There’s a trade-off between the intimacy offered by a small school and the variety that a larger school can offer. A small LAC that aim to offer a broad liberal arts education to mainly undergraduate students can’t offer the specialties in engineering by necessity. Even Harvey Mudd, a STEM-focused LAC, can only offer general engineering. For a college to provide a specialty in a certain field, it must attract faculty in that field. The cost would be too high unless it can offset the cost with research. For most researches in STEM (especially engineering), a professor can’t do the research by him-/herself. He/she needs the assistance from graduate students (and postdocs). LACs, by definition, don’t have those programs. If your student prefers a smaller school, but not necessarily an LAC, then I’d suggest you expand your search to include some of colleges on the list @ucbalumnus provided in post #6.