
Ask HN: Liberal Arts or Engineering College for CS? - jaykru
Hello HN, this is a debate older than any of us here, but I couldn&#x27;t find much relevant to my case.<p>I was recently accepted off the waitlist to the brand-new CS program at a prestigious liberal arts college on the west coast. Before that, I enrolled at a top 20 or so CS program at a state school near me that&#x27;s renowned for its engineering programs. In principle the core curriculum seems relatively the same: intro to programming (both use OOP constructs), algorithms and data structures, concurrent programming (LA uses Go, while state school uses Java), programming languages, etc. The liberal arts college has no general education requirements beyond a credit minimum, while the state school has extensive, arguably annoying, general education requirements to be fulfilled by (from what I can tell) courses that would have little value in my education. Moreover, the state school has more CS course offerings, but I worry that I won&#x27;t get to take many of the higher-level courses that interest me due to the gen ed requirements.<p>Obviously the state school would win in terms of industry reputation, but the liberal arts college has a considerably better reputation within higher education from what I can tell (many students go on to get PhDs, and those who do go to top-tier institutions; the same cannot be said for the state school) I&#x27;m interested in attaining further higher education, but don&#x27;t want to be screwed if I decide against it.<p>On the economic front, the LA college is about $10k more per year than the state school (I&#x27;m an out-of-state student,) but my generous parents are willing to cover the difference.<p>Sorry to ramble, this acceptance has really turned my plan for the next four years on its head. WWHND?
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taylodl
Leaving schools and reputations aside what you're really asking is whether you
should pursue an engineering curriculum or a liberal arts curriculum? As you
might expect the answer depends on your goals, desires and interests.
Regardless of which you choose you should be thinking of double-majoring, so
you may let your decision for your second major help guide you.

Having said that, engineering would be a good route to pursue if you were
interested in embedded systems, manufacturing and industrial control systems,
avionics, etc. Those fields demand a high level of engineering rigor and an
engineering background would definitely be helpful. Mechanical or electrical
engineering would be good double major candidates.

If you're more interested in AI, graphics, algorithm analysis and the more
traditional CS fare then perhaps the liberal arts school would be the better
way to go. An obvious second major would be mathematics. A non-obvious second
major would be philosophy, perhaps even psychology.

To me the key deciding factor is your second major and which school would be
best for that second major.

~~~
jaykru
Thank you for your comment; it has proven very useful in my decision. I didn't
really consider a second major, and though I'm not sure one would be very
feasible at the liberal arts school, but the rationale still helps. I'm
interested in the more mathy, formal side of CS, so to the liberal arts school
I shall go!

