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Liberal arts with engineering?
quirkyandready
3 replies4 threads New Member
Hello! I really love colleges/universities with a liberal arts campus feel but also offer engineering programs. Currently my favorite school is Tufts university but because of its extremely competitive admissions, I would like to find colleges similar to consider. I really enjoyed casewesterns people ( similar to tufts “quirky” nature) however the innercity environment was not for me. Im looking to major in environmental engineering/suistainable design or something in that nature. Any suggestions would be great:)
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Replies to: Liberal arts with engineering?
Cost constraints?
If it's the former, certainly look at WPI. They do have non-tech majors, but not in the same balance as Case and Tufts. The engineering program is innovative though, it's in a good location, and everyone seemed happy.
We also liked Lehigh. The engineering program is strong and Bethlehem was far better than we expected it to be. It's reasonably close to NYC and Philly if you need some city time.
Just a side note about Tufts...they do not offer any merit aid. Unless you have significant financial need, it's going to cost you over a quarter of a million dollars to be a Jumbo.
You might want to look at someplace like U of Vermont. They have a new engineering building, so probably nice new labs. The school loves environmental studies. Burlington is a great town. If you have good grades/scores you might get some decent merit.
Lehigh has sports rivalries with two other two Patriot League schools in Pennsylvania, Lafayette and Bucknell. These are both LACs with civil/environmental engineering. Both are noticeably smaller than Lehigh, though still on the large side by LAC standards. Lafayette is in Easton, which is next to Bethlehem. Bucknell is in a relatively rural and isolated small-town setting, like many classic New England LACs.
All three of these schools would be a notch less selective than Tufts. Would agree with Rochester too, but have not been there and have no impressions.
I agree with those above who suggest UVM - it's small enough to have a relatively LAC-like feel, and to make cross-disciplinary stuff possible, and it has a very strong environmental bent. The Enviro Engineering program there might be a great choice.
A more specialized small school possibility would be SUNY ESF, which is adjacent to Syracuse University and allows cross-registration in SU courses (for an affordable SUNY price - even OOS is relatively inexpensive). It has several environmentally-oriented engineering majors as well as some design options i.e. the minor in landscape arch. studies.
Union College has an Enviro Engineering minor, but not much design stuff per se. Clarkson has an environmental engineering major. So do Lehigh and Bucknell. Also Stevens (esp. if you have any interest in a coastal/ocean focus)
CU Boulder does have a really nice environmental design school - small and personalized even though the university is big. They also have enviro engineering... but I don't get the sense that there's much cross-talk between EVND and engineering, and it would be hard to find a liberal arts feel.
The enviro engineering program at CO School of Mines might come close to what you're looking for, though. (Definitely not liberal artsy, but small and close-knit, with lots of nature!) https://cee.mines.edu/bs-environmental-engineering/
Harvey Mudd (STEM-oriented LAC in the Claremont Consortium) has an Environmental Analysis concentration that is available to engineering majors, and their engineering curriculum is very design-oriented. (Not necessarily an easier admit than Tufts, though.)
Lastly (in the not-easy-to-get-into category), Olin has a very design-oriented engineering program, as well as this certificate program http://bow3colleges.org/sustainability-certificate
If you'd consider a larger school, one my son choose, after looking at nearly every school mentioned here, most in person, Cal Poly is worth a look.
Lafayette and Bucknell really have that rolling green hills LAC kind of feel. If Disney was going to add a "college-land" to the Magic Kingdom, it would probably look a lot like Lafayette.
Not Liberal arts per se, but SMU might be something you're interested in.