<p>My daughter is a HS sophmore and is interested in engineering for college. Unfortunately she also wants to go to a smallish school…under 3,000 students. I’d prefer something on the east coast, but considering that small and engineering may not be something that is easy to find, right now I just want ideas. Her current GPA is 3.2 and she’s in a special STEM program already taking some basic engineering classes.</p>
<p>Any ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>[ABET</a> -](<a href=“http://www.abet.org%5DABET”>http://www.abet.org) accreditation search can help you find schools by engineering major and state in the US. You can then check the schools’ web sites to find their size.</p>
<p>Note that some small schools or schools with smaller engineering degree programs have a single “Engineering Science” accreditation instead of accreditation for each type of engineering (e.g. biomedical, chemical, civil, electrical, industrial, materials, mechanical, nuclear); engineering students choose the type of engineering by choosing elective courses specific to that type of engineering. If that is the case, you need to check the school’s engineering department to see if it offers the courses for the intended type of engineering.</p>
<p>Environmental is sometimes offered as a subarea under civil. Aerospace or naval architecture is sometimes offered as a subarea under mechanical.</p>
<p>New Mexico Tech in Soccoro, NM </p>
<p>Enrollment ~1400 students. Excellent engineering program.</p>
<p>ABET accredited in chemical, civil, computer/electrical, mechanical, materials, petroleum and mineral engineering. Internship opportunities at 2 nearby National Labs. </p>
<p>NM Tech also is home to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO)–aka the Very Large Array. (VLA is about 30 minutes west of Soccoro, but the observatory staff works out of the NM Tech campus.)</p>
<p>Has one the best small engineering libraries in the Rockies.</p>
<p>Your D may eligible for either a tuition reduction scholarship or other merit award.</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“http://www.nmt.edu/scholarships]Scholarships[/url”>http://www.nmt.edu/scholarships]Scholarships[/url</a>]</p>
<p>Lafayette College, Easton PA. 2400 students. Its a liberal arts college, but nearly 1/3 of its grads are engineers, and their engineering dept is well respected. That said, a 3.2 GPA is low for admission there, but perhaps in a specialized STEM program a 3.2 could be a strong GPA. They offer Chemical, Civil, Electrical and Computer, and Mechanical Engineering. Also have a unique BA in Engineering (general), many of those graduates go into technical sales or get an MBA and become managers in technical firms.</p>
<p>Franklin Olin College of Engineering in Mass. has 300 students and offers all students half tuition scholarships. Although admissions are very competitive, if she does well on the SATs it may be an option.</p>
<p>Smith College could be a good option for your D. </p>
<p>Bucknell and Lehigh also have engineering.</p>
<p>The three ‘best’ small engineering schools that I know:
Olin College (Mass. 306 students)
Cooper Union (New York City 918 students, free tuition for everybody accepted)
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (Terre-Haute IN, 1840 students, #1 ranked engineering program by US News and World Report)</p>
<p>These schools are the best small engineering schools so they have extremely tough admission. A 3.2 may not be enough.</p>
<p>Hope College, Michigan; Kettering College; Michigan; Trinity College, CT; and Union College and Clarkson, NY come to mind.</p>
<p>University of Hartford has a great engineering program. Size is about right and her GPA is within the range of accepted students.</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd provided that gpa increases.</p>
<p>South Dakota School of Mines–girls are HIGHLY sought after and they have close to 100% job placement rate in your field upon graduation. Beautiful area of the country too, Rapid City, SD.</p>
<p>[South</a> Dakota School of Mines & Technology](<a href=“HPC Page”>http://sdmines.sdsmt.edu/sdsmt)</p>
<p>Alfred University, Alfred NY. I went there back in the stone age and engineering program was top notch. When I went there it had around 2,000 students.</p>
<p>Oh yes, I forgot about Alfred, fits the GPA too…visited with my second son. Neat school but virtually no “town” so quite rural. This is one that definitely requires a visit if considering. I loved it, but son did not.</p>
<p>Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado. 3500ish undergrads. Absolutely gorgeous location. Selective, but not as hard to get into as many of the schools mentioned above.</p>
<p>WPI is on the East Cost, ~3500 undergrads, and might be within reach if her scores come out great.</p>
<p>Virtually every engineering school in the country needs more women. There may be more elasticity in the expected stats for female candidates.</p>
<p>Seconding Rose Hulman mentioned above.</p>
<p>Gonzaga University in Spokane. Total undergrad about 4800, school of Engineering 600.</p>
<p>Lots of new STEM based programs being implemented here with WSU/Spokane: Pharmacy and UW Med school, for example.</p>
<p>Clarkson… waaaaaay upstate NY. Small town and cold, but great education. DH and I (and our college friends) think highly of our Clarkson educations. They also offer math/science and business majors, but most students study Engineering.</p>
<p>Smith, and they have a summer program in science/engineering for high school girls.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.science.smith.edu/departments/Engin/[/url]”>Engineering | Smith College;
<p>‘Engineering’ is a broad category. You need to pay attention to exactly what type of engineering she’s interested in when checking out colleges - electrical, mechanical, chemical, computer science, biomedical, civil, structural, etc. These are all quite different even though they’re all ‘engineering’.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies…kept them coming.</p>
<p>D has the ability to get higher GPA- her problem is being unorganized. She’s on spring break so we’ve been visiting schools. We went to West Virginia Tech, Capitol College, and Wylkes Univ. We’re visiting Olin tomorrow. She liked Wylkes, then WVTech. I’m hoping these visits will get her to get her act together.</p>
<p>The other thing is that she doesn’t know which Eng program she wants to go through so we may have to broaden her perspective and pick larger schools so she can switch majors if necessary. On the other hand she has one year to figure it out. :-)</p>