<p>Hi,
I'm an international applicant from India and want to study in an LAC. Could you help me decide what LAC'S to apply to
SAT:CR+M:1600 W:630(should I take it again to Improve my W score?</p>
<p>Gpa: 3.7 Math,physics,chemistry,French, English and computer science for 4 years and biology and economics for only grade 9 and 10.</p>
<p>I'm not sure if this counts as an EC but I've done about 20 courses on coursera/udacity/edx. I hope the fact that I've completed 20 is a good indicator of academic interest . Guitar for about 2 years, played in 5 public events. Internship at a tech and education company for the past 9 months( 20 hrs a week). Frequently attend my local android developer group. Attended a 2 week conference on algorithms, operating systems and cryptography. Attended a 4 day conference on computer architecture, complexity theory and circuit design. </p>
<p>Fin aid. Not too important. My parents salary is around $ 150,00 but we have lots of equity, land and stuff around 3 million usd and no debt. </p>
<p>I'm right now taking a gap year. I intend on doing cs with a minor in economics or cs with a minor in philosophy. Not really looking at engineering per se I prefer a science course</p>
<p>CS is a subject that is often somewhat difficult to find a strong department at a smaller school or LAC. While some smaller schools and LACs with a heavy technical emphasis like Harvey Mudd have strong CS departments, you should check the course catalogs and schedules of candidate schools carefully to see what they offer and how frequently.</p>
<p>I have this same concern! But I agree, good CS program and LACs are hard to come by. Everyone suggests Harvey Mudd. I think Amherst and Swarthmore are also pretty good (at the LAC level)? But they are also very selective.</p>
<p>Are you male or female? I know some of the all-girls schools that are nearby other universities can be pretty good. But if you type in “LAC with strong computer science” or something like that, you’ll find similar topics and everyone there always tells you to look up whether or not the school has certain classes in CS. </p>
<p>Amherst’s CS department is relatively small and limited, but the cross registration with UMass - Amherst can be used to fill in gaps in the offerings.</p>
<p>I’m male. University of Portland is catholic university is that ever an issue? I’m not religious at all more agnostic than atheist though. Amherst sounds good. I think I’ll add that to my list</p>
<p>I ran the cc super match and skidmore was no1. Univ of Chicago was second ( well bryn marr was but I can’t go there…) how good are the colleges. Never heard of skidmore</p>
<p>You might want to check out some of these LACs (in rough order of selectivity):
Swarthmore, Pomona, Williams, Harvey Mudd
Vassar
Macalester, Oberlin, Grinnell
Union College</p>
<p>LACs tend to offer relatively few CS courses, probably for at least 3 reasons:
virtually all LACs are very small
Their academic programs focus on traditional liberal arts majors (English, history, economics, biology, math, etc.); Computer Science is not a traditional “liberal art”
Good Computer Scientists can make a lot more money working for a company (or from university research spin-off) than they can teaching at a LAC, so it may be difficult for some LACs to hire and keep good professors</p>
<p>In as few as 15-25 courses, a college can cover much of the core CS curriculum recommended by the ACM.
<a href=“http://www.acm.org/education/curricula-recommendations”>http://www.acm.org/education/curricula-recommendations</a>
The Liberal Arts Computer Science Consortium has developed a Model Curriculum for a Liberal Arts Degree in Computer Science. It states that courses for a typical CS major would comprise about 30% of the entire undergraduate program.
<p>In observing trends at small LACs over the past 10 years, I’d say that their CS departments are getting stronger–more funding, more students majoring, more classes, more overall emphasis. However, aside from Mudd which is a category in itself, LACs don’t have the CS fire power that you’d find at larger universities. </p>
<p>There may be other reasons that you’d choose an LAC though: small classes, individual attention etc. </p>
<p>Your scores are strong. (No, I wouldn’t retake because of your writing score.) Your grades are borderline for some of the most selective LACs, but being a full pay Indian national, may actually be an advantage at some LACs that are located in rural areas, or the Midwest. These colleges have a hard time attracting high achieving minorities and often use internationals to up their diversity percentages. </p>
<p>So Id look at Amherst, Williams, Middlebury, Bowdoin, Hamilton, Grinnell, Carleton. </p>
<p>I want to take a lac because of the small size and also the lac subjects. While I do really enjoy CS what I really like a philosophy I don’t think I’m gonna major in it though let’s see. If I had to select 6 colleges ( 3 reach 2 match and 1 safety) would his be a good list? Mudd, panoma swarthmore carelton Amherst and some safety not sure which, sorry for bad grammar spelling using an iPad </p>
<p>I agree that Harvey Mudd might be a good fit. And other top schools like Amherst, Williams, Pomona are always great choices. Maybe also look at Bucknell, Lafayette, Union (safety) which are LACs that also offer engineering.</p>
<p>It also depends on which 16 courses are offered. Some schools (not necessarily LACs – e.g. Georgetown and Tulane) have CS offerings that are heavily concentrated in particular subareas, with limitations in other subareas. Perhaps good if those are the subareas you are interested in, not so good if you want to get broader coverage of topics in CS.</p>
<p>Small CS departments may also offer each upper division course only occasionally, like once every two years. In such a case, you would have to take the courses on the school’s schedule (and hope that they are not full), not when you would like to take them. And, if in the term that a course of interest is offered, it has a time conflict with some other course you want to take (not necessarily in the same department), you have to choose one or the other. Check on-line schedules if this is a concern.</p>
<p>Note that some larger universities have CS majors that are not engineering-based (i.e. fewer additional major requirements in subjects like physics, and within an “arts and sciences” division). In such CS majors, it can be easier to add a second major like philosophy or economics than in an engineering-based CS major.</p>
<p>For example, Rutgers has a BA degree program in CS of this type:
<a href=“Error Page”>Error Page;
It also has a well respected philosophy department. But it is not a LAC by any means.</p>
<p>But note that CS enrollments are increasing, even at LACs. Harvey Mudd’s introductory CS course has been enrolling about 200 students per term, for example.</p>
<p>Here is the list of upper division CS course topics to look for when looking in course catalogs:</p>
<ul>
<li>algorithms and complexity</li>
<li>theory of computation</li>
<li>operating systems</li>
<li>networks</li>
<li>database theory</li>
<li>compilers</li>
<li>security and cryptography</li>
<li>software engineering or project course or projects in other courses</li>
<li>computer architecture and other hardware courses</li>
<li>electives that you are interested in (graphics and artificial intelligence are popular ones)</li>
</ul>