Basically, what you are saying supports the main point of my initial response which is that with a liberal arts education, you study a wide range of topics and perhaps, in the end, decide that you don’t want to do engineering after all. I’m sure it would not come as a surprise that an 18 or 19 year old entering college, thinking he/she wants to study engineering, changes his/her mind.
The misunderstanding seems to go in both directions. Yes, liberal arts include math and sciences, but the 3+2 programs aren’t just for students interested in “engineering” in the “+2” school. I know students who did the “+2” programs because they wanted to study sciences or math (not “engineering”) in more depth than their LACs offered.
3-2 programs are clearly not for everyone just like a big research university or a liberal arts college is not for everyone. Only a small fraction of students in liberal arts college opt for the 3-2 program. And frankly these programs are not the main attraction of liberal arts colleges.
The Oberlin Group of colleges to advocate for liberal arts education in the sciences includes 10 liberal arts colleges with 4-year ABET accredited Engineering majors:
Bucknell University
Harvey Mudd College
Hope College
Lafayette College
Manhattan College
Smith College
Trinity College (CT)
Trinity University (TX)
Union College
Another college which fits this same mold but was founded after the formation of the Oberlin Group is Franklin W. Olin College.
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