@ucbalumnus How does that work? What other schools offer cross registration?
Wellesley, Harvard and MIT have cross-registration
@Luska19 liberal arts colleges that are part of a consortium offer that. The Claremont colleges, the 5 colleges (Amherst is one), Bryn Mawr/Haverford/Swarthmore etc.
Just because i’m curious I looked at linked in Google folks who went to Amherst and it’s interesting to me that only some majored in CS, despite having tech roles.
One is a systems integration analyst and her major was double black studies with psych (neuro emphasis). No grad school I can see.
Director, Customer Experience Strategy & Operations at Google was geology and history double, but did get an MA in econ/international business
A software engineer at Google majored in Asian Languages and CS, one with CS and math,
Quantitative Analyst at Google - Chem and math major with a phD in stats
A bunch of current Google interns majoring in Philosophy, CS/math, CS,
Associate Account Strategist Google - history major
Legal Investigations Associate Google - English/math
Software Engineer, Tools and Infrastructure at Google New York - CS and Russian
Software Engineer at Google - the woman i referred to above actually triple majored in Biochem, CS and music (!)
One left Google to be head engineer for a startup but he had lots of additional school after his math and Biochem double major at A
Product manager at FB, previously Google was a math/Econ double
Vice President, Performance Media at Google majored in Poli Sci (then got an MBA)
HR Business Partner at Google - English then MBA
Frontend Engineer at Google - double music and an interdisciplinary major he created covering Computer Science, Math, and Economics
UX Research and Strategy at Google - Fine arts, Econ, Anthropology - grad school was a BFA (!)
And basket weaver, oops i mean Psych major, is Creative Business Partner at Google.
…and a bunch more but I am out of time, some of whom went right to work after the BA and some who did more school.
It seems there are many paths to Silicon Valley.
@OHMomof2 Thank you for that. The only one I had even ever heard of was MIT and Harvard.
Barnard + Columbia is another one.
^Barnard and Columbia are part of the same university and registering classes is completely integrated, not even a like a consortium, from what i understand.
UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke for Robertson Scholars
Regarding cross registration, note that logistics vary. While some are pretty seamless in that the participating schools share the same academic calendar and are either adjacent or make it easy to commute between them, some others require more planning due to different academic calendars or commuting difficulties.
And some share academic calendars and boast close proximity but restrict their classes to their own students. Some only allow registration in a different school if they don’t offer the class on campus. It’s important to check out the details before relying on a consortium to augment course offerings.
Just for giggles:
According to Linkedin, 1% of Google’s employees received their diplomas from just 21 LACs:
Pomona - 92
Middlebury - 81
Wellesley - 77
Williams - 75
Wesleyan - 67
Colgate - 64
Amherst - 61
Oberlin - 58
Barnard - 57
Carleton - 55
Pitzer - 52
Claremont-McKenna - 50
URichmond - 42
Bowdoin - 37
Trinity - 33
Hamilton - 31
Bates - 29
Colby - 27
Connecticut - 24
Bryn Mawr - 22
Davidson - 12
@circuitrider I believe there are 13 Google employees from Harvey Mudd
Of course the list @circuitrider provided certainly includes employees who did not major in CS, as I found when I looked at Amherst. Some of those anthro/history/whatever majors are coding anyway (coding is not rocket science…) but many are in management or HR or marketing or UI design etc.
@Luska19 what is your goal in choosing CS as major? Is there a particular career you are interested in?
Actually, @Luska19 , it’ a lot more than that. I came up with 164 Mudders!
Also, 72 Swatties and 31 from Lafayette (HMC, Swarthmore and Lafayetter all have engineering programs.)
And, there’s a correction on Pitzer (forgot to follow my own instructions and back out the previous search.)
And yes, @OHMomof2 , there are a lot of non-CS jobs at Google. Still, for the quintessential internet company, LACs are well-represented:
Harvey Mudd -164
Pomona - 92
Middlebury - 81
Wellesley - 77
Williams - 75
Swarthmore - 72
Wesleyan - 67
Colgate - 64
Amherst - 61
Oberlin - 58
Barnard - 57
Carleton - 55
Claremont-McKenna - 50
URichmond - 42
Bowdoin - 37
Trinity - 33
Hamilton - 31
Lafayette - 31
Bates - 29
Colby - 27
Connecticut - 24
Bryn Mawr - 22
Davidson - 12
Pitzer - 10
Google actually recruits quite heavily out of URichmond. They visit the CS department usually at least once a semester.
@OHMomof2 I guess my goal in choosing CS as a major is continuing towards a career doing things I love. CS involves so many aspects of what I’m looking for and enjoy:
Problem solving
Math
Analyzing
Technology
Solving puzzles
Creativity
Thinking
Challenges
For me it’s fun. I enjoy coding, coding bat, coding competitions, hacking etc…I don’t have much interest in IT or Hardware.
I guess at this point my career choice would be software designer possibly in the field of AI but I think I’ll get a better understanding and gravitate towards a specific interest as I get further along.
IMO the LAC is not important but the BA/BS distinction is. A BA generally does not have the depth of a BS in computer science. It would make a difference in hiring for a very technical position.
Source - MIT grad in CSE, former hiring manager at MSFT.
@seattle_mom Oh boy, that is going to open up a can of worms since most consider no difference between a BA and BS from what I’ve read.
Having worked as a software developer for 30+ years, I can’t speak for what college will get you the best first job, but I can say with certainty that 5 years after you graduate what will matter is how well you can pick up new skills, how well you can differentiate flash-in-the-pan fads from important new technologies, how well you can communicate with non-technical clients and co-workers, how well you can think deeply about problems.
The best LACs excel at developing these traits, as do the best tech schools, and also the best research universities. Tens of thousands of people also develop these traits having gone to community colleges and giant ‘mid-level’ universities.
The BA versus BS degree title comparison is meaningless across different schools, since each school can set its own degree requirements independently of what other schools set. If the same school offers both a BA and BS version of the same major, any differences would be school-specific; it is not necessarily true that the BA version is “lesser” than the BS version.
For example, UCB offers a BA major in CS (in the College of Letters and Science) and a BS major in EECS (in the College of Engineering). The BA major actually has more required upper division course work (27 credit units consisting of 12 credit units of CS + 8 credit units of CS or EE + 7 credit units of CS, EE, or technical electives) than the BS major (20 credit units of CS or EE), although many students take more upper division course work in their majors than the minimums.
https://eecs.berkeley.edu/resources/undergrads/cs/degree-reqs-upperdiv
https://eecs.berkeley.edu/resources/undergrads/eecs/degree-reqs
Note that UCB only offers BA majors in some other subjects like math, statistics, and physics.
Google actually recruits quite widely, since it has large needs and recruiting resources, and realizes that talent may be found at more than a few dozen colleges.