I’m intending to transfer to a 4-year college from my community college’s honors program. I’m a female looking to major in Computer Science. I’ve been looking into different colleges and I’d like your opinion on the following colleges for their Computer Science Departments and overall as colleges. For now, please ignore stats.
Wesleyan:
-Very good school
-Like the fact that it’s a larger LAC
-Not sure at all about the Computer Science Department, apparently it’s a joint department with math??? I’m having trouble finding out more info about computer science there.
Haverford:
-Very good school
-Good Computer Science Department (from what I know)
-But it’s very tiny?? Because the department is so small, especially as a transfer student I might have difficulty?
-Consortium with Swarthmore, Penn, Bryn Mawr: Not sure how convenient/helpful this will be for a computer science major and in general
Connecticut College:
-Seems to have a good computer science department with interesting course offerings
-Know the least about this college, so insight would be helpful!
Hamilton College:
-Good Computer Science Department
-From what I know, not very diverse
-Isolated
I was relying on @ucbalumnus’ spreadsheet(s) in the thread cited above. Apparently, if he was unable to ascertain the frequency with which a school offered a certain course, it receives a question mark “?” under that heading. Connecticut College received ??? ?? across the board; Haverford received a blank space which I “translate” as “0” under the compilers heading. Wesleyan was omitted from any of the spreadsheets but it appears that it offers compilers and databases every other year, from looking at its catalog. If a transfer student has only two years left before graduation, a lot of the 2s and ?s on that chart turn into 0s which - counterintuitively- would be the case even at Harvey Mudd, again according to @ucbalumnus .
The other issue is that many of these upper level CS classes have prerequisites that are very important. Without those, the classes will be nigh on impossible to pass.
Depending on the CC and the course offerings and rigor, the OP may not meet those prereq’s, and may need more than 2 more years to complete the CS major. I know that in my S’s school, he cannot even take a semester abroad and still graduate in 4 years with a CS degree, since he would not be able to take all the necessary classes, as many are sequential.
A junior transfer student who comes in having completed the frosh/soph prerequisites will have one chance to take a course offered once every two years before graduation. However, a junior transfer student who has not completed the frosh/soph prerequisites (perhaps because the new school does not accept the course work taken at the old school for subject credit) may need to take “catch up” courses, which can crowd out the schedule space for junior/senior level courses, or take more than four semesters to graduate due to prerequisite sequencing.
The ‘?’ in the list are hard to tell and should require more investigation (perhaps asking the department) by interested students. Some appear to be frequent, but others may be rare.
Unfortunately that is the case for me, I will be junior transfer student. I also have not had as many CS pre-reqs completed because my school does not offer them. I realize that circumstances might make it that I have to take more than 2 years to complete a degree.
It’s weird considering students are not required to pick a major until the end of their sophomore year. What if they take a CS class for the first time during their last semester, sophomore year and decide they love it? It must be pretty difficult.
So does this mean that you recommend against some of the colleges mentioned above?
One more college I wanted to add to the mix above and ask about was John Hopkins University. Never thought to look at it for other than medical, but just found out yesterday that they have a small…but seemingly strong Computer Science Department.
@eternaldream What do you think you want to do after you get your degree? Different departments at different schools focus on different things and what you want to do might not be Comp Sci at specific schools.
At LAC Comp Sci is probably part of Math and more like Applied Math. All the “hardware” things mentioned above usually are taught as part of Computer Engineering and also networking. Databases and stuff like that as part of Comp Sci are more theory related and not practical applications of databases - that would be Information Science which might be it’s own school or part of the Business School in some cases.
So the first step is deciding what you want to do with your degree and then seeing which schools and departments match that.
That’s part of the problem. I’m not sure what I like the most. That’s actually one of the things I looked forward to most when transferring, the ability to explore different disciplines within Comp Sci and be able to get a direction. I do however, think I would prefer more of the theory related route as opposed to more concrete hardware that is similar to Computer Engineering. I’m a creative and somewhat artistic person (at least I’m told). Do you have any recommendations for me, on what possible routes are well for a person like that?
Are you very strong in math? Have you ever done any computer programming/coding?
