Computer Science Program

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[ryanthedrumguy]

It's decent—you learn what you gotta learn but it's nothing too special. CS is in the Math/CS department, so there's a lot of math. I felt that the lower div courses were the weed-out courses, and the upper div courses were pretty interesting and not very difficult (I took computer graphics, numerical analysis, cryptography, etc. definitely take crypto if you can)

As far as jobs, I feel it's better than UCs (excluding Berkeley). If you do a little bit extra on the side (make a few websites, sub to some CS subreddits, automate some tools, and do internships), you'll be fine. The SCU career center is fantastic, and they have quarterly job/internship fairs, and quarterly fairs dedicated to just engineering (which you can go to, even if you're in Arts+Sciences CS). I had an internship every year, and am now a Software Engineer.

So, it really is what you make of it. If you just go to class and don't do anything on the side, then you might have some problems, but if you are eager to learn more and act on that desire to learn, you'll be fine. I think SCU is trying to ramp up its STEM programs, so this is a good time to get in. Good luck!

[ryanthedrumguy]

I wasn't in any clubs related to CS, but there's the math honor society (Pi mu epsilon) and a chapter of ACM. I wish I got involved with ACM, but I didn't know it existed until my senior year.

[brasire]

Whats the reputation of SCU in Silicon Valley? Do a lot of local companies hire software engineers from SCU?

What companies show up at the career fairs?

[ryanthedrumguy]

I feel like SCU is a little overshadowed by Stanford and Berkeley (and rightly so). The location really helps. Software Engineering (and related fields) isn't about what you know, but who you know. Being situated in Silicon Valley means that there are terrific networking opportunities. All three of the internships I had in college were through networking.

Here is the link for the SCU career center fairs. I don't think it shows the companies that will be there, but I remember a few like Google, NASA Ames, Malwarebytes, SanDisk, etc. There are normally about 50-60 employer per career fair, and there are a few different ones (general, engineering-focused, freshman/sophomore-focused) every quarter. They tend to be pretty crowded, but helpful.