Good to great LACs that also have engineering major? - Page 2

ivydreamin · 05-11-2008, 10:47 AM

Yes, but isn't Smith an all-girls college? Or at least mostly girls? And didn't I read that they just started their engineering program?

mini · 05-11-2008, 10:51 AM

No girls at Smith; only women.

The program graduated its first class in 2004, and is fully ABET accredited. They are now in the middle of building a $75 million dollar engineering center.

Smith College: Picker Engineering Program

hawkphoenix · 05-11-2008, 11:05 AM

I agree with Rose-Hulman and Harvey Mudd. However, you should also check out Lehigh and Bucknell closely. I've heard good things about them. And they also provide a more varied academic curriculum than the former 2, which focus mainly on math/science.

bigp9998 · 05-11-2008, 11:05 AM

Mudd is (if I remember right) the most selective LAC in the country. At the very least it has the best test scores if not most selective overall. It's not well known to Average Joe but it is very well respected by grad school and employers.

Knights09 · 05-11-2008, 11:16 AM

Rice University is very LAC-like.

ivydreamin · 05-11-2008, 11:21 AM

I'm still checking back, and still adding to my list, which is getting quite voluminous. I never would have even half these colleges to check out had it not been for recommendations you have given me. Thanks again.

Re: Smith--I'm an older mom, and I just say 'girls' automatically. Perhaps I should just say 'females'. I just cannot view 18 year olds as 'women', silly as that sounds.

applesauce · 05-11-2008, 11:24 AM

While Harvey Mudd is very focused on math/science, they are much more liberal-artsy than many of the other engineering schools-- I think that they require something like 1/3 of your classes to be in the Humanities. They stress well-roundedness much more than other science schools.

mini · 05-11-2008, 11:34 AM

"Re: Smith--I'm an older mom, and I just say 'girls' automatically. Perhaps I should just say 'females'. I just cannot view 18 year olds as 'women', silly as that sounds."

Understood. 10% of the Smith student body, including those in the engineering program, are women between the ages of 24 and 70 - Ada Comstock scholars. One just graduated at age 87 Smith College: News (after a life as an ambassador and state senator)

K9Leader · 05-11-2008, 11:51 AM

My D is maybe interested in engineering, but not sure (what 17 year old is?) so doesn't think she will want to commit to a tech school, though she did like RPI. So, that means an LAC or small university with engineering. On the list to look at, or that we have already looked at, are some with 3/2 and/or 4/2 programs or with full engineering degrees.

Already looked at:
Elon - 3/2 - she loved this school, and it shot to the top of her list. But her mother and I are concerned about the problems raised in an earlier post that it will be difficult to leave Elon and miss senior year. One possibility if this is a problem for her would be to switch to a physics degree and finish it at Elon, maybe even with a double major in Communications/Journalism, her other area of interest, and then just go to an engineering grad program, sort of a self-created 4/2. Elon's 3/2 deal is with several big time engineering schools including NC State, Ga Tech, Va Tech, Columbia, UWStL, and they say they can arrange it with almost any school you want (which, really, it's just a transfer).
Wake Forest - 3/2 and 4/2 - don't remember who the partner is, maybe Ga Tech? D liked it okay, but not as much as Elon.
Emory - 3/2 with Ga Tech. Might mitigate the leaving after 3 years problem as the campuses are only a few miles (4?) apart. D was unimpressed - too far from home
Ga. Tech - D was turned off -- "too techy," too big, too urban, too far from home
Duke - D did not like it all. Best not go into the reasons as that tends to bring the Duke faithful out in full force and I don't feel like putting on the flame suit today.
Drexel - tour was first, info session to follow tour. D asked if we could leave half way through tour -- way, way too urban

Still to look at:
The College of New Jersey - up and coming, honors college of NJ, a public LAC with engineering.
Bucknell
Villanova - cousin just got in there for BME - turned down Johns Hopkins, Duke, Columbia, Carnegie-Mellon, Notre Dame, Maryland, couple of others for 'Nova
Johns Hopkins
Delaware - our in-state option, but D is resistant - "too close to home" as in 10 minutes away
maybe Maryland - College Park - very large, didn't care much for it when we toured with her brother three years ago, but good engineering and she is doing an engineering for women summer program there so she might come out of it charged up on U Maryland.

Anyway, we still have a lot to look at this summer, application time is 4/5/6 months away, and the big decision time is a year away, and a lot can change in that time.

Good luck to you in your search.

DuelingApps · 05-11-2008, 12:07 PM

RPI is awesome, 70% male so qualified female applicants are sought after.
Why not Lafayette, close to Delaware, but not 10 mins! Tremendous attention to women engineering majors there - wouldn't pass on looking at this one.

chicagoboy12 · 05-11-2008, 12:58 PM

cornell's engineering school acceptances were 40% female this year (40 of 100 acceptances were women, not the acceptance rate). its not much like an LAC, but i think its the highest percentage of women in the country at an engineering-specific school.

K9Leader · 05-11-2008, 01:43 PM

Quote:

RPI is awesome, 70% male so qualified female applicants are sought after.
Why not Lafayette, close to Delaware, but not 10 mins! Tremendous attention to women engineering majors there - wouldn't pass on looking at this one.

She has a friend at RPI and visited there with her friend's family and liked it. If she decides definitely on engineering, it is a strong possibility.

Yes, Lafayette and Lehigh - I overlooked them and they are both on the list to visit this summer or fall. Lafayette may be a little small for her - she is pretty adamant that she wants something in the 4,000 - 8,000 student range. She has not liked any of the small schools (Dickinson, Trinity in CT) that she has visited. Also has not liked any large schools (Ga Tech, Maryland) and, along with "too close to home" that is one of her dislikes about UD (about 16,000).

mini · 05-11-2008, 02:35 PM

"Duke - D did not like it all. Best not go into the reasons as that tends to bring the Duke faithful out in full force and I don't feel like putting on the flame suit today."

Well understood.

interesteddad · 05-11-2008, 02:40 PM

Quote:

Smith has the only engineering program in the country that, with a 3.5 GPA, has guaranteed admissions to the graduate engineering programs at Dartmouth, Princeton, Johns Hopkins, Tufts, Notre Dame, and University of Michigan.

That's kind of a "well, duh!" guarantee. There are so few women in engineering that any woman graduating with a high GPA from any accredited engineering program could pretty much write her own ticket to grad school.

It's a nice guarantee for Smith to use in marketing their engineering program, but probably not as big a perk as it might seem at first blush.

mini · 05-11-2008, 02:51 PM

It's an awfully nice perk when you don't have to worry about it (my d. finished a year with 11 grad school applications and had to sit and wait), and to know in advance which six schools have the guarantee, and to know that you are in at all of six of them regardless of GREs or the equivalent.

I'd say that, put together, it is a VERY big deal. (Don't you have a d. who is a senior? How many graduate school or job applications and/or interviews did she or her friends have to wait on? I only wish I had had the "perk" of knowing almost a year in advance of graduation where I'd be going next, and even before I applied. It would have made a huge difference in my life.)