CS: What are some of the good LACs or small colleges?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mudd/Pomona if you can get into the lottery and Grinnell.

Not really worth it otherwise.

-1 Williams cs is okay and swat is great for CS PhD

Who wants to go to grad school for CS? CS professors are WAY underpaid and the good tech work is done in private industry

Yes, with great salaries and research opportunities for people with PhDs..

CS PhD is 400k plus right out of school at Meta.

If you’re talented enough for meta, you can ditch the PhD and work up with two year job stints and get the same pay without having to experience abject poverty for a degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvey Mudd, Pomona, Carleton, Grinnell, Williams, Amherst and Hamilton

Be careful with Pomona, massive amount of CS waitlists. Carleton has a “match system” so you might not get what you want.

FWIW my Carleton is a non-CS major (would have a minor if it were offered) but has had no trouble getting the desired CS courses through the match system.

[Anonymous]

DS double majoring in CS and Econ at Davidson. Excellent education and he’s been able to get into CS courses with ease, although freshman year was more challenging. The research and internship opps are stellar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mudd/Pomona if you can get into the lottery and Grinnell.

Not really worth it otherwise.

-1 Williams cs is okay and swat is great for CS PhD

Who wants to go to grad school for CS? CS professors are WAY underpaid and the good tech work is done in private industry

Yes, with great salaries and research opportunities for people with PhDs..

CS PhD is 400k plus right out of school at Meta.

If you’re talented enough for meta, you can ditch the PhD and work up with two year job stints and get the same pay without having to experience abject poverty for a degree.

Sort of fair point but in some ways not so much in others. A lot of pressure for first 4 which the phd won’t have. Far more interesting work as well.

[Anonymous]

Mudd is the most respected lac for cs by a long mile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are some of the real good LACs or small colleges for computer science? + also good creative writing

Want to avoid greek / frat culture

Carleton and Swarthmore are great options. They both are repeat regional finalists in ICPC competitions, both place well into CS PhD programs, and both have strong writing/humanities programs.

There’s no incentive to getting a PhD in CS- that’s a massive cut to your salary for not much pay increase with a detrimental time sink. This indicates that swarthmore cs grads aren’t learning enough to get jobs in industry. Swarthmore also has a long lottery with waitlist and caps for your course load- that’s not worth the cost.
You know whose also great at the ICPC competitions, better than swarthmore? UCSD. Competitions don’t mean anything of substance- Princeton hardly gets any Putnam placements, and it’s the best math program in the world.

UCSD great as it is has roughly 15x the pool of students to form their team(s) from than a typical LAC.

Of course LAC grads can get lucrative jobs if they choose to go directly into industry. Those who want PhDs often have a longer view. It was only 3 months ago that a Swarthmore alum received a Nobel for foundational work in AI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mudd/Pomona if you can get into the lottery and Grinnell.

Not really worth it otherwise.

+1, but even Grinnell is also heavily lotteried, esp students targeting CS + Stats / Data Science

What does lotteried mean in the Grinnell context? There is no limit on number of CS majors at Grinnell. The classes can be difficult to get but they prioritize them like they do other popular classes. I don’t know all the algorithm details but older students needing courses for major generally have priority.

[Anonymous]

None.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mudd/Pomona if you can get into the lottery and Grinnell.

Not really worth it otherwise.

+1, but even Grinnell is also heavily lotteried, esp students targeting CS + Stats / Data Science

What does lotteried mean in the Grinnell context? There is no limit on number of CS majors at Grinnell. The classes can be difficult to get but they prioritize them like they do other popular classes. I don’t know all the algorithm details but older students needing courses for major generally have priority.

You can only take 1 class per semester and the course registration system has 4 rounds. There’s a lot of issues with grinnell’s CS program

[Anonymous]

St Olaf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mudd/Pomona if you can get into the lottery and Grinnell.

Not really worth it otherwise.

+1, but even Grinnell is also heavily lotteried, esp students targeting CS + Stats / Data Science

What does lotteried mean in the Grinnell context? There is no limit on number of CS majors at Grinnell. The classes can be difficult to get but they prioritize them like they do other popular classes. I don’t know all the algorithm details but older students needing courses for major generally have priority.

You can only take 1 class per semester and the course registration system has 4 rounds. There’s a lot of issues with grinnell’s CS program

Grinnell no longer has rounds for course registration. That ended a couple years ago when the new registrar introduced a new system. Is your child an alum?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mudd/Pomona if you can get into the lottery and Grinnell.

Not really worth it otherwise.

-1 Williams cs is okay and swat is great for CS PhD

Who wants to go to grad school for CS? CS professors are WAY underpaid and the good tech work is done in private industry

Yes, with great salaries and research opportunities for people with PhDs..

CS PhD is 400k plus right out of school at Meta.

If you’re talented enough for meta, you can ditch the PhD and work up with two year job stints and get the same pay without having to experience abject poverty for a degree.

phD stipends in STEM are not at all "abject poverty", they run 50-70k if you maximize grant apps. Even masters can get stipends: DS friend at masters in stem at Stanford and gets 65k per year to live off of plus can get more if wants to TA extra. In addition free tuition, fees, health insurance and more. DS is going for phD (applying now, has interviews already) and the job he wants needs phD. All the programs he is applying to are fully funded with very generous stipends guaranteed and many get additional funding. Private sector tech targets these programs for grads to head labs and similar. 300k+ starting, vs same companies pay 110-140k for bachelors from a TOP school(think ivy+ or CMU, UCB, GaTech), otherwise want masters. DS interned for a known tech sector company and the hiring tiers for different degrees as well as what school you come from was eye-opening.

[Anonymous]

Top three SLACs are:

Harvey Mudd
Grinnell
Pomona

Honorable mentions:
Davidson
Carleton
Middleburry

[Anonymous]

Macalester has an excellent program.

https://www.macalester.edu/mscs/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mudd/Pomona if you can get into the lottery and Grinnell.

Not really worth it otherwise.

-1 Williams cs is okay and swat is great for CS PhD

Who wants to go to grad school for CS? CS professors are WAY underpaid and the good tech work is done in private industry

Yes, with great salaries and research opportunities for people with PhDs..

CS PhD is 400k plus right out of school at Meta.

If you’re talented enough for meta, you can ditch the PhD and work up with two year job stints and get the same pay without having to experience abject poverty for a degree.

phD stipends in STEM are not at all "abject poverty", they run 50-70k if you maximize grant apps. Even masters can get stipends: DS friend at masters in stem at Stanford and gets 65k per year to live off of plus can get more if wants to TA extra. In addition free tuition, fees, health insurance and more. DS is going for phD (applying now, has interviews already) and the job he wants needs phD. All the programs he is applying to are fully funded with very generous stipends guaranteed and many get additional funding. Private sector tech targets these programs for grads to head labs and similar. 300k+ starting, vs same companies pay 110-140k for bachelors from a TOP school(think ivy+ or CMU, UCB, GaTech), otherwise want masters. DS interned for a known tech sector company and the hiring tiers for different degrees as well as what school you come from was eye-opening.

Id love for you to try to stretch 65k in Palo Alto. That’s a miserable stipend that’s only that “high” because the area is so expensive.