The title pretty much says it all, but we are looking for schools with an engineering program where a majority of the students live on campus for 4 years. We have identified several schools for her, but she loves the idea of a residential campus and college experience. She much prefers a campus that is walkable and does not require buses to get around. Medium-sized schools would probably be the best fit for her. Our list is missing schools like this (Notre Dame is the only one we have identified). I know Notre Dame is not an engineering school per se, but it has an engineering department. And honestly, I love that she can take several liberal arts classes as well!
For reference, here are my daughter’s stats:
SAT = 1580
1 in her class (at the largest private high school in our state)
All ABET accredited engineering degree programs have at least 1/4 of the credits in math and natural science, plus a general education (humanities and social science) requirement. So there will be liberal arts courses in an ABET accredited engineering degree program, although the specific courses and volume of them can vary.
At many residential colleges, it is common for upper level students to live nearby off campus. The residential college experience is not necessarily limited to campus-run housing.
A college’s common data set, section F1, will tell you the percentage of frosh living on campus and the percentage of all undergraduates living on campus. Percentage of frosh living on campus can tell you how residential versus commuter the college is. If the percentage of all students living on campus is significantly lower, that suggests that many upper level residential students live in nearby off-campus housing.
Thank you. We are really looking for a school (or schools) where a majority of students live in on-campus housing for all 4 years. Most of the engineering schools that we have identified have freshman living on campus and everyone else living off campus. Off campus housing is not a deal breaker, but a college where most students live on campus all four years would be a huge plus. Notre Dame has a fabulous housing situation and campus, and we would love to find other schools like that (preferably ones that offer significant merit aid)! Ideally, my daughter wants to be able to get around on foot (no car or public transit) for 4 years and have her friends do the same.
ETA - For reference, she loved Furman’s campus, but they do not offer an engineering program (we are not interested in a 3-2). That type of campus experience would be the perfect fit for her, and aside from Notre Dame, we cannot find any other engineering school that even resembles that environment.
I know some of the Ivies may meet this criteria, but that is not an avenue we are interested in pursuing.
MIT pre Covid guaranteed on campus housing for 8 semesters. Some of my DD’s friends chose to move to off campus apartments but she stayed in her dorm all four years . MIT campus and Boston itself are very walkable
My daughter is in her 3rd year at Purdue. Still living on campus. Most students are within walking distance of campus, even if they are technically off campus.
Most of the colleges where 90+% of students live on campus appear to be the usual highly selective private ones with little or no merit scholarships. A few others are relatively specialized schools (e.g. Webb Institute, the military service academies, some of the state maritime academies).
However, at the 50+% level, there may be more colleges, although much of that is frosh or frosh+soph. Some examples include South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Tuskegee University, Rose Hulman Institute of Technology.
But also note that the campus dorms are not necessarily the closest housing to campus at every college.
MIT is on our list! Boston is a great, walkable city, and it’s the one ultra competitive school that my daughter has on her list.
I will look into Purdue, but I like that even students who live off campus are within walking distance of campus. I went to a true residential college, and I loved it! And I think that my daughter would like it for all of the same reasons (she reacted to Furman the second we stepped foot on campus).
Bucknell looks great at first glance! The size is perfect, and it looks like freshman - juniors need to live on campus. I have not yet looked at Lafayette, but I will soon. Thank you.
Brown has a 3 year on-campus requirement (IIRC it’s a change from the previous 2 year requirement, which is why the published % is a bit lower) though there are exceptions for local students etc.
@Greymeer Brown has a School of Engineering. So does Purdue and Notre Dame. There are extremely few universities in the United States, if any, that are solely dedicated to Engineering—what’s more important is cost, job prospects, and ABET accreditation.
Rice - great engineering school, residential colleges - students are guaranteed on-campus housing 3 out of the 4 years. (Disclaimer - my daughter is a sophomore Mechanical Engineering student at Rice and LOVES it!)
Columbia - another great engineering school, students are guaranteed on-campus housing for all four years.
An engineering program is fine, and honestly, it is probably a better fit than a school that is mostly engineering/STEM… all other things being equal. For reference, Furman does not have its own engineering program… they partner with GA Tech and/or Clemson in a 3+2 program.
An ABET accredited engineering program is a must for us. Another huge deciding factor is the overall “fit” of the school.
Case Western Reserve University…when I was there you had to live on campus all 4 years. Now they are more flexible, but there are dorms/on campus apartments if you want them.
Because of the importance of PE licensing in civil engineering, it is unlikely that Stanford (or any other school dropping ABET accreditation for some engineering majors that it continues to offer) will drop ABET accreditation for civil engineering.