There are a lot of threads that deal with variations of this theme (“LAC or not?”), though not specifically in regard to CS, usually. Given that this is College Confidential I imagine the topic will stay perennially popular.
…and I doubt it will be locked unless people start getting mean or insulting the OP.
I hope OP checks back in at some point.
Re: #17 and #18
The linked article gives little information about what the methodology is, but hints that it is not restricted to those in technical majors or jobs. But it also does not mention whether it is sampling only those signing up with Upstart (a student loan / investment platform), or if it has access to employment information of new graduates of each college (which may be not be the easiest thing to get). If it is sampling only the Upstart users, that can heavily skew the results.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m searching for evidence that LAC works for CS majors as well. I don’t have a conclusion or agenda.
Here’s a paper written by a Swarthmore professor and a Grinnell professor supporting the LAC+CS programs:
https://www.cs.swarthmore.edu/~cfk/cs-liberal-arts-accepted.pdf
Release the hounds…
The answer lies in the student. Since this thread is about CS the decision should be simple: consider the programs and make an informed decision. After extensive analysis (classes, facilities, even to named professors) my son actually had a LAC at the top of his list (I still shudder 
). He also had east coast schools, west cost schools, publics and privates. After visiting the LAC campus however, it fell off his list (I slept well that night).
Any student that limits his analysis of what the best CS program is for them is short changing their education. Again, it is the program - the classes, the facilities, the professors that, in the end, will give them the opportunity to realize their potential. And by program I mean more than CS, because that is too broad. Most CS students that I know are not pursuing a “CS” degree they are pursuing a specialized CS degree in Artificial Intelligence, Biocomputation, or Pure CS Theory.
So the question should be (for instance): is a LAC or national University the best place to study Artificial Intelligence?
At the junior/senior level, the availability of various CS topic courses is important for a CS major, but undergraduate CS majors do not specialize that heavily – they typically choose (or are required to take) a reasonably broad selection for upper level CS topics in order to be prepared for either industry employment or MS/PhD study in any of many areas of CS. Selection of in-major electives can give some specialization, but not to the level that MS/PhD students focus on.
^^ Not sure about that at a certain Palo Alto area University. I’ve seen the plan…
Stanford offers an unspecialized track and an individually designed track within the CS major, as well as some more specialized tracks. But even the more specialized tracks include some general CS electives outside of the tracks.
http://cs.stanford.edu/degrees/undergrad/Tracks.shtml
http://cs.stanford.edu/degrees/undergrad/ProgramSheets.shtml
^^And that is my point. Larger universities have the ability, facilities, and professors to offer compelling tracks. Stanford’s CS tracks currently include:
Artificial Intelligence
Biocomputation
Computer Engineering
Graphics
Human-Computer Interaction
Information
Systems
Theory
Unspecialized
Individually Designed
Other top CS universities offer the same, but I am not sure if many LACs could deliver the same educational experience. HMU, yes, but that’s and outlier.
Thank you all for your input and responses. It seems overwhelmingly people disagree(with a few exceptions) with the conclusion of Mr. Welsh. As someone who has started with their college search I value the opinion of others on all fronts and I am completely open to the idea of attending a LA college for CS but I’m relying on the expertise of others to help make an informed decision.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19190340/#Comment_19190340 is an older thread on upper level CS course offerings at various smaller schools (but check school web sites for changes). You may want to investigate how “complete” each school’s offerings of upper level CS courses are, since smaller schools may have limited or infrequent offering of less popular courses.
Re: #27
Note that the other three of the “big four” in CS do not have specialized tracks in undergraduate CS to the same level that Stanford does. For example:
CMU: https://www.csd.cs.cmu.edu/academics/undergraduate/requirements
MIT: http://catalog.mit.edu/degree-charts/computer-science-engineering-course-6-3/
UCB: https://eecs.berkeley.edu/resources/undergrads/cs/degree-reqs-upperdiv and https://eecs.berkeley.edu/resources/undergrads/eecs/degree-reqs
CMU and MIT specify some level of breadth within CS, plus additional electives. UCB essentially lets CS and EECS majors choose all of their upper level CS courses as in-major electives with only the requirement of design courses for some.
Also, would Stanford students in any of the tracks (other than unspecialized) really be that specialized, since their programs include some CS electives not restricted to their track areas?
^^ Again it is the ability to choose from a breadth of courses. The tracks may be less formal than what Stanford offers, but the ability to choose and go-deep is the differentiator.
Electives may not be in the area of specialization, but for many they go even deeper. This is also a value proposition for a larger university - it’s the availability and depth of options. That’s hard to replicate at a LAC. But, again, that’s up to individual students desires and capabilities.
Looking at number of graduates from particular schools, either absolute numbers or percentages, who are working in CS is asking the wrong question. Of course tiny schools will always have fewer grads working in Silicon Valley than big schools. It’s irrelevant.