I’d look at a school like Drexel University - disclaimer I work at Drexel in IT. I’m not marketing for Drexel it’s just I know the programs so it’s easier to talk about them.
So it’s has Comp Sci which you can try to start in but if it’s not what you want you could look to transfer to Information Systems. There is also Game Design and Production as part of the College of Media Arts which is sort of the merge of arts and design/programming.
Other schools like it I would include Northeastern, Pitt, U of Cinci, etc Larger than LACs with a variety of programs so that moving around in the school is not horrible.
I’m decent in math. I’ve taken up to Calc III (placed out of Calc I with AP Calc credit), took Stats and am taking Linear Algebra now. I like Linear much better than Calculus lol. Yes, I have taken both Java I and II, and was the Teaching Assistant for it last semester. Couldn’t continue this semester because of class conflicts. Pretty sure I won’t like Computer Information Systems though.
I’m actually applying to Northeastern My problem with the other mentioned colleges is that I require heavy amounts of financial aid (and I certainly qualify), which is why I’m looking at schools that meet 100% need, or give great financial aid. One of my other threads has the rough list of colleges I’m applying to, if you want to look.
Your situation as a transfer may be only somewhat, but not radically, different than non-transfer students at your colleges of interest. If you are currently comfortable with programming and, ideally, discrete math, you will be able to enter upper-level courses as a junior much as if you had chosen your major at one of these schools as a sophomore. With planning, there is no definite reason for your degree to be delayed.
Consider the direction of knowledge. For example, learning the programming and implementation of databases (described roughly on this thread as theory) should prepare you for either a career as a programmer or one as an information scientitist (described as practical application). Following a sequence of courses in information sciences only, which would teach skills such as the use of databases, would not prepare you for programming. LACs, therefore, which may emphasize theory, will not necessarily do so at the expense of broad application, and should be seriously considered in terms of your interests as you have described them.
Regarding the choosing of a particular college, use ucbalumus’ resource for identifying those with lots of 1s (or “higher”) in the available slots.
I cannot make a blanket statement with complete confidence, but I believe it will be very difficult to get all the necessary credits and courses to obtain a BS in CS, transferring in for the last 2 years. For my S’s school, they have 10 3 credit core courses required, 4 semesters of Colloquiums, 3 more advanced courses in optional fields, and a Senior Capstone project, with 49 total credits in CS. Max load is 17 credits, so it would be virtually impossible, and still meet other requirements for graduation in two years.
I would strongly suggest you contact some of the CS departments at these schools, show them your existing transcripts, and see what they say directly. That may also help you narrow down your potential choices.
I definitely want to get some of that programming side in.
Sigh. It will prove difficult to graduate at least somewhat, won’t it? Most elite schools don’t offer that form of contact as far as I know in evaluating transcripts. That’s one problem I ran into when deciding what courses to take. They won’t tell you
maybe or related. Articulation seems to be a whole program and path of study agreement whereas I was thinking specific class agreements such as Drexel having agreements with the Community College of Philadelphia for specific English classes, math, etc The Student IT System calls it Reciprocity agreements here.
Yes, some colleges call such agreements articulation agreements.
You can see if they exist by looking at the transfer credit web pages for each college.
When there is no such agreement, you may want to look at the target college’s course descriptions, syllabi, assignments, and exams to compare to those at your current college to see if your courses at your current college cover the same material. This does not guarantee acceptance of transfer credit, but if you can show the new college that they cover the same material (keep your current college course materials), then it may be more likely. Unfortunately, they may only be willing to evaluate after you commit to matriculation.
Yes, my school has articulation agreements with a variety of colleges including Cornell.
Tbh, that’s not my main worry. I’ve taken relatively few CS courses. Right now, with the classes I’ve taken, it’s what it is. All my other classes are very broad/general course like Calculus, Psychology, etc. and those usually transfer over most of the time.
Lol, XD I feel we’ve gotten so off topic from my original question.
My problem with the other mentioned colleges is that I require heavy amounts of financial aid (and I certainly qualify), which is why I’m looking at schools that meet 100% need, or give great financial aid. One of my other threads has the rough list of colleges I’m applying to, if you want to look.