Best Undergraduate Programs in CS for Women

AccCreate
Mon, 08 Feb 2016 18:54:14 +0000

I personally don’t understand (also) the idea of “well suited for women with little experience”.

As much as I hate to admit, CS courses in EVERY credible university in US are curved. That means a certain percentage gets A’s, B’s, etc.
In other words, the Intro CS course will always have a disproportionate number of experienced programmers getting the A’s (in EVERY credible college as far as I am aware of). However, after the first class of programming, that difference really disappears as it’s mostly algorithms, etc…

Plus, if you had done properly your first Intro CS course, you should be able to also pull an A (or a B).

And like it or not, Brown (along with UIUC, Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, and a few other schools) are one of the very very few schools that emphasize lots of projects (relatively to other schools) for CS.
And add on to that, CS by nature is not an easy major. You will have to work hard whether you programmed beforehand or not. Please don’t fall into the collegeconfidential trap for “oh this college is well suited to women” or “oh this college is well suited for little experience”.
Yes, women’s college will “suit” women (cause it’s a women’s school).
But the idea for the vast majority of colleges being suited for a specific group is a bit… of an overstatement. CS courses at the end of the day are curved and it is impossible to have a credible school in which absolutely no one knows how to program before college.
And “well suited for women”. I actually question that statement. I really do. Technically by those words, almost every US college cater the “minority” because there are minority helping programs. But almost all my friends I know do not bother with those programs (except for applying to maybe scholarships, interns, etc.) and at the end of the day, it is your work that gives the grade, not the school.

If you worry the guy-girl ratio, then that’s a different story. But please don’t mistake by many of the parents here that “one school doesn’t care about females” or that one of their son’s or daughter’s school does.
In addition, you have to understand many top schools will be challenging by nature. Your son’s school is no exception (adding to the fact that it is literally regarded as one of the top undergrad CS programs in the country).

Just another give or take from me. Take my words with a grain of salt if you want to but as a student, I can ensure you the notion of “well suited for women with little experience” is a bit laughable unless you are attending a women’s college or a college concentrated mostly with women (which then by nature will cater women more).

And almost every top CS schools have programs in which clubs help struggling CS students. In Columbia Univ, it’s called “Cookies for Code” in which students would get help while getting free cookies, etc…
Please don’t fall into the idea that some top schools don’t have these programs. More than likely, all do because it is very normal for students to not come in with programming experience AND CS has become super super over-popular very recently (which in fact worries me deeply)
Plus, just let your kid go where she thinks is best for her. I mean, I know parents worry but it’s the kid that spends 4 years there, not the parents…