<p>Alum here who wasn’t a science/engineering type and was at Yale before they started really pouring money into science and engineering. I can’t answer amb3r’s questions, but I just have a couple of thoughts that might be of interest. </p>
<p>Since this post asks about engineering, let me address that from the perspective of close friends who majored in engineering and went on to grad school and later careers in engineering. These people had tremendous research opportunities. There was no problem getting a research job during the summer at Yale if that interested you. My friends all got into top Phd programs. From the two I kept in touch with during their Phd programs, they felt well prepared.</p>
<p>The biggest thing for my friends was that they loved taking history, literature, language, art history, philosophy, etc. classes. They felt that if they had gone to schools like MIT or Caltech they wouldn’t have had such inspiring offerings outside the sciences. They were people who really bought into the concept of a liberal education and were excited by topics outside engineering. They wouldn’t have felt intellectually complete at a science-focused college. You know if you are or your child is one of those types.</p>