Mudd does have significant humanities/social sciences requirements, but that has nothing to do with “a liberal arts approach to STEM”. Both MIT and Caltech have similar (in some cases, even greater) requirements. And neither does it “for ABET accreditation”.
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Taken from HMC’s website: “The academic program supports the College’s mission by providing students with a broad-based curriculum that takes a liberal arts approach to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).”
ABET curriculum requirements: “a broad education component that complements the technical content of the curriculum and is consistent with the program educational objectives.” The way in which various colleges choose to implement their programs will vary widely.
Lots of good advice. Love the Claremont consortium.
First, I cringe when people say they are applying to all Ivies because it’s a red flag that you are looking at prestige rather than fit. To be competitive you need to move away from that mindset and rethink your list. Your ECs aren’t terribly strong and don’t say “engineering.” Also, your math sub score is low for the big guns.
The top employees of the agency I worked for were engineers who could write — so I disagree that An English minor won’t help job prospects. Most engineers can’t write for public consumption and those that can are golden .
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Some students’ notion of “fit” is mostly some definition of “prestige”.
On the other hand, writing about English literature may not be the same as writing about technical matters for technical readers or writing about technical matters for non-technical readers.
True, but I’m talking about the high- level writing for the layman. It’s a very desired skill and something that will set apart an employee— entry level to top executives. Also the grammar, punctuation, analysis and critical thinking required of an English major would be a big help. Most very smart people in state service can’t write!
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You’re right on the money. A friend of mine spent part of his career as a grants writer at MIT precisely because the submissions from their profs weren’t intelligible. His job was to turn them into something that was readable. He has a PhD in English Lit.
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Exactly. My friend’s son with a deep STEM interest chose to go to a rigorous humanities magnet high school where they write a lot. He wound up getting his PhD at MIT — he was extra valuable to his team because of his ability to write grants, reports, etc.
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