Computer science majors

[Anonymous]

My son is majoring in CS and minoring in business at T15 university so I hear his experience. Although he is only a freshman, he tells me that they don't really teach actual programming languages. They teach you the concepts and theory behind it so you can learn the languages (I assume on your own). The core areas of CS study should be the same at most institutions, whether liberal arts colleges or large universities. Both large institutions and small institutions share a set of curricular recommendations from the Association of Computing Machinery and the IEEE Computer Society. At least in that aspect, there isn't that much difference between CS at a larger vs a smaller college - you will learn the core material. My daughter is at a top 3 LAC and, although she is not a CS major, some of her friends are and they all easily landed top tech jobs in large cities before graduation. So bottom line is, you will learn CS in either types of institutions and there are obvious differences as well as advantages and disadvantages between a large vs small college. It all comes down to where you fit better at.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Big school = better exposure to industry and research, which can be enriching. I remember on CS professor I had, on the last day of class, would show us the stuff he was working on. That was super-cool and also motivating.

Small school = possibly closer interaction with faculty. If they get a balanced education, for example they can write or present well, even better.

There's a shortage of CS people and that's not going to change, so job prospects good either way.

I have a recent CS graduate (big state school) with several friends in CS from smaller schools. All of them have had a hard time finding jobs. While there are plenty of tech jobs out there, most want 1-3 years experience, which for kids who couldn't find internships in the past 2 years is a little problematic. There also seems to be some hiring hesitation with recent and possible economic uncertainty in the next year or two. Not that tech doesn't need workers, they just want experience and aren't investing in training recent graduates. Landscape should change in the next 5 years, but wherever your student ends up, make sure they invest in building connections while an undergrad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are the benefits to being a computer science major at a small liberal arts school versus being a computer science major at a bigger university where you might be in the engineering school or the school of arts and sciences depending on the university’s options. Does either generally fair better in terms of getting jobs or into graduate programs after college?
Looking for knowledge to help my high school junior in their college search. Most likely wants to major in computer science or maybe computer engineering and minor in business/economics . Thanks for any advice in this arena. Strong academic student with high gpa and high tests scores which they will be able to submit anywhere.

Let me take a different tack with this: the first step is getting in. If this is a DS (80% chance, which is the point), he is negating any SLAC admissions advantage he might have — as a male — by framing an application narrative around the stereotypical male intended majors. If he has any other interest which he can demonstrate, alongside CS, which is non-stereotypical, he should do so. This is true for private national universities as well — only less true, as the gender imbalance tends to be less extreme. State flagships are of course a different ball of wax, where you might have to formally apply as a CS major from the get go…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Big school = better exposure to industry and research, which can be enriching. I remember on CS professor I had, on the last day of class, would show us the stuff he was working on. That was super-cool and also motivating.

Small school = possibly closer interaction with faculty. If they get a balanced education, for example they can write or present well, even better.

There's a shortage of CS people and that's not going to change, so job prospects good either way.

I have a recent CS graduate (big state school) with several friends in CS from smaller schools. All of them have had a hard time finding jobs. While there are plenty of tech jobs out there, most want 1-3 years experience, which for kids who couldn't find internships in the past 2 years is a little problematic. There also seems to be some hiring hesitation with recent and possible economic uncertainty in the next year or two. Not that tech doesn't need workers, they just want experience and aren't investing in training recent graduates. Landscape should change in the next 5 years, but wherever your student ends up, make sure they invest in building connections while an undergrad.

My DC CS majors graduates college in four years.

There will be CS jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Big school = better exposure to industry and research, which can be enriching. I remember on CS professor I had, on the last day of class, would show us the stuff he was working on. That was super-cool and also motivating.

Small school = possibly closer interaction with faculty. If they get a balanced education, for example they can write or present well, even better.

There's a shortage of CS people and that's not going to change, so job prospects good either way.

Is there still a shortage of CS folks? Tech companies have laid off tons of thousands in the past few months.

Tech person here. Yes, there's a shortage, and that's going to remain the trend.

Think of it this way: are computers more or less involved in life than 5 or 10 years ago? That trend isn't changing. That's creating more and more demand for people with IT skills.

Yeah, and more than that, the way we interact with computers is changing. Programming is important but so are charts and graphs and visualization of data. Math is very important but so is presentations of ideas and communication between teams.

Everything used to be dependent on things like Data structures and Discrete Mathematics but now the path forward has a lot more roads. I think it's just key that people don't think that CS is only for code coders or that if they don't have some particular movie trope of CS jobs. That they're not in tech

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Big school = better exposure to industry and research, which can be enriching. I remember on CS professor I had, on the last day of class, would show us the stuff he was working on. That was super-cool and also motivating.

Small school = possibly closer interaction with faculty. If they get a balanced education, for example they can write or present well, even better.

There's a shortage of CS people and that's not going to change, so job prospects good either way.

Is there still a shortage of CS folks? Tech companies have laid off tons of thousands in the past few months.

They laid off do-nothing deadweight.

Yep it was overstuffed companies getting rid of low performers and non-tech jobs that probably should not have existed in the first place.

Most of them are probably the ones who write and communicate well but non-technical.

I work in a tech company. Many engineers and developers have been laid off and recruiters.

