Small STEM oriented school within 6 hours of NYC?

College Search & Lists
21

This is a tough combination!

Although everything else on your list is offered by many small colleges, engineering specifically at small colleges is relatively rare.

Colleges that are that near NYC is yet another pretty strong filter, and then so is being in a college town (particularly in the relatively population-dense area you are looking). Indeed, normally college towns in the stricter sense have grown around larger colleges, like big public universities. Some small colleges are in small towns, but I don’t know if “college town” really fits many of those. Even in a case like, say, Amherst College, it is benefiting from UMass Amherst helping to create the college town of the same name (random aside, but Kalamazoo College is in a great college town of the same name, but similarly that is only really possible because so is the much larger Western Michigan University).

And then Greek Life is usually particularly common in small colleges in small towns, because it helps create/organize a social life in such settings. And in fact, the few sorts of small colleges that do pre-professional stuff like engineering might also be more likely to have Greek Life.

I guess my point is your D25 might end up having to decide which compromises she is more willing to make than others, to really get a robust set of choices.

Like, Trinity (CT) is a small college with engineering reasonably close to NYC. But it is in Hartford, and I gather around 20% of students do Greek Life. If those are acceptable compromises, though, it could be a strong contender.

As others mentioned, Rochester is a great college for people with broad STEM interests that might or might not include engineering, and is just under 6 hours from NYC. But the city of Rochester is also not what I would call a college town, and the college is over 5000 (latest was 5740 undergrads), and I gather about 14% Greek.

Swarthmore is a VERY strong small college choice for those academic interests, with the possibility of a train to NYC, but it is in a close suburb of Philly, not a college town.

Academically and size-wise, Bucknell (about 3 hours from NYC) seems like a potentially good fit, but I would describe its setting as more small town than college town, and Greek Life is a big deal there, apparently over half of upperclass students.

And so on.

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22

So it’s pushing the 6 hours but what about William and Mary?

Checks a lot of STEM boxes except engineering, just created a new college of physics and data science, sciences and math and compsci are very popular there.

Great little town. Good size. Highly regarded.

How likely is engineering versus other STEM?

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23

With respect to Greek influence on social life, this site lists colleges with high or relatively high sorority participation: https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/most-sororities.

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Worcester has 8 colleges and universities and is the second largest city in New England after Boston. It’s most definitely a college town and WPI is in a nice part of the city, not in the outskirts. Just clarifying for others.

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25

Thank you all for your helpful and thoughtful responses. There are definitely some suggestions on here that we haven’t looked into yet.
A bit more info - D25 is most interested in math and science but also has a strong interest in problem solving (Physics Olympics etc.) and artistic pursuits (digital graphic arts, printmaking and 3D modeling). To date she has not been exposed to engineering classes but I wonder if industrial engineering or material science might be interesting targets for her. Sorry if I confused anyone with the phrase “college town”! On our recent visits LACs with an adjacent town have been her favorite campus settings (Williams and Amherst / reaches). She likes the idea of a smaller, accessible town like Madison, NJ.

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26

That is very helpful. Williamstown is small–only about 7500 people. Also very charming, but as long as something that size is OK, it will definitely make it easier to find small colleges with a similar setting.

This is going to continue to be the tricky bit. If you really want robust engineering programs as an option, that is just very hard to find in small colleges. Indeed, even if they have engineering at all, a small college may not have much depth in many specific areas of engineering.

So this might be a choice of priorities at some point.

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27

Well
Drew (in Madison) has preengineering and some dual degree programs, but check for her other possible interests.

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28

I heard Stevens institute of technology is good.

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Do you mean Stevens Institute of Technology?

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30

Yes sorry

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31

For this, look into colleges with formal digital arts programs and with makerspaces with features such as supported 3D modeling and printing.

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32

RPI is a little bigger, does have Greek life (although I don’t know how much of a big deal it is) but it’s 2.5 hrs from NYC, and would give her a lot of merit money, possibly enough to match SUNY cost in-state. Lopsided male to female ratio, so they really want women (especially with lovely stats, like your daughter’s), but the saying is, “The odds are good, but the goods are odd”.

If you’re not in the upper middle class demographic, where your expected family contribution is much higher than you can actually afford, Union?

Make sure that she makes at least one SUNY option, because she needs a financial safety. https://www.suny.edu/media/suny/content-assets/documents/guides-to-majors/career_cluster_engineering.pdf Family finances and financial aid offers can be unpredictable. Another thing - for people who are not sure what they want to study, who may wind up exploring and choosing something else, small schools may not be the best choice, because they might wind up needing to transfer, to major in a different interest. A school like Amherst, which not only is in a 5 college consortium, but also is right next to a huge flagship U that offers many options, could provide the best of both worlds. Honestly, if a student has to travel to get to the other college, even just a 20-30 min shuttle bus ride winds up being a barrier, because of bus schedules. It can mean blocking out at least a half day, 2-3x a week, to take a class at the other college, if it’s not within easy walk/bike/scootering distance.

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Also bigger than you’d like but known for small class sizes is RIT. They would hit all the academic interests.

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It is. Great school.
But not in a college town.

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35

My mathy kid loves Haverford

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Holding aside the engineering issue, I think Haverford is a great small college option for STEM kids. Lots of strong departments, great location in a walkable area with easy access to Philly, and a functional consortium relationship with Bryn Mawr that can also be expanded to Swarthmore and Penn on at least a limited basis.

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37

Based on your most recent post, these are some extremely likely/sure thing schools that your D might want to consider:

  • Alfred (NY): About 1300 undergrads at Alfred U. plus about 3300 undergrads at SUNY College of Technology at Alfred. This school has ABET-accredited engineering, and has materials engineering, ceramic engineering, glass engineering, and other specialty fields. It also has a robust arts program, though most of the majors seem to be BFAs. But I would imagine there would be possibilities to include coursework or a minor without needing to do a BFA. This is all in addition to math, CS, physics, etc.

  • Merrimack (MA): About 4200 undergrads. It offers ABET-accredited engineering, graphic design, interactive design, and other classic options (physics, math, etc).

  • SUNY Oneonta: About 4900 undergrads. Although it has a BFA, it also offers a BA in Digital and Studio Arts, as well as full offerings in physics, CS, math, etc. It does have a 3/2 engineering option, should she end up wanting to go that route.

It’s interesting how New York tries to very much separate some of its degree programs across different campuses. As your D is potentially interested in a CS major, that option doesn’t appear available at Geneseo or Cortland, two other campuses that might be worth considering otherwise.

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38

You might be interested in the following example of a potential path related to your daughter’s interests. This UX architect majored in math at Hamilton, earned an M.S. in industrial engineering and has successfully pursued user experience (UX) design as a career:

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39

Definitely take a look at Smith, even if she thinks she doesn’t want a women’s college.

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This may be a difference re: the definition of “college town” - to me, that’s a town that is largely focused on the college, or exists to support the college, or the college is a main focus. Not a town with a lot of colleges. If that’s the definition, then I guess yes, it fits.

Similarly, in my mind it’s on the outskirts because it’s not right in the middle of the urban - like a GW is right in the center of DC, but I’d say American is on the outskirts - it’s still in the city, but not right where all the big buildings are. WPI is a defined campus, adjacent to a large park, with a fair bit of small business or houses surrounding it. It’s not like the building next to it is an office building or local city building. So to my mind, it’s the outer ring of the city, not the heart of the city. But still the city, if that makes sense.

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