SUNY ESF
Excellent programs in environmental studies.
Sewanee, Earlham, Wells, Alfred
Re Harvey Mudd, we toured a year ago (I’ve known about it since the mid-1970s when my brainy BF applied). It seems a great place for the hardcore brainiac who loves the idea of a Spartan environment. The stark, barracks-style dorms will appeal to the anti-Ivy set for sure.
My favorite part of the tour was toward the end when the guide stopped us and pointed out, with extra emphasis, the mental health office. She made a strong point: if you feel you need some help, do NOT hesitate. A lot of nodding heads and knowing looks among the parents with that one.
As a native of SoCal, I should add if you’ve never been in that part of the region, note that most of the publicity photos show the Claremont Colleges in a glorious, postcard-worthy setting, with snowcapped mountains in the background. In reality, this happens maybe a few days a year. At least half the year, that area is shrouded in a hazy smog and you can barely see those mountains. But the beach is about an hour’s drive.
In Iowa, Dubuque is located on the Mississippi River at the junction of MN, Wisconsin, I’ll, and is a beautiful area. Loras, Clarke, and the University of Dubuque seen in Field of Dreams. Tuition at one allows students to take classes at the other two. Good schools. Webster University in Saint Louis
Um… what an unpleasant set of comments about Mudd. For all the smog in the LA area, my experience the many times I visited the Mudd campus was that it isn’t bad most of the time in Claremont, and I could usually see the mountains just fine. My kid also hiked in them all the time when she needed a break.
Also, it isn’t that “Spartan”. The new buildings in recent years (Shanahan for classrooms, Drinkward dorm) are really nice. They’ve done extensive internal remodeling in a lot of the lab & classroom areas, too. And I think the dining hall is maybe the best of the 5Cs.
The inside of my kid’s suite style dorm room was no more “barracks style” than any other dorms we saw on our 40 college visits across 2 kids (Mount Holyoke had nicer rooms, and Amherst had nicer common areas).
Plenty of Mudders have overlap acceptances to Ivies, so not sure what that is about. They aren’t “hardcore anti Ivy”. But they may want to go to a school with a heavy STEM focus – nothing wrong with that.
UIUC and U-Wisconsin are great, maybe “lesser-known” schools?
Beloit College in Wisconsin! Nicest school EVER.
Union College, Schenectady, NY
SUNY Binghamton
SUNY Stony Brook
It’s funny what some are saying are lesser known. UIUC, UWMadison, SUNY Binghamton and Stony Brook are all major Unis. Harvey Mudd is super highly rated and extremely well known.
Rose Hulman is less well known and deserves mentioning. (I might have missed it if someone already mentioned it.)
Mudd is much better known on the West coast. Surprisingly little recognition in the Midwest. Remember that they graduate less than 200 students a year and have only been around since 1955. That is an entire alumni population of around 10,000. It is an amazing school, and my Midwest kid adored it.
Binghamton and Stony Brook are known in the NY, NJ, PA, CT area. Outside of there, not so much.
It is very common for students and parents on these forums to think of a potential admission safety as one that is unworthy of the student in that the student “should do better” (i.e. attend a more selective college).
We were happily surprised by Siena College in NY (near Albany). While my S ultimately did not attend Siena it went from being a safety to a final contender.
–In terms of admission they offered a very quick decision so my S was “in” by October which took a ton of stress off the entire process and saved us money as we did not apply to schools that were lower on his list.
–In terms of finances, Siena was less expensive than most private schools and offered merit aid.
–S did an overnight and was impressed by the students, professors he met there. The school moved way up on his list after that visit.
denison, dickinson, connecticut college, union, and rhodes!
Hobart & William Smith? RIT, WPI, Case Western?
Clarkson U
WPI, Olin
WPI because it has a truly pioneering approach which is easily missed by the general public, but much appreciated by the National Academy of Engineering (see https://www.nae.edu/Activities/Projects/Awards/GordonPrize/GordonWinners.aspx#tabs). Projects and interdisciplinary thinking in a teamwork environment are central here when one looks at the full four years program of studies.
Olin College of Engineering is underrated. The general public does not know who they are and what they are doing. They are hard at work revolutionizing the educational process.
Many smaller schools have a dedicated and creative faculty. Two schools in my home state of Maine that fit this description are College of the Atlantic and Unity college.
Innovation is a very challenging process in any system when it influences commonly accepted practices. Education is no different. Studies of “WPI alumni confirmed the findings of a 2014 Gallup-Purdue index poll that showed students who undertook long-term college projects report more career satisfaction and stronger connections to professional satisfaction, advancement, and personal enrichment.”
Neither of these schools have a “big ten” football team advertising for them. We do thank Purdue for their research!
I am sure you have heard of them, but outside of academia you may not know that they also do a lot of academic research.
. :bz
It is the responsibility of the college to make others aware.
Perhaps Olin chooses to remain under the radar so they don’t have to grow the size of the university. They are busy with their mission of collaborating with industry and other universities about revolutionizing the educational process. That way their long-term impact is more significant.
Public LACs seem to be under-noticed/appreciated/recommended on these forums.
http://coplac.org/members/
That is in contrast to the strong advocacy of private LACs on these forums.