despite taking the SAT a number of times. She tends to do well when things come easily to her, but has a more difficult time when she she to work harder to get good grades in classes. She tends to be proud and tries to figure out things on her own without asking for help, but often at the expense of letting her grades suffer. She is good with technology, and after a great experience as the head programmer for her robotics team at a recent robotics competition she has decided to pursue computer science as a major. Initially I had suggested she apply to LACs for computer science, but they did not offer the various types of engineering (mechanical or computer science is probably a close second choice for a major). My main concern is the bigger schools might not be as helpful if she is having problems and she won’t get the help she needs (I don’t want her to be in a “sink or swim” situation), and will end up dropping computer science (or any of the various engineering fields) as a major if things get difficult.
Are there any programs from bigger schools that anyone knows about that are known for going out of their way to help computer science students that need help with their coursework?
It would probably be helpful to mention some of the colleges that she applied to. They were selected for a number of reasons, but I don’t have a lot of information regarding their inclination to help students who are having trouble with their coursework. If anyone has first hand knowledge of any of these programs, I would really appreciate it.
UT Austin
UT Dallas
Baylor
Rice
UC Berkeley
University of Pennsylvania
Swarthmore
Case Western
Rose Hulman
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Vanderbilt
Santa Clara
Harvey Mudd
Johns Hopkins
Cornell
Duke
University of Southern California
Be aware that the rapid increase in the popularity of CS has meant that enrollments in introductory CS courses have grown rapidly. At big research universities, they hire more TAs and find bigger lecture halls (although some schools have enrollments larger than their biggest lecture halls). Even some smaller schools have class sizes in the hundreds. Those which try to hold the line on class size may end up denying enrollment to interested students, or pulling instructional staff away from advanced CS courses, to the detriment of advanced CS majors. See if the schools’ on-line class schedules will tell you about both class sizes and course offerings.
However, the giant lecture with a dozen TAs may actually make help more accessible, since a larger number of TAs means that more of them will have office hours at convenient times, and one can try many of them (and the faculty instructor) for help. But the student who is struggling needs to seek help, rather than wait for help to come to him/her. That is generally much more true in college than in high school.
When DS was interested in majoring in Computer Science, we spent a lot of time mapping the first two years of classes he would have to take, focusing on the size of and access to intro CS and Math classes. One large university that stood out was Michigan State, with a limit of 20 students in intro CS, which resulted in 54 sections of that class in the Spring 2014 catalog. Another school that stood out for accessibility to help was University at Buffalo, which has a very well regarded program. No LACs made the cut due to relatively limited course offerings in the major. I would suggest that after she has been accepted, to make your final choice based on availability and size of classes, and each school’s general education and pre-major requirements.
Case in point: UW-Seattle will have over 1,000 students taking CS I this upcoming quarter, split between just two lecture sections both taught by the same prof (the one who designed the intro sequence and wrote the book). However, the quiz sections for this class, taught by TAs, are still limited to 23 students. They manage to do this without taking any resources from the upper-division CS courses (enrollment in which is strictly limited to CS majors) by hiring scores of well-paid and rigorously-trained undergrad TAs for the intro CS courses.
The upper-division major-only courses at UW are all under 100 students and most of the senior electives are less than 50.
Of course, the flip side of the UW-Seattle situation is that getting into the CS major is extremely competitive. Only a small number of students are directly admitted as frosh; others who want to declare the CS major must go through a highly competitive admission process (typical average college GPA of those admitted is 3.7).
I would dig deeper when she gets acceptances, because it is a long list. You don’t say her scores except that she did not do well, so I have to wonder how many are really viable.
You may know already that most programs will be male dominated but Rose Hulman is like 80 pct men in the whole school. While I do really hear good things about it, I don’t know details. I think my daughter might have gone for that but it isn’t for everyone. Mudd is more equally balanced but they also have the other colleges right there.
I agree it is essential to just assume she will need and to get help. Working with TAs and labs and office hours is the way to go. The habits you describe will not serve her well. No one does look out for you in college. Proactive is super important. And being assertive in a group setting and not let other people run over you or do the work and not let you learn.
Another concern I have is that we will have the opportunity to visit some of these schools soon, and she already has certain schools as “frontrunners” and frankly, not for what I consider the best of reasons. I want to make sure she gives all of the colleges a “fair shake”. For example, one of the things I thought would be a bad idea would be to visit one of these “frontrunner” schools first, because then she might already have her mind made up and not really pay attention to what the other schools have to offer. I have told her some of my concerns about some of these “frontrunner” colleges, but I’m not sure the message is really being received. Any ideas or suggestions?
Shoot, I’m a newbie and can’t figure out how to send you a personal message. Any idea? Anyway YAY!! So excited to hear that your daughter’s robotics program inspired her! (I’m involved in that (I’m assuming) program, too) Call all schools and ask about their “Freshman Retention Program” (if it’s engineering, call them up directly). If they respond with “Huh?!” then that tells you something, too, lol. Some schools are starting to care about the drop out rate. I can tell you now-darn hindsite-that my son’s school is too big to worry about this, but he had been accepted into a school that had a very good freshman transition (retention) program. They are out there. If your daughter came to the school near me, I’d be happy to support her and integrate her into the larger robotics community. We are pretty cool but not on your list. Best wishes!
I’m one of those TAs for large intro CS classes. At my university, there are typically 400ish students in the intro class, in sections of up to 80 students, but with much smaller lab classes run by 2 TAs and 3 tutors. This means 45 staff members to coordinate and dozens of office hours each week. We have a weekly staff meeting to coordinate, though, and talk about students who seem to really be struggling or standing out. I’m not a CS major, but this level of coordination and attention really stands out to me. I honestly have a closer relationship with professors and administrators in the CS college than I do in my home department.
I don’t really have suggestions for schools, but I just wanted to share my experience with a supportive community at a large school (15,000ish students). I’m also a female in CS, so that has its own challenge just of being something of a minority in the field. I haven’t found it detrimental to my experience, but it’s strange to realize I’m one of 3 females in my robotics class, for example.
but not on your list. Best wishes!