Anonymous wrote:It's interesting that a college known for its liberal arts program is now trying to expand its CS program. That should tell you something about LACs

Counterpoint is that it is a state school and to be effective at that it needs to meet student demand. As is, CS is the 5th biggest major on campus

It's interesting that a college known for its liberal arts program is now trying to expand its CS program. That should tell you something about LACs

Anonymous wrote:So how is data analytics / statistics / econometrics at W&M? Directly related I’d say.

High strengths and, yes, very related. As are International Relations/Public Policy/Government.

As a sort of aside, I have found in general, programs that are sometimes somewhat amorphous at other colleges, tend to have high rigor there For instance, if you do Hispanic studies as a minor for instance, at WM that means you've done all the higher ed course content for that major in that language--all the reading, writing, presenting for every Hispanic studies course is done in Spanish. That's pretty rare these days--elsewhere usually "studies" just means you studied that culture's history, culture, arts--not that all your lectures and everything you've read and written about the history, cultural analyses, art criticism etc. are done in the target language.

So when looking at schools I think it's important to dig kind of deep into the departments of interest--look at the syllabi if they post on-line, look at what students end up doing if the department page has it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

As someone in industry, I would NEVER ADVISE any kid to pursue any sort of engineering program (and CS sits in engineering schools) to go to a program that isn’t ABET accredited. My company won’t even hire an intern from a college that isn’t ABET accredited so we don’t recruit or consider W&M for internships.

“200,000 problem solvers graduate from ABET accredited programs yearly.” abet.org Obviously not that hard, so maybe best to make sure it has that accreditation.

As someone posted earlier:

NOT ABET accredited undergraduate CS programs:
Cal
Carnegie Mellon
UMD
Purdue
Stanford
Washington
UNC Chapel Hill
UT Austin
Princeton
Harvard
Brown
Cornell

ACCREDITED undergraduate CS programs include:
Coastal Carolina
UDC
Hood
Liberty
Radford
York (PA)

https://amspub.abet.org/aps/category-search?disciplines=19°reeLevels=B

Thanks! Illuminating table.

I’ll do my best to make my kid stay away from those schools lacking accreditation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

As someone in industry, I would NEVER ADVISE any kid to pursue any sort of engineering program (and CS sits in engineering schools) to go to a program that isn’t ABET accredited. My company won’t even hire an intern from a college that isn’t ABET accredited so we don’t recruit or consider W&M for internships.

“200,000 problem solvers graduate from ABET accredited programs yearly.” abet.org Obviously not that hard, so maybe best to make sure it has that accreditation.

The problem is not that it's hard to get that certification, it's that the certification prevents strong CS programs from adapting as quickly as they should to the changing CS landscape. ABET certification may ensure a minimum level of quality in programs that might be otherwise sub-standard, but it's a too limiting structure for strong programs. And it makes zero sense for CS majors outside of a school of engineering.

So how is data analytics / statistics / econometrics at W&M? Directly related I’d say.

William and Mary graduates working in technology rank in the top 20 for earnings among public schools, and it is the only one in the top 20 without an engineering program.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

As someone in industry, I would NEVER ADVISE any kid to pursue any sort of engineering program (and CS sits in engineering schools) to go to a program that isn’t ABET accredited. My company won’t even hire an intern from a college that isn’t ABET accredited so we don’t recruit or consider W&M for internships.

“200,000 problem solvers graduate from ABET accredited programs yearly.” abet.org Obviously not that hard, so maybe best to make sure it has that accreditation.

As someone posted earlier:

NOT ABET accredited undergraduate CS programs:
Cal
Carnegie Mellon
UMD
Purdue
Stanford
Washington
UNC Chapel Hill
UT Austin
Princeton
Harvard
Brown
Cornell

ACCREDITED undergraduate CS programs include:
Coastal Carolina
UDC
Hood
Liberty
Radford
York (PA)

https://amspub.abet.org/aps/category-search?disciplines=19°reeLevels=B

Thanks! Illuminating table.

I’ll do my best to make my kid stay away from those schools lacking accreditation.

