I recently visited URochester and Parsons in the New School and I was impressed by how both schools have extensive fabrication/art/building labs+resources. I liked how their curriculum and activities focused on building projects/experiential learning. At Parsons, assignments included building a chair and constructing art for a mini art museum which I thought was awesome.
I just like building stuff (music, art, hardware, etc) and I want an environment that will promote and provide the tools for this. I’m interested in CS, engineering, and product or graphic design.
The choices depend somewhat on just what kind of stuff you want to build, as well as your qualifications, budget, preferred location, etc. Oberlin is good for music. USC, UCLA, and Wesleyan are good for filmmaking. Check out tiny Centre College in Danville, KY, if glass-blowing is your thing. Cornell is good for architecture, CS, and engineering. RISD + Brown together seem to excel at building a variety of stuff across some of the areas you mention. Stanford may be the university with the best campus-wide culture of engineering and design excellence … if you can get in. Many state universities also have excellent engineering programs but are less selective, with lower sticker prices, than Stanford.
Cooper Union is interesting. It’s the only American school I’m aware of that focuses solely on architecture, fine arts, and engineering. Liberal arts minors (but no majors AFAIK) are offered in only 5 fields. So it seems to be focused almost exclusively on designing or making things. It’s also very hard to get in.
Case Western just opened a maker space building http://thinkbox.case.edu/ and allows students to maintain access to some engineering labs after class completion for individual use.
@tk21769 I like building wide range of things—art, software, hardware/robotics, woodworking, music (recording and building instruments)—so I’d like a school to be conductive to that.
Stanford’s the dream but pretty much all these schools are moonshots for me as I have a 1520 new SAT, 3.4 GPA (with an upward trend to 3.75). I’m looking for preferably medium or large schools in a non-rural setting. I need good financial aid, as our budget is $50k max (~150k income in a high COL area).
Have you run the online net price calculators on a few schools (including in-state public universities)?
“$50K max” is your limit for all 4 years (not the annual limit), right?
One of the coolest and most unique colleges out there is the American College of the Building Arts in Charleston, SC. It teaches the trades and crafts that old buildings are decorated with – the skills that are largely lost today, but demand a premium price on the market. For example, majors can focus on the ornate plaster work, iron work, stone work or wood work used in decorative architecture. More information is here: http://americancollegeofthebuildingarts.com/
The Southwest School of Art has an incredible location on the River Walk in San Antonio, and offers a BFA with focus areas in Ceramics, Drawing & Painting, Metals, Photography, Printmaking and Sculpture & Integrated Media. See: https://www.swschool.org/home
The University of the Arts in Philadelphia offers a variety of majors including ceramics, jewelry, glass, industrial design and wood/furniture. https://www.uarts.edu/programs
The Minneapolis College of Art and Design also includes furniture, sculpture, product design, comic art, and many other options among its majors, and it is located next door to the Minneapolis Institute of Art, one of the premier art museums in the country. https://mcad.edu/
Check out Lehigh. The school has always been known for traditional undergraduate engineering, computer science, and business programs. But recently they acquired a former corporate research complex, located on a mountaintop above the the main campus. The facility was originally built by Bethlehem Steel for R&D, but was closed and put up for sale after the company went bankrupt.
Lehigh doesn’t need the space for traditional classrooms or labs, so they basically let the students take it over. So now the complex is turning into an enormous “makerspace” for student research and independent projects. Some students stay on campus over the summer, so they can work on their projects full-time. It’s definitely an unconventional academic environment, but might be very appealing to the right kind of person.
Totally agree on Cal Poly SLO. Fun college town, hands-on education, and their in-state tuition is an amazing value.
Lehigh isn’t well known in California, but they are making an effort to step up their recruitment there, so it may be a school to consider if you are willing to go out of state. Lehigh may not match the UC or CSU in-state tuition, but they may give you a better chance of graduating in four years, and the housing costs are way low by CA standards.
