With so many LACs offering computer science, how do you know how solid a program is? What would one look for or ask at the small-medium sized, lesser known schools? For example, my son is being recruited by Arcadia, Moravian, Allegheny, Marywood, and looking at others in the northeast/NE area. From what I have read, seems like Marywood has a strong architecture program…at least that’s what comes up when I search. Typical rankings show top 20ish schools. I know nothing about this major other than my kid likes it and is teaching himself to code. He will be taking his first comp sci course (AP) his senior year.
Regarding Allegheny, faculty there participated in inititiating and designing a model computer science curriculum for liberal arts colleges as part of the Liberal Arts Computer Science Consortium. If Allegheny has kept pace since that time, they should remain a solid choice for the study of CS.
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Yes, of this list, Allegheny jumps out at me as a strong choice. Not only do they have a solid CS major, but they also have Data Science and Informatics. Since your son is new to CS, he may not know yet which of these emphases he would enjoy most, so having a range of options, vs. CS being an all-or-nothing thing, could be a real plus.
One thing to look at, at the various schools, is the list of CS faculty. How many full-time/tenured profs are there, vs. lecturers/adjuncts? Also, if you can find out how many graduate in the major each year, that can be a good indicator too.
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Find out how many (and which) CS courses are actually offered (not just listed). The challenge at small LACs is that they often don’t offer advanced CS courses or provide research opportunities. So depending on how deep your son wants to get into CS, he may be limited at a LAC.
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Take a look at the upper level CS courses and how frequently they are offered at each school. A good CS department should offer upper level courses in areas like algorithms, theory of computation, operating systems, compilers, databases, networks, AI/ML, security and cryptography, software engineering, and hardware topics. Minimum frequency is once every two years, but more often is better to reduce the risk of missing a course due to scheduling.
But also check if CS is so popular that demand overflows the department capacity, resulting in rationing of the major or courses. While this is common at many big state flagships, it can also affect LACs like Pomona and Swarthmore.
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Also see outcomes for cs grads. A LAC may be a feeder to a local employer. Who recruits their cs grads?
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Thank you all for the suggestions (and please keep them coming!).
Would we contact admissions or someone else at the school to get answers to these questions re: course offerings, higher level courses, fulltime faculty, etc., or is most of this found on specific school websites? Right now he has an extensive list of schools (60+) because of the need to cast a wide net for recruiting, so if some of those could drop off the list due to strength of major alone, it would help him narrow his focus a bit. Alleghany is a contender but he’s hoping to stay a bit closer to home. We’re in CT and it’s a good 7.5 hrs drive, plus area seems a bit remote overall.
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Yes this, ask about outcomes. Off the top of my head, I know Grinnell grads do pretty well with post grad job/grad school placement. I know Grinnell is not NE but they had a nice link and this is the kind of info that would be useful and I’m in the midwest so I just know a little bit more about those schools.
I would also look closely at curriculum, number of CS faculty, on campus opportunities. Schools can really vary widely in offerings with this. Some schools might only have 1-2 CS faculty members. Which can be tough if you don’t happen to click with them.
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For options closer to CT, the smaller SUNY schools are D3 and a lot of them have strong CS programs; and they offer their flagship-match rate to CT students.
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The CS department web site at the college should have a faculty roster. Course offerings and schedules could be either there or on central (to the college) catalog and schedule web sites.
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So you can use this tool to look up how many people are graduating with different primary majors at various colleges:
For Computer Science or related, Allegheny is 23, Moravian 18, Arcadia 14, Marywood 7. I’d probably want to know why Marywood is that low for a popular major these days.
So Allegheny is in Meadville, a cute old (actually very old) county seat, and only about 45 minutes from Erie. It is also close to a couple recreational lakes, Conneaut (under 20 minutes) and then the much bigger Pymatuning (under 30). There is also a ski resort and the Allegheny National Forest, each about 1 hour away.
I guess my point is there is a lot to do around there! It is actually a popular recreation area for people in Western PA or Northeastern Ohio. But you would have to get used to the distance from CT.
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Thank you, this is very helpful! We’re going to a game-day visit in April so he’ll have an opportunity to see the area.
This thread might be helpful for you: Computer Science Programs: How to Differentiate
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I was going to suggest College Navigator^^^ as well.
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Also, for a student who hopes to do a demanding major like CS and compete as a varsity athlete… I wouldn’t overestimate the amount of time he’ll have to explore the surrounding area, at any college.
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That’s a really good point.
Actually, come to think of it, some of the D3 recruited athletes we know were looking at things like travel times. I gathered there could be quite the difference depending on the sport, conference, relative location within the conference, possible traffic and weather conditions, and so on.
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Would you consider reversing your search criteria; start with strong CS programs at schools that are desirable, then work on the recruiting?
Having been there I know it feels good to be wanted, but might it be more important they provide a high quality, career placement proven usable education?
But I also see the other side, my friend’s son is at a school specifically known for getting their athletes qualified for the Olympics. That’s a criteria/goal that might have life-long meaning.
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