<p>What are examples of college consortia that would allow a student to be at a small LAC but yet take an occasional class (e.g. engineering) at another school? Ones I know about are the Amherst et al 5 college consortium, and the Haverford et al 3 college consortium. Actually, I don’t know if this scenario is possible for these examples but at least the potential exists.</p>
<p>The Claremont Colleges. You could go to Pomona or Claremont McKenna or Scripps, and take classes at Harvey Mudd.</p>
<p>If you are a woman, you could go to Wellesley and take classes at Olin or MIT.</p>
<p>Edit: Duh! I just noticed that you are indeed female! :)</p>
<p>Chi: Swarthmore has a full engineering program, so you’d be able to take advantage of Swarthmore engineering classes as a Haverford or Bryn Mawr student. This requires some extra effort on your part–it can make scheduling other classes difficult, and take precious time out of your schedule to commute–but it’s definitely doable. </p>
<p>I think the situation is similar at the 5 colleges and the Claremonts; however, sometimes there is a cap on the number of classes you can take at another consortium college (The tri-co has this restriction on Penn, but not Swarthmore).</p>
<p>Are you talking about true consortia, or, since you mentioned engineering, are you talking about the 3-2 programs (3 years at the LAC, 2 years at an engineering school)? These are very different.</p>
<p>For another consortium, there’s one in Baltimore that includes Goucher, Johns Hopkins, Towson and a couple of other schools.</p>
<p>My understanding is that it is comparatively difficult to get to Swarthmore from the other two schools, so that that part of the exchange is used less than the Haverford/Bryn Mawr exchange. Since they aren’t the ones with the engineering courses, apply directly to Swarthmore would probably be better for you if that is your interest.</p>
<p>At Claremont, you literally can just walk across the campus.</p>
<p>Wellesley/MIT has an hourly bus from campus to campus. I don’t know what the arrangement with Olin is.</p>
<p>Who takes an “occasional” engineering class?</p>
<p>It’s not often noted, but the “Haverford et al. 3 college consortium” is actually a four-college consortium – it includes Haverford, Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore, and Penn. Bryn Mawr and Haverford are cheek-by-jowl – the distance between them is less than walking across the campus at places like Yale or Stanford – so the degree of academic integration between them is much higher that between either and the other two. The engineering classes would be at Swarthmore or Penn. The Claremont Colleges definitely have engineering at Harvey Mudd, and the Amherst consortium has it at Smith and UMass. But I would definitely read the fine print (and ask administrators, specifically) before assuming that it will be easy to drop in to one or two engineering classes at another college, even within a consortium.</p>
<p>Other places to look: Barnard - Columbia, Hobart and Cornell (I know this exists in theory, not sure how well it works in practice), and the Atlanta University Center consortium (Morehouse, Spelman, and Clark). Another interesting possibility is the Oxford-Emory combine, which essentially involves two years at a LAC in the country and two (with all your classmates) at an urban research university.</p>
<p>Thanks for your comments.</p>
<p>Chedva & JHS, yes, I actually meant true consortium. The reason for the interest in an “occasional” engineering class is because my D wants to attend an LAC, but would like to “try” an engineering class. She is better at math than other subjects, thinks she might be interested in engineering, but like a lot of kids her age (& some of us adults, too, I guess!) does not have much of a sense of what makes engineering different from, say, physics. </p>
<p>I’d forgotten about the Claremont Colleges. Thanks for mentioning that. And I didn’t know about the Baltimore option, so we will look into that.</p>
<p>There’s also the Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities, which include Macalester, Ausburg, St. Catherine’s, Hamline, and St. Thomas.</p>
<p>Thanks, PP. Unfortunately (no, I don’t mean that) we live in the Twin Cities, so of course D would not consider those options! Way too convenient and practical. :^)</p>
<p>Add to the list the Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges: Lehigh University, Lafayette College, Muhlenberg College, Cedar Crest College, Moravian College and DeSales University.</p>
<p>The Colleges of the Fenway, all near each other in the heart of the Boston student hubbub (and also close to Northeastern and BU) include: Simmons, Emmanuel, Mass College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Wheelock, and Mass College of Art & Design. </p>
<p>See: [Colleges</a> of the Fenway](<a href=“http://www.colleges-fenway.org/]Colleges”>http://www.colleges-fenway.org/)</p>
<p>I don’t know about the other Claremont Colleges, but CMC and Harvey Mudd also offer a joint 3+2 dual degree program in economics and engineering.</p>
<p>GW, Georgetown, American, and Catholic are in a consortium that allows cross-registration.</p>
<p>There is the Hudson Mohawk which (in theory) allows cross-registration at a whole list of colleges in NY and MA, including Skidmore, Hartwick and RPI.</p>
<p>The Colleges of Worcester Consortia also allows cross-registration at a group of colleges in MA, including Clark and WPI.</p>
<p>Amherst, Smith, Mt Holyoke, Hampshire and Univ of Mass in Amherst is another consortium.</p>
<p>I know that this wasn’t your question, ChiSquare, but it seems to me that if there’s a chance that she will end up liking engineering and wanting to study it, she should go to a school that offers it rather than relying on a consortium. Some of the schools mentioned in this thread already might meet her needs for an LAC-type environment and also have the engineering option.</p>
<p>Another place she might look at is Tufts. It’s a small university rather than an LAC. But it has a somewhat unusual record in the number of students who move from the liberal arts college to engineering (it’s more usual for the move to go the other way). It’s also relatively easy to double major in an engineering and a liberal arts field.</p>
<p>The Worcester (Massachusetts) Consortium; it includes WPI, Assumption College, Clark University, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester State College.</p>
<p>There’s the Colleges of Worchester (MA), Consortium: WPI, Becker, Assumption, Clark, Worcester State and Holy Cross. WPI has the engineering, don’t know how the program works.</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone, for the suggestions. Gives us more to investigate.</p>
<p>Seashore, I agree with you completely. I had suggested Bucknell to her for the same reason that Tufts comes to your mind. Not small enough for her. At least, that’s what she says this week.</p>
<p>She wouldn’t be able to take “an occasional engineering” class at Smith. More likely, if she was at Smith, she could take an occasional liberal arts class elsewhere in the consortium. (Smith is among the largest of the LACs, around 2,600, though a little more than half the junior class studies abroad).</p>