Computer Science

Prepare for a successful career in high-tech fields, by building strong software development skills, a deep understanding of the design of both software and hardware, and professional ethics grounded in Christian Science.

Overview After Principia Faculty

Our curriculum stresses both theoretical and practical computer science. You’ll develop programming skills from beginning to advanced levels and also learn about the fundamental design and architectural considerations of computer systems. In the process, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to demonstrate the discipline and persistence needed to bring a program to completion—all the while gaining confidence in your ability to think systematically and to recognize everyone's natural ability to do so.

Majors and Minors Offered

Computer Science (BS and BA majors, minor)
Management Information Systems (minor)

Why Study Computer Science at Principia College?

We mentor our students beyond graduation. Our 6:1 student-to-faculty ratio allows invaluable access to faculty.
Our students enjoy exciting career and internship opportunities at a variety of companies and organizations, including Google, Amazon, Salesforce, SETI institute, Boeing, Deloitte, and many others.
We prepare students to continue their education in some of the top graduate schools in the country.
You can join our award-winning solar car team and build and race a car in national and international competitions
Our program emphasizes transferable skills, including analytical thinking, problem solving, communication, teamwork, and collaboration.
We help students develop a strong sense of design.
Our students participate in activities with the student-run Mobile Apps Club.
We emphasize applying technical skills to help others.
Our introductory courses teach modern software design principles, across multiple modern programming languages, and hardware design, including learning how to build a small computer from scratch.
Our advanced courses cover a wide variety of current subjects in Computer Science, including computer graphics, web development, software engineering, networks, operating systems, compilers, algorithms, computer security, professional ethics, mobile development, and artificial intelligence.

Abroads

Principia abroad programs are open to all majors, and students are encouraged to apply for any abroad program that interests them. All abroads involve individual research that students can tailor to their interests.

Note: See the College Catalog for more detailed information about our program and departmental learning outcomes.

coming soon

We often hear from our graduates—and their employers—that they are well prepared for the highly competitive field of computer science. They demonstrate mastery in technical arenas and are able to think precisely and logically and to work well with others.

Our graduates hold a wide variety of professional positions:

Software Developer
Database Designer
Software Engineer
Systems Analyst
Network Administrator
DevOps Engineer
Systems Architect
Web Developer

Here are a few of the companies and organizations that have hired our graduates:

Google
Apple
Amazon
Ancestry
Booz-Allen
Accenture
Dreamworks Animation
Walt Disney
Twitter
Yahoo
Boeing
Northrop Grumman
NSA
Hewlett Packard
IBM
SETI Institute
The Mother Church

From Our Alumni

“My education at Principia taught me not only the foundational programming skills needed to work in software development but also how to think critically about problems and come up with elegant solutions. The software industry changes every day and no one technology is constant, but the ability to tackle large projects and quickly learn new skills will always be valuable, and I thank my professors at Principia for teaching that to me.”

–Nicole Gerber, BS Computer Science, 2018
Google

“The most valuable skill that I learned in my Computer Science education
at Principia was the ability to break apart each new and difficult
problem into manageable components.

“Having worked as a full stack web developer at a medium sized financial company and now as a backend developer at Amazon, every day I have the opportunity to work on exciting and novel challenges that I may not have been directly prepared for, but I know that I have the tools and problem solving techniques to handle ….. Principia taught me how to approach situations and problems that I do not fully understand initially, which I believe is a skill that is so critical to learn as a student preparing for a full-time job.

“Principia’s Computer Science courses did an excellent job at teaching strong Computer Science fundamentals and at cultivating a mindset that empowered me to handle any task I face.”

–Nick Flanders, BS Computer Science, 2018
Amazon

"Principia gave me a strong knowledge of Computer Science fundamentals and helped me become a confident problem-solver. I always felt both challenged and supported by my professors. During my college years, I was also a president of Principia Mobile Apps and Virtual Reality Club. Other club members and I met on a weekly basis to work on different mobile and VR app ideas. This helped me become even better at software engineering and land a job of my dreams after college."

–A 2018 international grad, currently working as an iOS Engineer and Scrum Master at Ancestry