Computer science might not be the first field that springs to mind when thinking of the liberal arts, but at some colleges, interdisciplinary computing is seen as one way to connect the department to other disciplines on campus.
The program, which – if the college’s timeline holds – will launch in fall 2017 with a full major the following year, will still look familiar to anyone who has spent any time in a computer science department. But once students finish foundational courses in coding and programming, they face a decision about how to specialize. They could choose a “deep dive” in artificial intelligence or big data, Auer said, or pick a pathway that leads through a different departments or majors, exploring textual analysis in a literature course or data visualization in a chemistry course.
“You have to be very savvy in how you create a curriculum so that students get enough of what they need to be able to sell themselves for that first job,” Tims said. “You have to build the idea that students that come from liberal arts institutions are broader thinkers. Tech skills get you in the door. Your ability to communicate, to see the bigger picture and work together with others really help people develop more quickly in the career space.”
“The majority of computing jobs today are not housed solely within the tech industry,” Barr wrote. “More appropriately, every field is now a tech field, and students who can work at the intersection of disciplines will be at an advantage.”
As a LAC grad who wound up in CS as an adult, I think it’s fantastic. I’d love my science-ey D to take a couple of CS courses, and have CS as part of others - epidemiology, biostatistics, etc. It’s a new world and I think such skills are incredibly important. They can be gotten later on but IMO it’s ideal to get them in college rather than after.
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/02/23/liberal-arts-colleges-explore-interdisciplinary-pathways-computer-science