Looking to get opinions on the Computing Sciences major at Villanova. Since it’s in CLAS and not the Engineering school as it is at some other universities, is this a downside? Any current students, or parents of current students, with thoughts on the program, the professors, and if there are too many adjuncts teaching courses?
i am also looking into cs as my major and was confused when ti was under CLAS. but the program still looks fine as it offers interships and such
CS is tangential to engineering - many schools are now making CS its own college entirely, as they should in my opinion. Given how new the field and its popularity is, there are two common routes for a department to develop through: from engineering, or from math. Departments found in arts and sciences usually developed from the latter.
What this means practically speaking is that departments coming out of arts and sciences tend to be more theory and math strong, while departments coming out of engineering tend to be practically focused. A major title like computing sciences implies a very strong math and theory slanted department, at least historically.
As mentioned, the program has plenty sufficient classes and looks pretty complete. CS at most places is more or less the same when it comes to material. The bigger differences come with teaching approach, which is much harder to gauge, as well as reputation and connections.
Point being: Villanova CS should be just fine, and its location in or out of engineering isn’t really an indicator of anything relevant to this thread.