<p>Any comments on the Physics and CS programs at Grinnell appreciated. </p>
<p>We live fairly close to Grinnell and are looking into scheduling a visit. One of my kids is a junior and one is a sophomore. </p>
<p>So far for colleges they are looking for: close to home, helpful and approachable professors, engaged students and research possibilities. </p>
<p>My son is going to be a physics major and wants to get his PhD in physics. We visited Grinnell last summer and he met with a physics professor there and was very impressed. Grinnell sends a lot of kids on to really good grad schools and has a great reputation in that regard. </p>
<p>I would say that when you schedule a visit have your student send a note to the physics and CS department and ask for a meeting to discuss. We’ve done that on all of our visits and my son says he learns more this way than sitting in on a class.</p>
<p>I’m a current first year at Grinnell and an intended Computer Science major. I absolutely adore the department. I came in thinking that I might want to do something with political science and statistics but honestly through my first course last semester fell in love with the department. All of the professors are brilliant, they make the courses interesting and they put in lots of work to make sure that students understand the material. They spend time circling the labs if assignments are due to help students and respond quickly to emails even during off-hours to make sure that students can get the help they want. </p>
<p>You can go into a professor’s office and chat about something that you find interesting or anything if you need help in the course. They’re incredibly friendly and helpful in a way that ensures that you really understand and learn the material. There are also lots of different ways to get involved. Every Monday at 8 the CS SEPC (Student Educational Policy Committee) holds a study break with snacks where majors or people just taking CS courses can hang out–sometimes with professors and sometimes just with students.</p>
<p>Every Thursday in the fall there’s a CS Learning from Alumni where you get to hear from alum speaking about CS in the real world. Also on Thursdays are CS Extras, where you can hear from other students about their research, professor’s research or things that just generally interest the professors, get advice about applying to grad school or for internships, or other CS related things that are going on around campus. Every Friday there is also a CS Table in the dining hall where we discuss everything from 3D printing to women in computing to P v. NP. It’s really great.</p>
<p>Also in CS there are lots of ways to get experience early on. You can do some programming work for the college at specialized labs, system administrate over the summer, work in app development for the college (You can see Grinnell College apps in the App Store on both iOS and Android), or do summer research. You can apply to do all of this during your first year. (I’ll be doing research this summer!)</p>
<p>Professors also encourage you to get out and apply for all sorts of other opportunities as well. I’ve gotten countless emails about applying for REUs this summer, applying to speak at conferences about work I’ve done at Grinnell (I applied to present a poster at Grace Hopper in October), and other opportunities of things that are going on in CS. </p>
<p>Also the students in CS are incredible. Everyone’s very collaborative and there are lots of outlets for help or just people to work on outside projects together. Also for women in CS there are dinners, students always go to Grace Hopper every year, and there are lots of professor initiatives to keep gender/sex biases out of the classroom. </p>
<p>I really cannot speak higher of the CS department at Grinnell. There are opportunities and support in really everything. </p>