I want to start a new thread for colleges that we should consider for our D. She is undecided between mechanical engineering and CS. So, she does not want to go to a school that does not have engineering as an option. She would prefer to avoid a large state school. She is looking for a mid-sized school with a mix of STEM and liberal arts classes. Her stats and experience with engineering/CS is good. These are the colleges currently on her list - Harvey Mudd, CMU, Olin (I know Olin does not meet the size or liberal arts requirement, but she is really intrigued by Olin), MIT, Tufts, Swarthmore, Cornell, Smith, Johns Hopkins, Duke, Case Western, Northwestern, Boston University. Are there other schools that we are missing? What is at like for women in engineering at these colleges (obviously not an issue at Smith)? Anyone of these stand out over the others for women in engineering?
Have you checked whether they are all likely to be affordable in their net price calculators?
Not 100% percent sure about this, but I think Princeton would also meet the requirements? At most colleges women are a minority in engineering - but that can work toward your advantage in admissions (easier to get in). As far as attitudes towards women in engineering at schools, I don’t know enough to make a judgement about that, however I will say this: all my friends who are female and in engineering (few in number) haven’t said bad regarding their experiences.
Olin has cross registration with Wellesley, so that in effect opens up a great LAC to her.
Over 50% of the engineering majors graduating from Mudd last year were women, it is a great place to be a female engineering major. And all the other Claremont colleges are right there for non-STEM classes. My D2 is a CS major at Mudd, and loves it. PM me if you want more info.
Over 50% of the engineering majors graduating from Mudd last year were women, it is a great place to be a female engineering major. And all the other Claremont colleges are right there for non-STEM classes. My D2 is a CS major at Mudd, and loves it. PM me if you want more info.
Lafayette, Bucknell, Washington and Lee, and Union.
Maybe I’m the exception, but when I was looking for engineering schools, I didn’t worry about being a woman. I just wanted the best school I could get into for structural engineering. I was lucky that UT was only 20 minutes away from home - top-ranked and very cheap at the time.
And keep in mind that once you’re in the working world, you’re not going to have lots of support because you’re a woman. Even back in the dark ages, my male classmates treated me like one of them. You’ll need to get along with the guys! You might as well learn how to do that now. (Just my two cents.)
I’d start by investigating possible options by means of a school’s chapter of ‘Women in Engineering.’ Some of those clubs at STEM school are very active and get much support from their respective administrations. Here’s where I throw in my plug for South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, a outstanding STEM school whose current President is a Rhodes School and a woman. RPI is also very “woman friendly” and is similarly led by a female president.
Some other mid sized schools to consider might be Lehigh, URochester, Villanova, Carnegie Mellon. For smaller schools Lafayette, Bucknell and Union could work.
Thanks everyone. We have added some of the suggested schools to her list. Glad to hear that the general consensus is that it is OK for women in the engineering/CS fields in any of these colleges.
We just went through this with our daughter (current senior) and I think you have a good list there plus others have had many excellent suggestions. If you are looking for add’l selective schools then you might consider Stanford, Penn, and Columbia. All have big liberal arts programs in addition to engineering so your daughter would be able to partake in that to the extent that she can find room in her schedule. I think the best fit would kind of depends on what your daughter likes … urban vs rural, big athletics or not, etc…
I generally encourage women who are at least partially interested in engineering to apply, since women are often underrepresented in the engineering dept and so I think they are given some degree of preference in the application process. While this is hard to prove for all colleges since most don’t release their admission data by school and gender, the few that do (Cornell, MIT, CalTech) make it pretty clear that women are admitted at a significantly higher rate in engineering than men, and after attending engineering admin sessions at other colleges on your list, I think the same result holds at many other college as well. My feeling is that if your daughter has the interest then I would encourage her to “reach” a bit in the selection process.
You’ve got a good list. Add Vanderbilt, which has a higher than average female/male percentage for engineering. Also add WUSTL. I disagree with Washington and Lee, mentioned by a poster. Not having a dedicated engineering program for ME or CS (physics-engineering, chemistry-engineering or physics only), they have a 3-2 program, partnering with another university for the degree.
OP is looking into Swarthmore, which has a general engineering program as well (not ME). As such, W&L still meets OP’s criteria.
That’s a very solid list. I would second the suggestions for Vanderbilt and URochester. Also consider Santa Clara Univ (California), which has a good percentage of female professors in the STEM fields, and is located close to Silicon Valley.
I will throw this out as a possibility: Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. It is similar to Lafayette in that it is primarily a liberal arts school but offers engineering as a field of study (in the case of Trinity, engineering science is a major: http://new.trinity.edu/academics/departments/engineering-science/majors-minors). Trinity University also has pretty decent merit/financial aid available.
There are plenty of programs for women in engineering. ΑΣΚ, ΑΩΕ, ΦΣΡ are all professional/ social sororities for women in engineering (AΣK also admits women in other STEM fields). Additionally SWE (Society of Women Engineers) has a presence on a huge number of campuses, ranging from the University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign to Cal State Fullerton.
I’m a member of one of the above organizations and most of the members speak of zero discrimination against women in their field of study (the lone exception seems to be petroleum engineering).
@AlmaKayan I’m a sophomore electrical and computer engineering student at Lafayette College and absolutely love it. I don’t think that my gender has played a huge role in any of my classes or socially. We even have a women in computing club as well as a society of women engineers, so whether she does CompSci or engineering, there are going to be females in her field. We are a small school but we have liberal arts and engineering, so it might be a good fit. Hope this helps!
Definitely check out Case Western! (that is where I, a female engineer, went). You definitely get the liberal arts in addition to engineering (Case Western was formed from the merger of Case Institute of Technology (engineering) and Western Reserve College (Liberal Arts college)).
Check out Cooper Union and Rice. I know some happy female engineering students there.