CS has grown in popularity in recent years. Class sizes in introductory CS courses may be larger than is typical for the school they are hosted on. You can check the on-line class schedule at each college to see if class sizes are listed.
Regarding Ruggâs (#15): Their recommendations seem somewhat random. If thereâs a formal analysis that could reasonably conclude that Furmanâs CS program is better than Swarthmoreâs, Iâm unaware of it. (Schools chosen as examples; the idea is not to place Swarthmoreâs CS as a superior program, but to question why, by inference through Ruggâs, it would be regarded as inferior.)
Gotta say, this is really fabulous feedback all the way around. I love it allâŠreally helpful and exactly what I was seeking. I hear several of the peopleâs comments about the bigger schoolsâŠIâm not biased against the bigger schoolâŠI think I know my son (could be wrong) and, am sourcing smaller schools that may serve him better that arenât as obvious (many good ideas here, thanks friends) so he has a choice. Iâm not interested in him going to the best schoolâŠIm interested in him finding the best school FOR HIM. And, it helps to have choices to help understand the contrast. To that point, this community has done our family a great service. Thank you all!
Look at Rose Hulman. My niece went there and is now at Google.
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Rose seems like a really good answer to your question.
MI Tech said during our visit that the average starting salary if their CS graduates was 75k.
I also donât really like large schools, and would not choose one for that reason. But itâs a big world and there are other points of view.
Rose is great, IF all you want to study is STEM classes. The education will be superb, but you are definitely not in a LAC environment there. Totally different feel to the school, almost like the kids were treating the education like a job.
OP, if your student will thrive in smaller class sizes, then you are going to want a smaller school. My S is in the more advanced introductory CS class at Trinity University, and has 21 kids in it.
One thing to look for are the physical classrooms when you visit. With CS, each student is going to need a work station, so all you need to do is count! That will tell you the maximum class sizes for the facilities.
Good luck!
Here is a list of common junior/senior level CS courses at various smaller schools commonly mentioned on these forums, including LACs. Some schools may have additional elective CS courses beyond these. Cross-registration courses are not included in these listings. Depth and rigor of each course may vary between schools.
Where indicated in the catalog, the frequency of offering is noted. If it is not noted, inspection of the schedules and/or contacting the department may be necessary to determine how frequently each course is offered.
AC TC OS CM DB NW SC SE AI GR HW
? 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 Allegheny
1 2 1 2 2 2 2 < Amherst
E 1 1 Bowdoin
1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 Bucknell
+ + 1 ? ? + ? Carleton
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Case Western Reserve
Clark
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Colgate
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Denison
? ? ? ? ? ? ? Furman
1 1 2 2 2 2 1 2 Grinnell
1 1 1 1 1 1 Hamilton
E 2 2 2 2 2 E E 1 2 Harvey Mudd
2 2 2 2 2 Holy Cross
1 2 2 2 2 1 ? Lafayette
1 1 2 1 2 1 2 Macalester
? ? ? ? ? ? ? * ? ? ? Marist
E E 1 E E E 1 ? 1 1 E Michigan Tech
1 < ? ? ? ? < ? ? Middlebury
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Minnesota - Morris
? ? New College of Florida
1 ? 1 1 ? 1 ? 1 ? 1 New Mexico Tech
? ? ? ? ? ? North Carolina - Asheville
E 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Oberlin
E E ? ? ? Pomona
? ? ? Reed
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Rice
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Rose Hulman
1 2 2 2 1 1 St. Olaf
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Santa Clara
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? South Dakota Mines
SUNY - Geneseo
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Swarthmore
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Trinity University
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Truman State
? ? ? ? ? Tulane
E E 1 1 ? 1 ? 1 Vassar
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Villanova
1 1 ? ? ? ? ? ? Washington and Lee
1 1 2 2 < * < 2 2 Williams
E = every semester
+ = 2 out of 3 quarters
1 = every year
2 = every other year
< = less frequently than every other year
? = frequency of offering not listed in catalog; check schedules
* = projects in other courses; not all may be obvious from catalogs
AC = algorithms and complexity
TC = theory of computation, languages, automata
OS = operating systems
CM = compilers
DB = databases
NW = networks
SC = security and cryptography
SE = software engineering
AI = artificial intelligence
GR = graphics
HW = hardware courses
To handle increasing enrollment in introductory CS courses that exceed the capacity of the largest classroom available, some schools have added video feeds of lectures to overflow classrooms, and posted videos on-line (the latter may also be helpful if students want to review a lecture later). Also, the number of workstations in lab rooms only tells you how large each structured lab section can be; there may be many lab sections associated with a given class, and students may do some of their programming assignments other than in the lab room (e.g. in their dorm rooms, off-campus housing, or library study room that is wired with ethernet or has with wireless networking).
