Asking for a prospective computer science major who wants a bachelor’s degree that doesn’t require English comp or other humanities courses. Writing isn’t his strong suit: he wants to take courses only in math and science. Any universities without distribution or “breadth” requirements – and strong CS departments?
Brown U. - cause they specifically have “open curriculum” (meaning, no GEs). Or, Google search for other colleges with “open curriculum” and I believe there are several.
Brown does have a writing requirement, although courses fulfilling it can be found in most departments.
https://www.brown.edu/academics/college/degree/curriculum/writing-requirement
In any case, computer professionals do need to know how to write (though mainly in a technical context rather than analyzing literary fiction as commonly taught in English courses). Understanding of the social context of computing is valuable as well when developing and marketing computers and software.
This may be difficult, for the following reasons:
- CS programs commonly hold professional accreditation from ABET, and ABET requires some coursework in humanities or social sciences. ABET accreditation is considered optional in CS, and there are perfectly good CS programs that don't have it. However, if you have to start by ruling out ABET programs, the options will be a lot more limited.
- There are a number of schools with "open curricula"; i.e. they have few or no requirements beyond those needed for the major. The downside here is that open curriculum schools are not necessarily strong in STEM fields, like CS. While there are some people who really dislike writing, it turns out that there are even more people who really dislike math and science. So open curriculum schools often have strong appeal to students who are affected by "math anxiety" or "science phobia". If the student body at a given school has relatively low interest in STEM, then the STEM programs are probably not going to be particularly large or well-funded.
Colleges with flexible curricula such as Grinnell, Hamilton and Amherst will have strong math and CS departments. However, their emphases on writing across the curriculum, irrespective of course topic, could be an issue. Nonetheless, the benefits of this writing practice could be substantial over time.
http://www.hercampus.com/life/9-most-flexible-colleges-country
The University of Rochester (which requires fairly flexible academic “clusters”) would seem to match most of what he appears to be seeking.
Thanks for these helpful responses. The paradox here, as a couple of folks have noted, is that schools with flexible curricula tend to be strongest in the humanities and/or predominantly offer the sort of courses that require students to write papers. (In some cases, like Brown, they’re also prohibitively difficult to get into.) So I’m still left wondering if there are any STEM-oriented schools that are a good match for a student with advanced capabilities in those fields (he aced AP Calculus while still in middle school, etc.) but who has a writing disability that makes it difficult to produce so much as a paragraph. I suspect that college writing centers, conventional accommodations, disability counselors, and other student support services aren’t going to do the trick here: What’s needed is a school that allows a student to take all his courses in math & science.
Don’t know that this would be possible at a US school. Might be possible at a UK school, or maybe a Canadian school.
For example, I looked at McGill’s standard BSc in Computer Science and didn’t see any writing requirements; there is a required freshman program, but it appears to be all science and math courses. However, I am not an expert on Canadian universities and may have missed something.
https://www.rochester.edu/college/ccas/AdviserHandbook/DegreeReq.html
Rochester has a writing requirement and a general education requirement. The latter, for science majors, requires three humanities and three social studies courses.
I think that doing some writing would be almost unavoidable. Even lab science courses will have lab write-ups which can get extensive at the college level. You might want to look at some more technical based schools (ex. RIT, WPI) but I’d guess that even those will have some liberal arts requirements.
It may make sense to focus on documenting the disability for college and working to get some type of waiver or accommodation that will either: 1) give him the necessary support to get through the classes or 2) waive out of writing based courses based on his disability. Or perhaps you can arrange to have him take writing based classes at a local CC (perhaps over summers) where you can insure he gets the support he will need.
Amherst’s writing requirement is limited to the first semester of the first year. A student COULD take only math from then on. Not sure I’d suggest that but it’s doable.
My D really didn’t like to write when she began. She took the required frosh seminar and that professor (who I think gave her a B) suggested she take a writing-intensive course next.
She was reluctant but did it - and wound up with a fantastic professor who is probably still her favorite, who worked with her on her writing all semester. He critiqued her drafts for her, really worked with her one on one. She got a LOT better with his help and guidance.
She’s still planning on her applied math major, but she isn’t scared of papers anymore either.
How is he handling high school courses that may require writing (e.g. English, history, social studies, science (lab reports), foreign language)?
In any case, very weak writing ability will be a significant limitation in both school and in whatever job he may take that is based on math or computer science. Mathematicians write papers proving math theorems and applying them to various problems; those in other areas (e.g. finance, risk management, operations research, etc.) will need to write papers explaining their work to others. People working in computing need to document their project plans, test plans, architectural decisions, algorithm choices, user manuals, etc…
YES. There is a REASON that most colleges require writing and humanities and that many colleges are beefing up their “writing across the curriculum requirements.” I think there’s a common misconception amongst ALL students about what is “needed” for their major and careers, and they think in black and white terms.
