Son was waitlisted at Swarthmore. He got a call today that a spot opened up, but he needs to reply by tomorrow. He’s interested in Computer Science. I searched this forum for Computer Science topics, but they are all a few years old. Any current CS student or people familiar with the program who can give us some updated information?
Furthermore, there was several posts on Swarthmore’s political vibe, also a few years old. It seems that in the old days, it’s quite liberal; some even say it’s “extreme liberal activists.” Did it get more moderate or even further left after Trump’s win?
Don’t know much about CS. Would a big university be better? Swat is designed to assure access to Profs. Big Us not so much access. CS is a large, growing department. Grads do well upon graduation. If you double major with econ, then very well! Most LACs have a small fraction of vulgar liberals. My little red-stater loves Swat.
@Burgermeister , thanks for replying. Can you elaborate on why “double major with econ, then very well”? Is it because of job prospect at Wall Street?
Glad to hear your red-stater doing well at Swat. Mine is blue-stater, but leans center-right. Anything not too extreme to the left is OK though.
Wall Street is a term that can be misinterpreted – there are countless roles in the financial sector. But, yes, finance and consulting. Other son went to big business school and is an ibanker. Big schools … shallow network. Small schools … very tight network. Successful Swatties call Swarthmore student cold callers back! Others on these forums have stated that it does not matter where you graduate from if coding is your only interest. I am engineer and understand that. But, if finance or consulting are of interest, then your Swarthmore graduate will do just fine. Kid interviewed with the biggest names on THE street, and found a good internship.
Extreme political types comprise 3%. Beer sippers at the local frats comprise 85%. Geniuses the other 12%. The great thing about Swat, for parents, is that no one at Swat has time to party more than one, or two nights a week. My other son at the large, prominent business school had a bit too much time on his hands.
While not so familiar with Swat, CS does not require a large university to be good at the undergrad level.
Historically an offshoot of Math departments, which can be good at any LAC.
Any major at a smaller school would have limited specialty upper level electives, compared to a large university.
You didn’t say where you would back out, but if another LAC, go for it.
If a large uni with a top CS department, could impact course selection junior/senior year,
but again, small vs big school pros and cons, not a CS specific issue.
Where has he already deposited?
I think it looks pretty good for a LAC, but it’s hard to compare without knowing the alternative
Thanks for the responses. Yes, the other alternatives are all large schools with prominent CS programs, such as University of Washington, Georgia Tech, UCSD, USC, Cal Poly. He has deposited at University of Washington. He’s direct admit to CS program plus Honors, and we are in-state, so it makes a lot of sense.
He likes CS but also have desire to learn Economics or Business. His admission to USC was for CS+Business.
Last week, we were trying to see how a double major or major-minor at UW would work. It’s certainly not easy to do at UW, as the Business School is also competitive admission, and tons of kids apply in Junior year. So @Burgermeister 's mention of “CS+Economics” rang a bell. I assume there’s no barrier to double major at Swarthmore; and the prospect of a career on Wall Street is probably better than UW’s.
He doesn’t want to do PhD though, at least not currently thinking of that. In March, he went to a small LAC for a scholarship competition. During the interview, the professors keep asking him “why don’t you want to do PhD? 70% of our students go on to top PhD programs.” He was turned off by that and insisted that he want to work after college. Not surprisingly, he didn’t get the scholarship.
Very easy to double major at Swat. Yes, they are a PhD feeder but the profs and dean go out of their way to check in on my son. Now I will make your student’s decision more difficult … my little Wall Streeter’s entry level class included grads from the usual suspects (e.g. UVA and Cornell) but also UMiss and Alleghany College. Linkedin shows 274 UW finance grads in NYC. There’s your UW network.
Please let us know what your student decides.
Thanks @Burgermeister . My son declined the offer yesterday. Hopefully, some other deserving student on the waitlist can take advantage of it.
Direct Admission to Washington is way way better, we can afford as we are out of state. but that program is awesome.