As someone who spent 18 years teaching at universities that span the range in question, I support the observation that your communication skills will prosper more in a liberal arts setting.
You may think that an undergraduate degree will provide all the skills you will need in a profession. I'm sorry to inform you that you will come out half-educated at best. The question you should be asking yourself is which half will provide the best foundation for the rest of your training, be it in graduate school or on the job. The half that a technical school provides will emphasize symbolic reasoning and the logical and technical skills needed for software development. The half that a liberal arts school provides will emphasize verbal reasoning, communication, and basic mathematics.
Now that I am out of the academy and in the software business, I find it frustrating to deal with young programmers who can write code but cannot document their work, interact with customers and business specialists, or organize a coherent knowledge-sharing session. The problem for many of them seems to be basic difficulty with verbal reasoning and expression.
As your career progresses, weaknesses of this sort will become more and more important. Whatever choice you make, I urge you to take as many courses as possible that require you to read something other than science fiction and to write and speak in a demanding and critical environment.
Slashdot Mirror
As someone who spent 18 years teaching at universities that span the range in question, I support the observation that your communication skills will prosper more in a liberal arts setting. You may think that an undergraduate degree will provide all the skills you will need in a profession. I'm sorry to inform you that you will come out half-educated at best. The question you should be asking yourself is which half will provide the best foundation for the rest of your training, be it in graduate school or on the job. The half that a technical school provides will emphasize symbolic reasoning and the logical and technical skills needed for software development. The half that a liberal arts school provides will emphasize verbal reasoning, communication, and basic mathematics. Now that I am out of the academy and in the software business, I find it frustrating to deal with young programmers who can write code but cannot document their work, interact with customers and business specialists, or organize a coherent knowledge-sharing session. The problem for many of them seems to be basic difficulty with verbal reasoning and expression. As your career progresses, weaknesses of this sort will become more and more important. Whatever choice you make, I urge you to take as many courses as possible that require you to read something other than science fiction and to write and speak in a demanding and critical environment.