Why CSLAC?
How did it start?
I studied Computer Science at a small LAC for my undergrad, and I was impressed with the instructional quality. When I started my PhD in 2022, I could see myself doing teaching and research at similar institutions, where both aspects are valued. However, unlike research-focused institutions, there was no conveniently centralized collection of data like CSRankings.org. Liberal arts colleges educate a large and often overlooked share of undergraduate computer scientists, but information about their CS programs is scattered across hundreds of department pages, course catalogs, and scholarly databases. There is no single place to see how these programs compare — how large each faculty is, what they research, what they publish, and what they teach.
So, during the winter break of my first PhD year in Jan 2023, I decided to start CSLAC. There was no coding agents back then, so I wrote a lot of the data collection code manually, which was very time-consuming. The project was put on hiatus for a long while as I had to focus on research and couldn't spare time to write scrapers and check the data quality. It was not until May 2026 that I gave in and decided to learn how to use coding agents (i.e., Claude Code). I thought that CSLAC would be a great way to start, and so here we are.
What can it be used for?
Ultimately, I hope CSLAC is useful to anyone trying to make sense of Computer Science at liberal arts colleges, including:
- Prospective students applying to college who want to compare CS programs across LACs — how large the faculty is, what they specialize in, and how broad the course offerings are — before deciding where to apply or enroll.
- Faculty and departments looking to benchmark themselves against peer institutions, spot trends in hiring and research, or find potential collaborators.
- PhD students and postdocs on the academic job market who are drawn to teaching-focused careers and want to find the LACs that fit their interests and gauge what these departments look for. (This is my favorite use case.)
- CS education researchers and curriculum planners studying how computing is taught outside of large research universities, or designing and reforming their own programs.
- Anyone else — advisors, journalists, prospective donors, or the simply curious — who wants a clearer picture of Computer Science at LACs.
How is it progressing?
I aim to refresh the data quarterly for as long as I can. This project is completely self-sponsored, and there will never be any ads. New features may be added in the future.