[Anonymous]

Internships are key to landing a good job after you graduate. It is not an easy major. You have to slog through it.
I doubt that CS at SLACs is as good as at big universities

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Internships are key to landing a good job after you graduate. It is not an easy major. You have to slog through it.
I doubt that CS at SLACs is as good as at big universities

That's your take perhaps. Many enjoy it, not "slog through" it. CS at SLACs can be just as good - it all depends on what kind of experience you're looking for. At the end of the 4 years, you learn the same essential material.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Big school = better exposure to industry and research, which can be enriching. I remember on CS professor I had, on the last day of class, would show us the stuff he was working on. That was super-cool and also motivating.

Small school = possibly closer interaction with faculty. If they get a balanced education, for example they can write or present well, even better.

There's a shortage of CS people and that's not going to change, so job prospects good either way.

A shortage? Seems like there's a glut.
NP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Big school = better exposure to industry and research, which can be enriching. I remember on CS professor I had, on the last day of class, would show us the stuff he was working on. That was super-cool and also motivating.

Small school = possibly closer interaction with faculty. If they get a balanced education, for example they can write or present well, even better.

There's a shortage of CS people and that's not going to change, so job prospects good either way.

Is there still a shortage of CS folks? Tech companies have laid off tons of thousands in the past few months.

What you are hearing about is the big ticket tech jobs at Amazon, Twitter, FB....

There are a ton of tech jobs open in other industries, like in finance, or even smaller IT firms. They just won't pay the big salaries. There are a few articles about how these laid off tech people are being gobbled up. The ones that are going to have a harder time finding something else are those who are in non tech roles.

There's a paywall here, but you can get the gist of it from the headline and first paragraph.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/laid-off-tech-workers-quickly-find-new-jobs-11672097730


-someone in tech

WSJ is a rag. However, your thought process is correct.

Plenty of tech jobs will be for many years to come well at least til 2024 then the economy will tank people will lose a ton of jobs in all sectors because we will elect a Republcian and we all know what will happen. Not like Dems haven't been cleaning up that mess every single time.

Maybe I'm just old, but when did WSJ become a rag? It was a quite a reputable business/economy oriented newspaper. Their opinion pieces are right leaning but the news articles are not.

+1
The WSJ is the furthest thing from a "rag" - it's a Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper. The PP is just a LWNJ who insists on bringing their partisan politics into the college forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Internships are key to landing a good job after you graduate. It is not an easy major. You have to slog through it.
I doubt that CS at SLACs is as good as at big universities

That's your take perhaps. Many enjoy it, not "slog through" it. CS at SLACs can be just as good - it all depends on what kind of experience you're looking for. At the end of the 4 years, you learn the same essential material.

+1

[Anonymous]

Here is my take on this.  Most CS jobs do NOT require a CS degree to do the job.  Most developers in the DMV are just coders.  It might make a difference elsewhere but not in the DMV as far as I can tell.  Landing a CS job is also more about who you know than what you know.  I can hire someone with a CS degree from GMU and that person can do just as good a job as someone with a CS degree from UMD or UVA.  In fact, I had to turn down a CS major candidate for an internship at my company for someone studying liberal arts and minor in CS from Goucher (I didn't even know Goucher is a college until I looked it up).  He was chosen over the UMD candidate because my boss knows his parents.  It is what it is but who you know matter a whole lot more. YMMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Big school = better exposure to industry and research, which can be enriching. I remember on CS professor I had, on the last day of class, would show us the stuff he was working on. That was super-cool and also motivating.

Small school = possibly closer interaction with faculty. If they get a balanced education, for example they can write or present well, even better.

There's a shortage of CS people and that's not going to change, so job prospects good either way.

Is there still a shortage of CS folks? Tech companies have laid off tons of thousands in the past few months.

Just stop. The layoffs were less than 1%.
The tech industry needs people not the other way around and will for years to come.

+1. My husband can't find Cloud architects and others to fill roles, and the ones he can find demand exorbitant salaries--this is for government contracts (not DOD).
If your student is already experienced in CS/programming as a high schooler he may be more interested in comparing CS catalogs at the individual schools. A student going into college starting from the beginning may not want the more specialized upper level classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is my take on this.  Most CS jobs do NOT require a CS degree to do the job.  Most developers in the DMV are just coders.  It might make a difference elsewhere but not in the DMV as far as I can tell.  Landing a CS job is also more about who you know than what you know.  I can hire someone with a CS degree from GMU and that person can do just as good a job as someone with a CS degree from UMD or UVA.  In fact, I had to turn down a CS major candidate for an internship at my company for someone studying liberal arts and minor in CS from Goucher (I didn't even know Goucher is a college until I looked it up).  He was chosen over the UMD candidate because my boss knows his parents.  It is what it is but who you know matter a whole lot more. YMMV.

Most jobs do not need a college degree likewise.
and networking/connecis a good source for job hunting as always has been. What's your point? Yawn

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is my take on this.  Most CS jobs do NOT require a CS degree to do the job.  Most developers in the DMV are just coders.  It might make a difference elsewhere but not in the DMV as far as I can tell.  Landing a CS job is also more about who you know than what you know.  I can hire someone with a CS degree from GMU and that person can do just as good a job as someone with a CS degree from UMD or UVA.  In fact, I had to turn down a CS major candidate for an internship at my company for someone studying liberal arts and minor in CS from Goucher (I didn't even know Goucher is a college until I looked it up).  He was chosen over the UMD candidate because my boss knows his parents.  It is what it is but who you know matter a whole lot more. YMMV.

Most jobs do not need a college degree likewise.
and networking/connecis a good source for job hunting as always has been. What's your point? Yawn

A UMD comp sci grad is more likely to start a business like a small concern up to Google, Fortnite or Oculus rift .