SLAC with Strong STEM?

Parents Forum
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To Momofasenior, do you mind which school offered engineering design class in year 1? Thank you

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Thanks, on our list. Not sure about living in Cleveland, though

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@SchoolNews -
Purdue - Honors college has an integrated engineering design and physics course. Students get certified in the all the machine shops, 3D printing labs, etc
It’s a two semester, project based course. Non honors has physics separated out but the design part is similar.

I believe the other schools that D looked at that had a 1st year engineering design/intro were:
Michigan
Northwestern - does a cool human center design class for first year engineers
Maryland (I believe it’s a keystone type class there)
Lehigh - intro to engineering design processes

Those are the ones that I remember. (I know the most about Purdue since that is where D goes to school).

I’m sure there are many others and hopefully other posters will share.

Another thing to consider is many of the large schools have living/learning programs that center around project based work and those communities can also make a big school seem much smaller. Here’s the link to Purdue’s engineering based communities: https://www.purdue.edu/learningcommunities/profiles/engineering/index.html

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At many schools the intro is an elective course to review different fields like a 1 credit class. At many also they have the intro with the hands on design element to go over different fields and this is more mandatory.

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My daughter took an intro class at Florida Tech. It wasn’t required and if the student knew which type of engineering they wanted they could take Intro to mechanical or Intro to ChemE. She took the general intro (and then did not have to take Intro to Civil, when she decided on civil). They had a project where they made a putt putt golf course hole in a small group, and had to use three types on engineering on the project. As stated above, they were certified on the 3D printer, for the workshop, for computer labs.

It was fun.

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“Better to know year 1 if engineering is for you or not,”

The intro to engineering classes offered now are good because of the hands-on nature of the class. I would still think that math and maybe physics would be the classes that universities use to tell if engineering is right for you, meaning those are typically the tougher, weed out classes.

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To me it’s all of it. You need the fortitude to get through some of these classes and the interest and commitment to ask the why of it. It’s such a mistake when students go into engineering because their good in math. But they don’t have the interest to go further. They don’t find solving problems or improving a process interesting enough. Hope that makes sense.

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Tufts is not a LAC but a small research U. It has a good engineering school with a pretty tight community. With that said, there are students every year who start as engineers and decide not to pursue engineering, and there are lots of options. It’s also a good place to study STEM (but not engineering. )

If it’s a true LAC environment you’re looking for, though, this isn’t it.

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This is why I limited my remarks initially to the handful of NE colleges people generally regard as SLACs (selective liberal arts colleges.) It’s interesting that both Swarthmore and Dartmouth (not really a LAC, but probably not much bigger than one when it joined the Ivy League) both award a general degree in engineering (B.S. and B.A.) and both are very careful to point out that further study is necessary if its graduates want to qualify for jobs in specific subfields of engineering.

I think many SLACs have the math and physics chops to prepare their graduates for masters programs or even a B.E. degree with the proper sequencing:
https://www.wesleyan.edu/engineering/

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Swarthmore and Dartmouth are different in this respect.

Swarthmore offers an ABET accredited general engineering BS degree that may be specialized to some extent with in-major electives. Graduates do go directly to engineering jobs (although many do go into traditional northeastern elite college graduate jobs like finance and consulting): https://www.swarthmore.edu/engineering/companies-hiring-swarthmore-engineering-graduates

Dartmouth offers a four year non-ABET-accredited AB program. Students who want an ABET accredited BE degree typically need to stay another few quarters: https://engineering.dartmouth.edu/academics/undergraduate .

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My back-of-the-envelope math tells me that approximately 46% of Swarthmore engineering graduates go on to jobs with the word, “engineer” in its title.

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“I agree with those who suggested Union, Hamilton, and Lafayette.”

All excellent colleges, but only Union and Lafayette offer engineering; Hamilton does not. Another college to consider is Trinity in CT.

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and, if you go a size up, Bucknell and Lehigh, which have both been mentioned previously.

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@schoolnews Another mid sized school (like Case Western) that offers Engineering but does not have barriers to switching into a different college once admitted is Wash U in St Louis. BTW, the area of Cleveland where Case Western is located is actually pretty nice - adjacent to a big park, botanical garden, museums, etc. and Little Italy is nearby. Wash U is similarly positioned - near a massive park with free museums and Zoo and a shopping/dining area nearby (Delmar Loop) that has all the student amenities. I have heard good things about WPI and RPI for more applied approaches. I also hear good things about Rochester.

Lehigh and Lafayette are also worth a look if your son wants a LAC experience.

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@SchoolNews FYI Case is on the outskirts of Cleveland
in an area called the University Circle. It is a dense area of culture and academics.
https://www.universitycircle.org/

Here is more info on Cleveland:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/case-western-reserve-university/2080977-cleveland.html

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For female students, Smith College has a strong engineering program.

1 Like
37

Lafayette, Lehigh, and how about University of Richmond?

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University of Richmond doesn’t have engineering.

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Too bad Richmond doesn’t have engineering. They do offer this:

https://preengineering.richmond.edu/dual-degree/index.html

But that’s not what this poster wants.

What about Santa Clara University? Under 5000 undergrads, and a fine engineering program.

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I think CWRU is worth considering, but it’s really part of urban Cleveland. Yes, it’s in the cultural area where the fabulous art museum is located, as well as Severance Hall (home to the Cleveland Orchestra). It’s at the bottom of both Cedar and Murray Hills
when you get to the top of those hills, you are in Cleveland Heights which is the nearest close suburb. Lots of apartments in that area where upperclass and professional students from Case live.

Cleveland has a lot to offer. It’s a smaller city, with terrific things going on (well
maybe not now in Covid Times). Great sports teams, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, museums, Playhouse Square (fun fact
Playhouse Square has a lot of theaters, I think second only to broadway).

Lots of great positive changes in Cleveland over the years. I grew up there, and love going back and seeing all the things that this city has to offer.