<p>Forgot to put that. One flight from hartford from here.</p>
<p>-Ben</p>
<p>^^Lawrence U and St. Olaf were on my other son’s original list – he’s a music major in college now.</p>
<p>St. Olaf came off the list just before he submitted his applications, but not for a reason that would apply to you, I don’t think. That son was a violinist and voice student. He decided to major in vocal performance with an emphasis on opera. He felt that the vocal emphasis at St. Olaf’s was choral versus opera performance, and they didn’t offer Italian (I think it was), which my son thought was pretty essential to an opera performance degree. He absolutely LOVED St. Olaf. It felt like a super good fit to him – in terms of ambiance, standards of excellence, friendliness, and pre-dominance of liberal arts, including the sciences. But he felt like he had to let it go since it didn’t quite fulfill his needs for his major, in his opinion.</p>
<p>Lawrence U was also a favorite. He came very, very close to attending. It was a real tossup between his current school and Lawrence until the bitter end. It’s very small and very personal. It’s in the boonies, though, in our opinions. But we had no doubt that my son would get an excellent education there.</p>
<p>Williams is AMAZING, I hear. Always tops the charts in terms of LACs. But neither of my kids considered it for the same reason you’re hesitant about Rice and Harvey Mudd. It’s just too far for us. And inconvenient as heck to get to from here.</p>
<p>We’ve looked at a few 3/2 engineering programs. Personally, for a kid with my son’s interests, I think it would be an absolutely PERFECT option. Unfortunately, he’s not as interested in that option. He wants to delve right into a 4-year engineering program, period, as long as the school he goes to offers a wide range of liberal arts courses. </p>
<p>There are tons of amazing, small LACs that offer incredible 3/2 programs. I kind of wish my son were interested in those … but he’s not. And he gets to be the boss!</p>
<p>Good luck in your search, Ben!</p>
<p>A perspective on the pursuit of both music and engineering at MIT:
[BBC</a> News - Is music going back to its roots?](<a href=“http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11099258]BBC”>Is music going back to its roots? - BBC News)</p>
<p>Some ideas for students interested in both pursuits.</p>