How would Williams CS compare to schools like Penn State, U of Pitt, Tufts, Wash U, UCLA, Rutgers? Prospective student trying to narrow down options. Really couldn’t find much on the department. How is it in terms of internships at tech companies and job placement (software engineering) upon graduation?
A lot of people who know that they’re going to major in CS come to Williams because they know that the department is excellent and that they’ll be able to enjoy the perks of a liberal arts education in addition to becoming better at CS. I’d say that, based on what I’ve heard from CS majors at Williams, pretty much any avenue is open to you if you graduate with a CS degree. I have friends going to Google, Facebook, etc. every summer, and many more who just do CS as a secondary interest who are being heavily recruited by financial firms for their expertise. However, if you don’t care about anything besides CS, Williams isn’t a good place to come because you’ll have to take some non-CS classes that you may not potentially want to take (at least 6, although these classes are totally your choice).
A Williams professor (along with those from Hamilton, Swarthmore, Allegheny, Vassar, Washington & Lee, Colgate, Amherst and Bowdoin) was among the first to have actively initiated and designed a model CS curriculum for liberal arts colleges. This would tend to indicate that Williams’ CS is one of the more established programs nationally.
(Liberal Arts Computer Science consortium.)