I work at a tech company. Writing clearly and compellingly is SO vital to what I do on a daily basis, and what many developers and program managers do on a daily basis, too. Communication is probably the most important skill a program manager can have in their tool kit - their job is basically to communicate program/project goals to team members. And even developers often have to author documentation - to other developers and to the other people on the teams that work with them (legal, marketing, UX/research, design, art, music/sound, business/finance…it takes a lot of people to run a tech outfit!) Let me tell you there is a big difference between the developers who can communicate clearly and concisely and the ones who cannot. The ones who can make everyone’s jobs so much easier.
But more importantly, humanities teach you how to think in a different way, and that’s vital. I’m a UX researcher; my job is to think about how users approach the use of technology and software and how we can improve tech/software/interfaces to meet users where they are. Developers need to have a great understanding of people, what’s important to them, what their needs are and how they understand the world in order to build things that people want to use. I mean what is Facebook or Snapchat other than new, innovative ways to interact with friends, family, and strangers? Humanities and social science-related topics come up all the time in places you wouldn’t expect them in my work. So much of the work I do in video games is centered around understanding our players, their motivations, their desires, the way they understand the medium, so that we can create experiences they actually want to buy and engage with. Otherwise you’re just building stuff in a vacuum that nobody uses.
College isn’t vocational school; it’s not designed for you to only take classes in one area… That’s why they’re called liberal arts universities! And even schools without distribution requirements will say that most often, their students take classes across different areas. If you read the descriptions of the open curricula at these universities/colleges, it’s clear that the goal is for students to shape their own liberal arts educations by exploring broadly and leaving themselves open to new challenges. Somewhere on their website, Brown even says that most students end up taking courses across fields anyway.
That’s my soapbox!
Corbett – Thanks very much for the McGill suggestion. That was helpful. I’ll definitely look more closely at their requirements.
Has he taken any AP courses and how has he done? One possibility could be a state school with a good computer science dept.(look at the class offerings). Many state schools will accept exams scores of 3 or higher which could give credit for general education requirements, thus possibly less writing and more courses in major/minor/electives… If he is a strong student he could also look at honors colleges within a state school to make the school “smaller” if that is something he would prefer.
Another option would be a less selective school that offers engineering. For a computer science student, they offer a BS degree in computer science, thus less humanities and writing papers in those classes. Some also give credit for general education classes via AP credit. One way to find these is to search on college navigator. It will give you several options and from there you can search specific school’s websites. While your son may have to take one or two classes, he may be able to reduce the amount of papers and writing and utilize writing centers to assist him when needed. Good luck in your search!
Clear expository writing uses some of the same abilities and learned skills that go into a well-organized, well documented computer program. You start with a problem, develop a nicely-chunked set of arguments to address the problem, and proceed to a conclusion (or “output”). Along the way you void syntax errors, spaghetti logic, and redundancy. So I’m not sure I understand the concept of a “writing disability” in someone smart enough to code. Everyone has strong and weak areas but unless one’s programming skills are truly extraordinary, without fairly good communication skills it may be hard to climb a career ladder above a certain salary plateau.
I second (or third) taking a look at U of Rochester’s requirements. Very flexible and can focus on areas he prefers.
I don’t have school recommendations but if he really struggles with writing to that degree, he could seek out humanities or social science courses that are more exam-based than writing based. Also, at some schools, it might be possible to knock out writing requirements with courses in technical or non-fiction writing that would also serve him well for CS.
I also would not underestimate the services and accommodations now available at colleges and universities for students with learning or cognitive disabilities. I would ask about this as your son moves forward.
U Rochester has a writing requirement that’s actually stiffer than other tech-oriented schools, but I appreciate the suggestion.
I would not put WPI on your list of options if your goal is to avoid exposure to the humanities. While they do not have the classic course distribution requirements of most schools, they do have what amounts to humanities minor for all students. The students have the flexibility of putting together a program with a faculty advisor to put in about 18 semester hours of research/classwork in a subject area. The student gets involved in the design of all parts of the program, but is not at liberty to study only one subject. This flexibility is there to help you find an effective way of developing a positive experience in the humanities world.
As the school is based on a project system, writing and presentation are impossible to escape. A good mathematician or scientist still needs to learn effective communication. A second degree requirement, the interactive qualifying project or IQP, pushes students to do research in an interdisciplinary area. The major qualifying project (MQP) requires project research and often results in presentation. Both the IQP and the MQP are team efforts.
Why? We want you to be able to present your fine ideas effectively and to be aware of your subject area’s interaction with the rest of the world.
My understanding is that U of Rochester has one semester of a required writing class which can be taken from a list of many topics taught seminar style. The OP must know that there will be some writing at any college but is most likely looking for less restrictive options which cater to her student’s strengths. Good luck in your search.