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Your vote for "Most Underappreciated" lesser known colleges?
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Replies to: Your vote for "Most Underappreciated" lesser known colleges?
My favorite part of the tour was toward the end when the guide stopped us and pointed out, with extra emphasis, the mental health office. She made a strong point: if you feel you need some help, do NOT hesitate. A lot of nodding heads and knowing looks among the parents with that one.
As a native of SoCal, I should add if you've never been in that part of the region, note that most of the publicity photos show the Claremont Colleges in a glorious, postcard-worthy setting, with snowcapped mountains in the background. In reality, this happens maybe a few days a year. At least half the year, that area is shrouded in a hazy smog and you can barely see those mountains. But the beach is about an hour's drive.
Also, it isn't that "Spartan". The new buildings in recent years (Shanahan for classrooms, Drinkward dorm) are really nice. They've done extensive internal remodeling in a lot of the lab & classroom areas, too. And I think the dining hall is maybe the best of the 5Cs.
The inside of my kid's suite style dorm room was no more "barracks style" than any other dorms we saw on our 40 college visits across 2 kids (Mount Holyoke had nicer rooms, and Amherst had nicer common areas).
Plenty of Mudders have overlap acceptances to Ivies, so not sure what that is about. They aren't "hardcore anti Ivy". But they may want to go to a school with a heavy STEM focus -- nothing wrong with that.
SUNY Binghamton
SUNY Stony Brook
Rose Hulman is less well known and deserves mentioning. (I might have missed it if someone already mentioned it.)
--In terms of admission they offered a very quick decision so my S was "in" by October which took a ton of stress off the entire process and saved us money as we did not apply to schools that were lower on his list.
--In terms of finances, Siena was less expensive than most private schools and offered merit aid.
--S did an overnight and was impressed by the students, professors he met there. The school moved way up on his list after that visit.
WPI because it has a truly pioneering approach which is easily missed by the general public, but much appreciated by the National Academy of Engineering (see https://www.nae.edu/Activities/Projects/Awards/GordonPrize/GordonWinners.aspx#tabs). Projects and interdisciplinary thinking in a teamwork environment are central here when one looks at the full four years program of studies.
Olin College of Engineering is underrated. The general public does not know who they are and what they are doing. They are hard at work revolutionizing the educational process.
Many smaller schools have a dedicated and creative faculty. Two schools in my home state of Maine that fit this description are College of the Atlantic and Unity college.
Innovation is a very challenging process in any system when it influences commonly accepted practices. Education is no different. Studies of "WPI alumni confirmed the findings of a 2014 Gallup-Purdue index poll that showed students who undertook long-term college projects report more career satisfaction and stronger connections to professional satisfaction, advancement, and personal enrichment."
Neither of these schools have a "big ten" football team advertising for them. We do thank Purdue for their research!
I am sure you have heard of them, but outside of academia you may not know that they also do a lot of academic research.
. :bz
It is the responsibility of the college to make others aware.
http://coplac.org/members/
That is in contrast to the strong advocacy of private LACs on these forums.
Thank you again! Public LACs list is very interesting. Just took a quick look and it appears there may are some real gems here we may not be aware of. Check out St Mary's @ http://www.smcm.edu/. Yes, it is a public school with a great student faculty ratio of 10:1!
My guess is this problem is symptomatic of almost all small schools, public or private. It would be really nice to hear more CC conversation for students who don't fit the HYP profile as information on these schools is more difficult to find.
If you are interested in marine engineering and ocean studies, look at Maine Maritime Academy @ http://mainemaritime.edu/academics/undergraduate-programs/. It is public and on the coast of Maine.
If you are interested in environmental studies, interdisciplinary thinking and much more visit the College of The Atlantic in Bar Harbor Maine @ http://www.coa.edu/academics/areas-of-study/. This private school has a 10:1 student faculty ratio and a beautiful location.
Unity College in Unity Maine has 17 environmental majors and a pathfinders program for first-year students who want to learn more about their career options before making a choice. See https://www.unity.edu/academics/areas-of-study/majors/. This private college is really in the country, but not on the ocean. The student faculty ratio is 15:1.
Yes, I live in Maine. It is a good place to study nature.
:bz