<p>Hello,
I think this questions fits better here than in the chance-me-section. I'm an international student who want to study in the US with financial aid. After realising that Ivies might be a bit too high/unlikely, I focused on Liberal Art Colleges. I now have a list of ~20 colleges with financial aid for internationals and I wanted to apply to 8 colleges:
Carleton
Colby
Hamilton
Middlebury
Oberlin
Occidental
University of Richmond
Williams
What confuses me: nearly none of these Colleges provide any kind of engineering. I wanted to major in engineering or computer science. Oberlin and Occidental provide a 3:2 programm with CalTech, witch would be quite awesome, but the rest seems to ignore this field of science. Is that normal for LAC? Or do I have to make a bachelor first and then switch to a degree in engineering?
Greetings,
Wizady</p>
<p>LAC are typically that - colleges focused on the liberal arts. Universities typically offer engineering. If you are looking for engineering in a LAC setting, off the top of my head you should consider Lafayette, Lehigh, Bucknell, Clarkson. I’m sure there are others in the midwest and west, but I am not as familiar with that area</p>
<p>Here is my take on it. LAC’s don’t normally have Engineering as it is not one of the Liberal Arts, and is considered more of a specialty professional degree. CS, though, is a branch of mathematics so does usually fall into the liberal arts and more of these colleges likely offer it. For engineering the 3-2 is your only option if you go to an LAC. I don’t know what you mean by ‘make a bachelor first and then switch to a degree in engineering’. You are unlikely to be accepted to an engineering grad school without a BS in engineering.</p>
<p>Swarthmore, a top liberal arts college, offers engineering.</p>
<p>Many LACs do not offer engineering but a few that I know of offhand which do have engineering departments include: Swarthmore, Bucknell, Lafayette, Union, Clarkson, and Trinity. A couple of mid-sized universities which offer engineering are Lehigh and Villanova.</p>
<p>Union
Lafayette
Bucknell</p>
<p>If you are interested in engineering, apply to engineering schools.</p>
<p>Does this strategy have to do with finding lacs generous to international applicants?</p>
<p>Well, besides Top Tier Universities like MIT or Stanford, LACs are basicly the only ones who offer financial aid for internationals, right? Maybe Turfts or Vanderbilt, but thats it. Swarthermore seems to be quite hard to get it as well, also Harvey Mudd. And because it’s really hard to make a master with an US-Bachelor in my home country, I have to make my master there as well. What I’ve heard, you need to have a bachelor from a prestigious College to get a good master. Is that correct?</p>
<p>No you don’t have to go to a prestigious college to get into a Master’s program. Just a decent college,–or more to the point, a decent department-- will do with a very good gpa, gre and some research work as an undergrad you can be a competitive candidate.</p>
<p>Lots of LACs offer CS, but many have very small CS departments with limited and/or infrequent course offerings. Fewer offer engineering, but some do (Harvey Mudd, Swarthmore, Smith).</p>
<p>What kind of price limit are you looking at? There are a few smaller schools in the $25,000 per year range rather than the $60,000 per year range. South Dakota School of Mines and Technology is a small engineering focused school with cost of attendance around $23,000-$24,000: [Full</a> Time Undergraduate Students](<a href=“HPC Page”>Full Time Undergraduate Students)</p>
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<p>Are you sure? I know a couple of Pomona grads who got engineering grad degrees after majoring in physics.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus: I need need-based full financial aid, and befor I take a loan I’ll study for free at home. Thats why my list is rather short…
@BrownParent: I read that one or two of these colleges had something like “pre-engineering” - I thought that would be something like pre-med. Also, I would need to make my master at a well-known college/university, because most of the small colleges like Swarthmore or Lafayette are really unkown here…</p>
<p>If studying engineering or CS in your home country is free, why not do that rather than attend a school in the US that will cost money and/or not have the academic majors you are looking for?</p>
<p>^^I agree. It seems to make sense to do your undergrad work for free in your home country and then consider coming to the US for grad school.</p>
<p>I do not think you picked good schools for engineering at all. Many of those are excellent for science, but not engineering. If you want actual engineering, try Rose-Hulman, Colorado School of Mines, etc for smaller schools, yet rank high.</p>
<p>FYI - Clarkson is not an LAC, it is a small Science/engineering school. It is a good school but not terrible well known outside of the Northeast, and is in a pretty remote area of upstate NY.</p>
<p>OK, look at Harvey Mudd College, the “liberal arts college of engineering, science, and mathematics”, as self-described on their website. They are focused on engineering, physics, chemistry, biology, computer science, and math, but they take a liberal arts approach in their curriculum.</p>
<p>They do have some financial aid for international students, including at least one full scholarship, and other merit and need-based aid. However, with a couple dozen international students per class, the competition is probably extremely tough.</p>
<p>Trinity University in San Antonio.</p>
<p>If you want to study engineering and go to a liberal arts school and don’t mind going to school in California then the perfect school for you would be Harvey. Mudd one of the Claremont schools. This school is a liberal arts school with an engineering math and science focus.</p>
<p>If you want to study engineering and go to a liberal arts school and don’t mind going to school in California then the perfect school for you would be Harvey Mudd one of the Claremont schools. This school is a liberal arts school with an engineering math and science focus.</p>