The right question is how likely a CS grad from a particular LAC is to get a good CS job after graduation. And the way you answer that is to find out which employers recruit at the school and where the grads are going. I would be shocked if there aren’t any number of excellent LAC’s with excellent CS placement records.
Big schools will have bigger departments and more courses. Small schools will generally have more attention from professors, more focus on undergrad education, smaller classes and often more opportunities for undergrads to do serious research. So each choice has advantages and disadvantages. Consider those factors as well as all the other factors that will matter to your broader education and to your college experience.
Some schools publish their recent alum outcomes. If you can’t find them online, ask the schools if they can provide the report. Here’s an example from one small LAC with solid placement:
https://www.haverford.edu/sites/default/files/Center/CCPA/Class-of-2016-Career-Plans.pdf
Here’s another example - several years old:
https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/media/Career%2520Center%25202014-2015%2520Annual%2520Report_Final.pdf
Welsh’s advice is nonsense.
On a tangential note, as an English major I find myself desperately holding back from taking a red pen to his post. An attorney who doesn’t know the difference between its and it’s, and the proper uses of who and that? It seems to me he would have benefitted from a good freshman writing class. His poor communication skills would make me hesitate before investing my money with him.
I’m a recent graduate of Pomona and have friends working at Google, Facebook, Apple, SpaceX, Lyft, Twitter, AirBnB, Microsoft, Laserfiche, Intel, Esri, Cisco, and LinkedIn, among other places. The median salary was 87.5K for these grads in 2015 according to our “Where Do Grads Go” document. I don’t think attending a LAC has hurt them.
It isn’t surprising that Silicon Valley hiring seems to favor large west coast universities (esp. if you only look at raw numbers not percents). Most top LACs are concentrated in the east and midwest. What would we see if we normalize for school size, look past the top 10 feeders, and look at other hiring centers besides Silicon Valley (such as Boston/Route 128, Baltimore-Washington, or the NC research triangle)? Anecdotal reports and college web sites suggest that top LACs do pretty well in CS career outcomes.
https://www.macalester.edu/academics/mscs/aftermac/ (recent CS/math grads at Amazon, Google, and Microsoft … but also at local/regional employers such as the Mayo Clinic, Epic Systems, AppFirst, Code42)
https://www.cs.swarthmore.edu/people/alumni.html (recent CS grads at Google, Venmo, Etsy, Mathworks, Nest,Facebook, Morgan Stanley … and in graduate school programs at Cornell, CMU, Princeton, UMass-Amherst)
https://csci.williams.edu/people/alumni-directory/ (recent CS grads at Google, Amazon, Ebay, IBM, Deloitte, Epic Systems, Lawrence Livermore, McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, BBN … Princeton, Harvard, Berkeley, Stanford, Cambridge)
https://apps.carleton.edu/curricular/cs/alumniprofiles/ (CS grads at Google, Pinterest, IBM, Lockheed Martin, Cray, Amazon, Thomson Reuters)
http://www.wesleyan.edu/mathcs/cs/jobs_etc.html (CS grads at Google, Amazon, Facebok, IBM, Groupon, Pandora, JP Morgan, Federal Reserve Bank, Goldman Sachs, Fidelity, Cigna)
http://www.wellesley.edu/cs/beyond/cs-jobs#VWJ40JfwazccTRtU.97 (CS grads at Google, Apple, Microsoft, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley)
LACs do tend to have more limited course offerings than large RUs across many majors, not just CS. That’s “a feature not a bug” if you want to emphasize breadth not depth. Especially if your college has heavy distribution/core requirements and prerequisites, you won’t be left with too much room to specialize anyway. But if you do want to do that and you’re allowed to place out of many elementary/intermediate courses, then yes, you may prefer a big research university.
@doschicos - here is the latest one (2016). https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/media/LoebCenter_AnnualReport_2015-16.pdf
This is graduates by outcomes, 2016: https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/media/FY17%2520Career%2520Center%2520First%2520Destination_FINAL_3%25202%252017.pdf - financial services is by far the most popular job that year, but 8% of students went into “Comp Sci and IT”. Amherst is a lot closer to Wall St than Silicon Valley.
Nonetheless,Google tops the list of “Top Employers by Number of Amherst Employees”.
“Where grads are working” measures like this are tricky for CS since students who major in something else also go work for these companies. One student my D knew at Amherst went to Google (she had that offer before senior year) but she majored in biochemistry
Amherst is not known as one of the top CS LACs but it seems its grads do OK. The whole issue bears a closer look if you think a LAC will suit you in general.
Amherst does have an advantage in that cross registration with nearby UMass allows a CS major to take additional CS courses that may not be offered at Amherst.