My son is looking for a school that is small, in the Northeast and allows you to be truly undeclared. Not undeclared within liberal arts versus undeclared within engineering. He really isn’t sure whether he wants to study computer science or political science. So far most schools require him to apply to a particular school within the college.
He is not eligible for some of the most elite schools like Harvard that allow truly undeclared. He has a 3.7 GPA, some activities, he’s just a average kid who’s not so average. He has a learning difference and moved himself to boarding school for more academic rigor and has social anxiety but dragged himself to Amsterdam to study abroad last summer. But, on paper he looks like an average kid… With excellent reading and writing scores and lower science and math scores. However he’s genuinely interested in computers but hasn’t had any exposure at his school.
If he is at a private boarding school, I would have him inquire with his school counselors there. They likely will have suggestions.
Look at the Colleges that Change Lives. Many don’t require declaring a major when you apply, and most are on the smaller side.
You might also look at colleges with a strong core course requirement because those schools usually have that so students can experience many disciplines before declaring a major.
And he should check how easy or hard it is to major in computer science at his choices if he doesn’t apply as an incoming freshman.
The title says Computer Science, your post says engineering…which is it? Many small schools don’t have engineering, but many have CS.
At typical LACs they don’t admit by major, students generally declare a major by end of soph year. After that it’s not usually all the difficult to change majors either.
I second the CTCL schools but most are not in the Northeast. Maybe look at Clark, Union, Muhlenberg, Marist…to start with. Are there budget constraints?
If he is really trying to decide between computer science and political science, it’s not quite as difficult as if he was completely undecided, and wanted to be able to go into engineering, or computer science, or Russian language, or economics, or some niche field.
Most schools do have a computer science department, and most also have political science. I’m sure they are not all created equal, but I have been doing tons of research on schools primarily in the Northeast for my S24 (who is also undecided), and I only came across one school that did not have a computer science department.
I think that if he is not trying to get into one of the big, competitive computer science departments, he will have lots of options of schools where he can go in undecided, and then select into either department.
this- it makes a very big difference. Many (most?) LACs will have CS & no major declaration requirement (eg, Vassar), but engineering is almost always a separate entity (Lehigh and Bucknell have relatively low barriers), and finishing a full engineering degree frequently has too many requirements to allow for more than a handful of humanities classes.
If he just has an interest, but no real experience of CS, I would be cautious about going engineering.
Another option that people generally don’t recommend, but that might be a good fit in this situation, is a school that has a 3+2 program. Those school don’t offer engineering on site, but if a student thinks he might be interested in pursuing it he can take gen ed requirements and some of the foundational math and science classes at the original school, he then does 2 years (either junior & 5th year, or 4th and 5th year) at a school with an engineering program (some schools guarantee entry with certain requirements met, others have “competitive” entry). Some of those programs include more technical CS in the fields eligible for the 3+2 program.
If he knew he wanted to do engineering I think those programs are a poor choice, but if it is just a slight possibility, these programs leave the door open.
A student who is weaker in STEM than in reading/writing aptitude, and who hasn’t had any real exposure to CS, is likely to find the path to a CS degree tougher and less rewarding than he imagines. That’s not to say that it isn’t possible… but it’s important to think about what being “genuinely interested in computers” really means. It doesn’t always mean wanting a deep dive into the “guts” of computational theory and programming.
It could be worth looking at majors like Data Analytics or Informatics, where students select an emphasis area (which can be political science) and apply the computational approaches they learn to that field. Here are a few small-school examples:
There are many more - these are just examples, and all of these schools have CS majors as well… and none of them admit by major. I just think that for a student like your son, I would look for the availability of interdisciplinary majors like this, so that it’s not an “all or nothing” decision as to whether to pursue CS, and he has the option to pursue computational approaches to his interests in social sciences and/or humanities.
Perhaps the OP happened to look at a few schools where CS is part of an engineering division, even though that is not the case everywhere.
Colleges that Change Lives would be a good first stop, there are different levels of admission selectivity covering safety, match, reach for your child.
https://ctcl.org/
Allegheny, Clark, Denison, Kalamazoo, Lawrence, Reed, Southwester, St Olaf, UPuget Sound, Wooster… would all cover a good range of selectivity and “fits”. Run the NPC, read about them in Fiske Guide or Princeton Review’ Best colleges to see what sounds like your “vibe”, fill out the “request info”/“join the mailing list” forms (don"t forget to click on the links of emails they send) and see!
Larger universities that use a “one college” approach are Case Western Reserve and American University.
Look into Computational (subject), Data Science, Informatics, Applied Computing.
You’ve gotten some good advice already.
If your son is looking into poli sci and CS or CS-similar fields (by this I’m including data science, computational science, informatics, etc), then these are some schools that he may want to research:
- Allegheny (PA )
- Clark (MA)
- Juniata (PA )
- Le Moyne (NY)
If engineering is something that he might be interested in as well as the other fields, then I’d take a look at these ABET-accredited schools:
- Elizabethtown (PA )
- Norwich (VT)
- Widener (PA )
University of Maryland has a new major in social data.
“The University of Maryland’s Colleges of Information Studies and School of Behavioral and Social Science have identified valuable synergies to support the new social data science major. This major will teach vital technical skills in the field of data science, combined with theory and method for making sense of data, empowering you to effectively analyze and process datasets to derive insights. ”
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