Although he wants small, I think heâs better off at medium to give him elective breadth and to have research faculty available.
Some decent CS schools to consider
Brandeis
Tufts
Rochester
Washington University at St Louis (ED helps a lot there)
I also think he has a shot at Harvey Mudd, but itâs a reach.
Harvey Mudd is small⊠under 800 students. An unhooked male applicant with a 3.6 GPA probably would not be admitted.
I donât think Harvey Mudd is a good choice. Maybe ED Vandy.
I see that University of Tulsa was on your original list. My son is a freshman there and has already been to a job fair and had a requirement to complete his resume. He tells me that everyone who wants an internship gets one. They have done a fantastic job planting the idea with the kids that âyou are here to get an education so you can get a jobâ. Tulsa is extremely generous with scholarships and they target national merit finalists for their top scholarship. It is still competitive and requires an interview and a campus visit. The campus is immaculate and beautifully maintained. We also have a local friend who graduated from TU and has gone on to law school and is at the end of completing two very prestigious clerkships with judges. It is definitely worth a look, because your son appears to be exactly the sort of student they are looking for. Good luck with the whole senior year!
I go to a school smaller than Notre Dame, albeit only slightly smaller, and you will run into your fair share of intro classes with 300+ people in them. Also in my opinion, CMU for STEM is just as competitive as admissions into Harvard and MIT.
I agree, while his test scores are excellent, his GPA will hold him back on some of the mentioned schools.
I know youâre concerned about the weather in upstate NY, but both RPI and URochester are obvious choices for him. The weather in upstate NY is no worse than, for example, the weather in Massachusetts (all of New England), Michigan, Northern Pennsylvania, Northern Illinois. Wisconsin, Iowa (and points north), etc. It would be a shame to rule out two great schools that fit the bill youâve described just because youâre concerned about the weather. RPI especially, doesnât get the Lake Effect snow that Central NY gets because itâs far from the Great Lakes.
Brandeisâ CS department seems to emphasize artificial intelligence, computational linguistics, and databases, but is light in some other topics like operating systems and compilers. WUStLâs CS department has a significantly greater emphasis on hardware and system software than most, but is somewhat lighter elsewhere. These characteristics are visible by looking at the courses listed in their catalogs.
Thanks for all the research @ucbalumnus. That was an interesting list. It would be great if people could fill in some of the ?s for colleges they know.
Iâm really surprised that most of the electives are only every 2 years at Harvey Mudd and that there is no security and cryptography class.
There are less than 200 students per class at Mudd. In all majors, students have to keep an eye on their sequencing to stay on track to graduate. The departments do a very good job of it, though. They email students if they think they are not registered for what they should be to stay on track.
Also, remember that other 5Cs colleges offer CS courses as well. My kid took one at Pomona last year.
Interesting, none of the 5C colleges appear to offer a security & cryptography course.
Thanks for feedbacks. We are in St Louis and Wash U is a little close to home for him. Great school and great choice. Visited Harvey MuddâŠcrazy great school, looked a little dull (no offense). Wasnât a school he had good feeling about and likely a real stretch to get in. Was asked if financial is consideration. Relevant to be sure but will pay premium for the right school for him. I keep seeing posted EDâŠnot sure what that means?
We have a friend who began Freshman year at Tulsa. Heard nothing but extraordinary things about the school and now investigating computer science program. Sure looks like great place to be a student.