Hi! Just starting to help my son look for schools. He is a STEM kid but well rounded (5 on AP World History this year). He is looking for a very selective school where engineering is one of the majors, not necessarily a separate program. How do I find schools where there is still a liberal arts education requirement and a strong engineering department? Any suggestions?
TIA!!
Swarthmore
Lafayette
Bucknell
Trinity College (CT)
Washington & Lee
Union
Trinity U (TX)
Tufts
Boston College
Villanova
Harvey Mudd
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The limitation to well-roundedness comes from the extensive requirements for ABET accreditation. There are plenty of schools where engineering majors are available in the same setting as strong liberal arts. (Bill_Marsh’s list above is a good starting point.) The problem is that the students majoring in engineering have limited elective time to explore the liberal arts side, no matter how liberal-artsy the school may be. Conversely, even STEM-focused schools like MIT and Caltech have liberal arts education requirements and high-quality non-STEM classes. It’s just a matter of the high percentage of coursework that ABET-accredited engineering programs take up.
By way of example… take Columbia, where the rigorous Core curriculum is a well-known feature for which students self-select; those who don’t want a broad and demanding liberal arts core choose a different school! But engineering majors are the exception, because they don’t have time for the entire Core; they’re only required to take half of it: FAQs | Columbia Undergraduate Admissions
The only real way to achieve a more even balance is to take a longer path: either a five year undergrad program, or an undergrad non-ABET program (majoring in applied physics for example) followed by an engineering grad program.
Schools that have an “open door policy” with regard to majors can be helpful in fine-tuning what works for the student once there. (Adding CWRU, Rice, URochester to the above list.) But there’s still a fork in the road where one must go all-in with an ABET engineering program, or not.
Is there a particular area of humanities, social sciences, arts, that interests your son, or does he just like variety and breadth?
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Washington & Lee’s engineering program is not ABET accredited even though they’ve been educating engineers for more than 150 years. They have maintained a decision not to seek accreditation precisely so that students could have more flexibility in course selection and in their ability to explore other areas. If this is what you want, the W&L is a good place to begin your search. If not, then move on to one of the others on the list.
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Yes it’s tough to get many electives while studying engineering. Mine were tennis, racquetball, and two semesters of astronomy. Those were my only “extras!” I managed to graduate in four years only because I placed out of some classes and took a few classes during summers.
I had planned to continue playing piano during college but quickly realized that wasn’t practical.
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Great point. My son had some Aps to use plus went freshman summer and took 2 classes. Was able to graduate in 4 with a minor and a certificate. Also took 18 credits first 2 or 3 semesters…
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Look at Lehigh too.
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The Jesuit colleges mostly have core courses requirements, and those are in many different disciplines.
I know Santa Clara University has this…as well as a well regarded engineering program.
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An engineering degree from Boston College will not lead to the same career opportunities as a degree from say Ohio State or Purdue, at least not without graduate study which would be an additional cost. Be careful evaluating each of these liberal arts engineering programs beyond the ABET requirements being met.
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I’m not sure I understand what this means. Most schools have departments, degree programs and majors. Programs are the organizational structure leading to a degree (BS, BA, etc.) and majors are specific curricula within that organization. Usually those are housed within a department. The distinction is really functionally irrelevant to students, who are thinking largely in terms of major.
I agree wholeheartedly with what others have said. Your student will have access to arts, history and social sciences, along with the math and physics commonly associated with engineering curricula at any ABET accredited program. Any additional non-technical courses they choose will be at the expense of further technical depth and breadth. There are only so many hours in a day.
If your student wants to be an engineer, they should concentrate on that first and fill in around that as a secondary objective. Once you start looking at programs you will quickly realize that they are not all created equally. Each person has to decide how much facilities will influence their decision. I’m strongly biased though towards schools like Michigan, Purdue, Iowa State and Cal Poly that have extensive facilities for undergrads.
There are some smaller ones that do too. Lehigh, Rice and Case are prime examples. Many of the others listed though don’t. As I said, it will be apparent once you start visiting.
Lastly, how selective a school is tells you nothing about how good the fit and education will be. It tells you one thing and one thing only…how popular it is. Avoid that trap or risk having an unhappy student at a school they didn’t properly vet. Every year this forum is littered with students seeking transfer advice because the only metric they used was selectivity/prestige/rank.
Size, weather, location, support for hobbies outside of academics, facilities, class sizes, who teaches them, clubs, robustness of senior project, sports, Greek life, reputation as a grind, etc. are but a few things that might be important to your student. Look at more than selectivity.
Good luck!
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Thank you all so much! This is very helpful and I truly appreciate your time.
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Case Western Reserve University has a single-door admissions policy so you don’t have to “get into” the Engineering college. CRU was formed by the union of Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve College, a liberal arts college.
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OP - "He is looking for a very selective school where engineering is one of the majors, not necessarily a separate program. " - As explained above, Engineering has rigid and specific course sequence. For parents who have not studies engineering, it can seem a bit odd. If you have more questions, please ask.
FYI - I just picked two examples (Mech Eng) to illustrate
https://www.clarkson.edu/department-mechanical-and-aeronautical-engineering/mechanical-engineering-bs-curriculum
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I think I took a total of four courses that were considered electives. One semester each of tennis and racquetball and two semesters of astronomy. I placed out of a few classes and took a couple more during summers in order to graduate in four years.
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My daughter came into her university with a ton of AP credit and it covered literally all her core requirements. She used the extra room in her schedule to take masters courses and complete a co-terminal master’s degree . Your son, assuming he earns a bunch of AP credit in high school. could use any extra schedule space to take the liberal arts classes he wants, if he chooses a school that takes his AP credit. Not all of them do. Also,as others have pointed out, if he’s any kind of ABET accredited engineering major, it will necessarily be a smaller list of core classes because there will be so many engineering requirements.
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