Best Computer Science College That Is Small

Q: What are some good SMALL schools with a good Computer Science program? I'm looking for a good college. I've done well in school. I got a 3.98 GPA. I've taken hard courses. But I only got 1100 on my SAT. I'll take them again my SR year (next year). I'm studying hard to get good scores. I just need to know what schools have a good Computer Science program. Does anybody know of some SMALLER schools with a good reputation for their Computer Science program?? I would appreciate the help.

A: The big problem with smaller colleges is the course variety. You get fewer courses to choose from. I presume you are talking about colleges on par with, say, Swarthmore. There are somewhat bigger universities (Princeton, for example) that have good CS programs. My rough list, and this is mostly as a guess, (because top CS programs are typically affiliated with good graduate programs, and small colleges generally don't have a graduate program) might include places like Swarthmore, CalTech, Williams College. Oh, Rice is also pretty good. They've got a grad school too. I would guess Rice is about the size of Duke, so it's going to be a little bigger than the colleges mentioned. A place like Duke or Princeton is going to have 4000-5000 undergrads. Some place like Swarthmore would probably have half that number. The problem with a small school in compsci is that it's nearly impossible. Small schools mean almost no variety of programs; no research is being performed; etc. Now, if you really care, look for a school with less than 5,000 students that has a predominant MATH curriculum, not compsci. That's where you find the good compsci schools. I found that when I was looking at compsci schools, the majority of schools that do a great deal of computer science are local tech schools with narrow ranges. Look for a school with not much humanities and a heavy math and compsci focus. Look at percentage of students in majors; etc. The College Board Web site would be a good place to start looking for a list, followed by Barron's at the library.

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