Sigh. I haven’t posted in a while since my Mudder graduated a few years ago, but this thread drives me crazy!! The Mudd CS majors graduate and get jobs in the top of the field (whether male or female) and get the top pay. I still can’t believe what my son is making at a major tech firm, doing work he loves. His female classmates have similar terrific positions. There is an assumption for those not familiar with Mudd that the curriculum must be easier than other places because the percentage of women is so high. That is what really drives me nuts. No Mudder is a coddled little flower. The hard grading makes all the students tough, resilient, and collaborative. They have to be or they will fail. And working with talented women in school is great for the men, who graduate and then get extra points in the work place because they have learned how to be collaborative and inclusive. Yes, I am a big fan of the Mudd approach because it was better for my son, not just better for his female peers. I am grateful that my son got his CS degree from a school that was not made up of stereotypical nerds. Mudd is full of non-stereotypical nerds! Folks in tech (and most of the workplace for that matter) work in teams. Study after study shows that teams which are diverse and collaborative are more successful. If you have a team of nothing but brogrammers, that team is not as successful. And, I don’t know of one of my son’s classmates who wanted to go into a top CS PhD program who didn’t get into one, and that included all the big universities. They have a tremendous advantage because of the research opportunities they have and the network their professors have with the graduate school professors. Mudders don’t have to compete with graduate students to get the great experience. The complaint I heard from professors was that many CS majors did not want to go into the PhD programs because they could make so much money going right into the workplace. If you don’t want to teach or do theoretical research, it is hard to justify on a cost benefit analysis the lost wages. Start-ups just sound so much sexier. That was the decision my Mudder made even though he really enjoyed his summer research project – which included presenting his research at a conference in Europe paid for by Mudd. The CS taught at Mudd is not CS light. It is CS tough, but introduced in a way that is more practical and novice friendly. My son was not in the novice class, but the novices catch up fast and are expected to meet the same requirements for graduation as those who came in with programming experience. Nothing prepares a young woman for success in the marketplace like having better skills than the jerks who want to hold her back (sure beats perfume and a sweet speaking voice). And the number of job offers, and subsequent job advancement that each of the Mudders that I know shows that employers agree.