Tell me about the CS program at William and Mary
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Anonymous
It isn't misleading. The thread is about Computer Science. William and Mary and the schools listed have CS programs and the schools listed at the top (Cal, Carnegie Mellon, etc.) do not have ABET accreditation for their CS programs, which are more software focused. Computer Engineering is hardware and system design focused. It differs from Computer Science. |
Anonymous
It's misleading that ABET means nothing for CS and even for CE |
Anonymous
I didn't even know W&M had a CS program. I thought it was a liberal arts school. |
Anonymous
True but if you want to work in IT, you might be better served just getting a couple certs. |
Anonymous
PP is talking about their own school, so you can't say it is ridiculous unless you know that specific high school. FWIW, it was also true for my kid's HS; the CS kids did not choose it; the humanities kids did. Also, it may become less true now that they are investing in it, but the fact that they know they have to make big changes and investments in it is why, in the past, PP's statement was true for kids who had better options for CS, even if they loved W&M too. |
Anonymous
My kid goes to a middle to slightly higher ranked, very large FCPS high school. I'm looking at the scattergrams for our HS now. Admissions rates look pretty close to identical to what the data show about VT on average, and the average GPA/SAT is lower than WM. There are very, very few Xs of kids who did not get into VT with stats at or above WM's average and there are a lot of kids below who did. So I'm not sure how your schools are so very different than ours. |
Anonymous
Liberal Arts includes mathematics. Computer Science in large part arose out of mathematics departments. Alan Turing's undergraduate degree from Cambridge and PhD from Princeton were awarded by the Mathematics departments. So most liberal arts schools have had computer sciences classes for many decades and independent computer science departments splitting off from mathematics for a long, long time. |
Anonymous
DH and I met at a SLAC, where he got a CS degree (and I did English to law school, because cliche). Fast forward and he is chief software architect for two companies under the same business. He credits his successful career and rapid advancement to attending a SLAC. He’s had to do the work over the years to stay on top of the technical aspects of the job, new languages,, advances in the field. But he says that most programmers/CS grads are terrible communicators and often aren’t great at apply information to real world scenarios that require considering multiple variables, many of which are not technical. He believes that his ability to analyze complex problems that are a mixture of technical and real world applications and especially his ability to write and speak clearly and coherently and form a clear argument that makes complex issues understandable in team meetings and to his boss has helped his career enormously. |
Anonymous
^^^ this - an IT manager |
Anonymous
most very success CS folks did not go to LACs. You might be thinking of IT workers or developers turned BSAs that don't require heavy programming knowledge. I agree that most common type developers aren't good at the non technical part of the job, but if you are trying to hire low level developers as BSAs, then that's your problem. I have seen this time and again in my 20 years in the private sector, including a long stint at a FAANG. The best SWE think creatively and outside the box. Look at all the famous SWE, like Brin, Paige, etc.. they did not go to LACs. |
Anonymous
That liberal arts studies is less popular, such that even LACs are now expanding their CS programs. This is also evidenced by the fact that several universities have killed some of their liberal arts programs. Liberal arts studies is dying; interest in CS is still expanding. |
Anonymous
Do you actually know what Liberal Arts is or includes? It includes natural sciences and mathematics, and at many universities, the computer science program is located within Liberal Arts and Sciences. |
Anonymous
Some do, some don't. You can't generalize. A CS degree will be value add in one's career over time regardless whether it's at a LAC or not. Everyone doesn't graduate from MIT or Cal Tech. |
Anonymous
The CS grads from LACs tend to do very well. There are just relatively few of them because the total number of LAC graduates is far tinier than university graduates, and the total number of CS grads from LACs even smaller. So by numbers alone, it's just highly unlikely that any one LAC grad is going to be on your radar of famous leaders. But their outcomes are very impressive. |
Anonymous
Just 4% of the total college graduates in the country attend liberal arts colleges, but they are over-represented in many professional areas--as CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, in PhD programs, as tenured professors, as lawyers, doctors etc. William and Mary, despite sharing many qualities with liberal arts colleges, is considered a research university because it does have a small number of graduate programs. It sort of doesn't fit neatly in any category. |