The potential of symbolic algebra for the design of control systems is illustrated through several examples. It has been shown in particular, that (a) the exact calculations provided by symbolic algebra can be used to utilize some of the direct (but numerically error prone) methods efficiently in control system design, and (b) symbolic manipulations by a computer can help control engineers at several stages of the design. The block diagram reduction, calculation of all stabilizing controllers, dominant pole assignment and robust pole assignment are taken as case studies.