Yep, you can skip Stanford for Radford. It's a fantastic life decision.
BTW, the schools are accredited by many bodies. There are many good reasons excellent CS programs would focus on guidance from CS focused accrediting bodies than the more slow-moving engineering one. One big thing being not teaching things that are no longer relevant with AI.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

As someone in industry, I would NEVER ADVISE any kid to pursue any sort of engineering program (and CS sits in engineering schools) to go to a program that isn’t ABET accredited. My company won’t even hire an intern from a college that isn’t ABET accredited so we don’t recruit or consider W&M for internships.

“200,000 problem solvers graduate from ABET accredited programs yearly.” abet.org Obviously not that hard, so maybe best to make sure it has that accreditation.

As someone posted earlier:

NOT ABET accredited undergraduate CS programs:
Cal
Carnegie Mellon
UMD
Purdue
Stanford
Washington
UNC Chapel Hill
UT Austin
Princeton
Harvard
Brown
Cornell

ACCREDITED undergraduate CS programs include:
Coastal Carolina
UDC
Hood
Liberty
Radford
York (PA)

https://amspub.abet.org/aps/category-search?disciplines=19°reeLevels=B

Thanks! Illuminating table.

I’ll do my best to make my kid stay away from those schools lacking accreditation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:According to William & Mary's newest 6 year plan being submitted to SHEV
"W&M has begun to explore degree-granting programs in cybersecurity."

It's SCHEV

Typo 🤦🏻‍♂️

Not really sure a one letter mistake merited a reply

Anonymous wrote:According to William & Mary's newest 6 year plan being submitted to SHEV
"W&M has begun to explore degree-granting programs in cybersecurity."

It's SCHEV

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

As someone in industry, I would NEVER ADVISE any kid to pursue any sort of engineering program (and CS sits in engineering schools) to go to a program that isn’t ABET accredited. My company won’t even hire an intern from a college that isn’t ABET accredited so we don’t recruit or consider W&M for internships.

“200,000 problem solvers graduate from ABET accredited programs yearly.” abet.org Obviously not that hard, so maybe best to make sure it has that accreditation.

As someone posted earlier:

NOT ABET accredited undergraduate CS programs:
Cal
Carnegie Mellon
UMD
Purdue
Stanford
Washington
UNC Chapel Hill
UT Austin
Princeton
Harvard
Brown
Cornell

ACCREDITED undergraduate CS programs include:
Coastal Carolina
UDC
Hood
Liberty
Radford
York (PA)

https://amspub.abet.org/aps/category-search?disciplines=19°reeLevels=B

Anonymous wrote:

As someone in industry, I would NEVER ADVISE any kid to pursue any sort of engineering program (and CS sits in engineering schools) to go to a program that isn’t ABET accredited. My company won’t even hire an intern from a college that isn’t ABET accredited so we don’t recruit or consider W&M for internships.

“200,000 problem solvers graduate from ABET accredited programs yearly.” abet.org Obviously not that hard, so maybe best to make sure it has that accreditation.

According to William & Mary's newest 6 year plan being submitted to SHEV
"W&M has begun to explore degree-granting programs in cybersecurity."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP - I think it is honestly a very good program because it is not part of an engineering school and so students also have to take part in the liberal arts curriculum. I also believe it is now ranked higher than Mason's CS program

It is not higher than Mason CS.

On USNWR it is. And they are investing a lot into it.

Maybe but kind of splitting hairs here.

The point is that W&M has made investments that have allowed them to overtake a much larger school known for CS

And they were ranked higher before those investments have actually been put into place--they got that ranking with under 100 CS grads a year. It will be exciting what they do with more money behind it. I think this is such a smart move on their part because so many people don't realize how good of a school it is in terms of career outcomes in addition to rigorous academics. I also think it will also help with any drifting they have towards a female-heavy gender imbalance without having to lower admissions standards for males.
Now to be fair, the student body at WM are top-notch, high stats students--we'd expect grads to do well in any program.

And I'm also a big fan of GMU though--think it serves the widest range of VA students the best.

Actually interesting thing to point out is that the W&M CS program also has the highest ratio of women to men of any CS program in the state (I think a third of declared majors are women), so the school is also doing a good job of serving a severely underrepresented population in STEM