So I am an asian male student thinking about EDing to either vassar/haverford/davidson. I want to pursue computer science and want to be near a major city. I know vassar is far from a major city, but have is the campus there. is it rural? Also which one should i ed to and what are my rough chances at these schools. Some stats about me are 4.0/4.0 GPA and 1480 SAT. I am also first gen.
These point to Haverford.
@doschicos Okay thanks. Do you know how hard it is to double major in comp sci and economics. I am fine with not taking many electives, but is the double major i mentioned plausible?
Well, in your first post you only mentioned CS. But, yes, you can double major at Haverford. Some students do. One caveat is that majors at Haverford require a senior thesis. So, it is more common for students to do a major and a minor than 2 majors requiring 2 theses. But some students do double major nonetheless, including with a CS major.
@doschicos Thanks again. So I read through Haverford’s core and it seems that I have to complete 19 credits outside of my major. I am assuming that would not be the case if i had a double major. Like taking courses in econ would count towards the 19 credits outside of my major? I am confused about how the requirements would work with a double major.
I think it’s a good question to ask your regional admissions rep. I don’t know enough about the double majoring policy to answer your question.
Yes. Your second major would contribute to general degree requirements.
All great schools!
With Haverford, look at the courses you think you’d be interested in taking and how often they are offered. It’s very small – even for an LAC – and when my D went through this exercise she was concerned she wouldn’t get the breadth of courses she was looking for in her particular area of interest. Haverford students can take classes at Bryn Mawr, Swat and UPenn so that can help – but from a practical stand point it’s my understanding that it typically ends up being mostly from Bryn Mawr b/c it’s so close.
Davidson is a cute, historic college town surrounded by the the suburbs of Charlotte. Charlotte is very different from Philly – new vs. old, mostly. Also, no train to Charlotte from Davidson so access is more difficult without a car.
Charlotte is 2nd biggest banking city in the country so lots of opportunities for econ majors. They just started a big partnership with Barings you might be interested in – https://www.davidson.edu/news/2019/08/28/barings-announces-partnership-davidson-college
I don’t know much about Vassar so can’t help there.
Good luck!
1 Like
"With Haverford, look at the courses you think you’d be interested in taking and how often they are offered. It’s very small – even for an LAC – and when my D went through this exercise she was concerned she wouldn’t get the breadth of courses she was looking for in her particular area of interest. "
Plenty to choose from and no problem getting in/meeting graduation requirements. Big colleges with a laundry list of courses look great but the reality is you can only take so many courses/so many electives. And, yes, the Quaker Consortium broadens the offerings but the fact is that most students don’t need it.
Thank you all so much!
@doschicos – of course there’s lots to choose from at Haverford in general terms. Just saying if a student has particular academic interests, the smaller the school the more important it is to make sure those interests are met, not only by course offerings but also by frequency of offering them. I consider looking into that as due diligence.
Vassar actually has the largest CS faculty (currently 8 plus 1 visitor). Haverford has 5 plus 1 visitor. Davidson has a combined math and CS department, so you may have to dig around to see how many effective CS faculty there are (looks like around 4 in CS, 2 in areas that are kind of both math and CS (theory, discrete math), and 3 visitors or adjuncts).
Based on course listings, Vassar appears to have the widest range of upper level CS courses offered, though you should do more investigation (may have to ask each CS department directly about what courses are offered at what frequency). If you are considering Haverford’s cross-registration agreements, check how convenient they are (commuting to the other campus, whether upper level CS courses at the other campus have space for cross registration students).
Vassar’s general education requirements do not appear to be particularly heavy, so that adding a second major may not be too difficult. Again, you should do your own investigation on how easily you can fit the two majors you are interested in at each college.
Also you would have an admissions boost at Vassar being a male student.
Vassar appears to house accomplished economics faculty: https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.uslacecon.html.
Vassar’s open curriculum is very helpful to double major.
If you are going to count Haverford’s faculty/classes in any major, with the Bi-college, you need to look at Bryn Mawr as well. It is very seamless and just a 5 minute Blue Bus ride away. Students take classes on both campuses quite frequently. Registration and scheduling are coordinated and not an issue.
I do not think I am going to apply to Vassar because it seems very suburban. I think I am going to ED to Haverford as intended major of economics and then double up with comp sci. Thank you for all your help