Recently visited Alfred University with D and she was blown away by the endless opportunities to get her hands dirty in enginnering labs (biomaterials, cermanics, lazer cutters, etc.) and art workshops (amazing wood workshops, dozens of kilns, a foundry, and glass blowing facilities.) She loves STEM and art, and the chance to make things (wants to minimize her time in lectures). Are there any other small schools out there with similar facilities and and an emphasis on learning by making?
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This is an excellent question. Tagging @MYOS1634 .
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Off the top of my head, WPI and Olin. Cal Poly SLO also has a “maker” turn of mind with lots of resources available to undergraduates.
I’ll try to think of more!
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If your D is interested in small liberal arts colleges, she should consider Haverford. They have an incredible Visual Culture, Arts, and Media center that’s open 24/7 and includes a maker space. It’s worth diving into their site https://www.haverford.edu/visual-culture-arts-and-media and looking at the VCAM’s Instagram account, too.
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I’m not sure about the art end of your question, but Case Western and Rose Hulman have fantastic maker spaces.
Olin for engineering (project-based, small, very selective). UMass Dartmouth has an artisan’s program. A school for engineering could also be combined with local community pottery studios.
I think many schools with engineering will also have excellent art, but you want to make sure the engineering students have access to the studio art classes she wants.
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RPI but it’s more mid size than small.
Thanks so much! She also espeically likes Union College, as a small liberal arts school that has engineering majors but also seems to have solid art programs (we toured and saw well equipped metal and woodshops). May also look at Lafayette, though not sure about the student culture (she’s looking for a pretty progressive/activist community). LMK if others come to mind.
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Harvey Mudd College (about 900 students) has new maker space in a brand new computer science building. So, a student would have the engineering education at Mudd and its humanities and arts offerings. Additionally, any student here has access to classes, including arts classes and resources at all of the Claremont Colleges. So you might want to see the arts offerings at Pomona, Scripps, CMC, and Pitzer colleges.
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Narrowly focused on Studio Art, Centre College is known for its glass blowing program and Dickinson College has metal working. At Dickinson, my kid was enthralled by the opportunity to work with blow torches . . . . (he was a ceramicist but loved the idea of branching out).
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Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (NYC)
Bucknell University
Hope College
Swarthmore College
Rice University
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