LAC's with engineering.

College Search & Selection
1

<p>If you were to choose the best from these LAC's with engineering:</p>

<p>Harvey Mudd College
Swarthmore College
Lafayette College
Union College</p>

<p>Which one would you choose? Can anyone tell me about some life-experience with those schools? I'd like to know more than I can assume from their websites. </p>

<p>I also heard these schools can afford a serious financial aid for internationals also, is that true?</p>

2

<p>My two picks would be Swarthmore and Harvey Mudd - both top-notch LACs with engineering. But both are highly selective and very difficult to get into.</p>

<p>Mudd is more specialized in the sciences, whereas Swarthmore, in addition to having engineering, has top-notch academic programs across the board. Consequently, the student body at Swarthmore would reflect a greater variety of academic interests. On the other hand, Mudd is part of a consortium of five LACs, which would provide students of all kinds of interests.</p>

<p>Swarthmore is just outside Philadelphia, and Mudd is in Southern California - very different climates.</p>

3

<p>Many years ago, I had to choose between Lafayette, Swarthmore, Bucknell and Lehigh. For reasons of size (Lafayette is 2400 undergrads, Swarthmore is 1500, Bucknell is 3500, Lehigh is 4800), location, fit and financial aid (Lafayette offered the best aid package), I chose Lafayette, and I don’t regret it. The education I received at Lafayette was first rate.</p>

<p>I have been working as a practicing civil engineer in the greater Philadelphia area since I graduated in 1982; however, I have never encountered a practicing engineer who graduated from Swarthmore. I’m not sure why that is. I’m sure their program is very rigorous. Perhaps they tend to gravitate toward acedemia or other interests.</p>

<p>Lafayette states that they will meet “the full demonstrated financial need of international students through a combination of loan, job, and grant aid. The awarding of aid is extremely competitive, and may impact the admission decision.”</p>

<p>Are you looking to apply this year, because the deadlines for Lafayette have past. [Apply</a> for Financial Aid Tuition & Aid Lafayette College](<a href=“http://finaid.lafayette.edu/apply-for-financial-aid/]Apply”>http://finaid.lafayette.edu/apply-for-financial-aid/)</p>

4

<p>^ Probably because Swarthmore only offers a general engineering science / engineering physics degree.</p>

<p>Out of these choices, I would take Lafayette. It offers accredited degrees in the most fundamental engineering disciplines and IMO has a good reputation.</p>

5

<p>If you know that engineering is your future, then definitely Harvey Mudd. Not only are they a tech school with all of their resources focused on producing future scientists, engineers, and quant-types, but they are part of the Claremont consortium: The campus is adjacent to the highly regarded Pomona, Claremont-Mckenna, Pitzer and Scripps colleges so you get all the resources of a university, but the personal attention of a LAC - and you can cross-register for classes. Add the great weather and excellent tech industry connections, and it’s hard to beat.</p>

6

<p>Harvey Mudd is the only LAC that is focused on engineering. The program is very rigorous, though, so make sure that’s really what you want to do (same idea as MIT, CMU, etc). Ms Mom’s summary is accurate.</p>

7

<p>Thanks guys, I take your opinions into account.
What about colleges participating in 3/2 program with Caltech?
There are several schools, I found Reed and Haverford are good schools (engineering + financial aid for internationals ). </p>

<p>What do you think about them? Anyone goes there?
I am truly overwhelmed with options, heh.
What is the main benefit from 3/2 program?</p>

8

<p>Re 3/2 programs: Some good questions to ask before committing - <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/oberlin-college/859076-engineering.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/oberlin-college/859076-engineering.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>EDIT - Replace Oberlin with the schools you’re considering and this is relevant:

Also this:

</p>

9

<p>Appreciate that !</p>

10

<p>Harvey Mudd is obviously the best LAC for engineering. </p>

<p>Reed is probably second.</p>

11

<p>Reed has no engineering, only the common 3/2 program.</p>

12

<p>Carefully investigate 3/2 programs. See the Engineering thread for perspectives from some posters as to why they are not for every potential LAC engineering student.</p>

13

<p>Re: #1, two others you might look into are Bucknell and Trinity College (CT).
Don’t know anything about aid though.</p>

14

<p>Harvey mudd college ! !! ! !!</p>

15

<p>^^The worst thing about 3-2 Engineering is that you will get VERY FEW(I would say ZERO!!) aid for the final two years-either you go to Columbia(gives 10k scholarship for the final two years-nothing more than that) or WUSTL or Dartmouth or any other GREAT engineering school which has loads of aid for regular students.</p>

16

<p>Trinity College meets the full demonstrated need of all international candidates. So, you might consider applying there too. But, I’d really suggest you to go to a TECH school (National University) for engineering. If you are so much interested in doing engineering at a LAC, Harvey Mudd is the best possible option. You might as well consider Lafayette and Union. Both the schools have (ABET certified) great engineering programs.
Good luck! :)</p>

17

<p>If you want to look at a different part of the US, try Trinity U in San Antonio. Ranked in engineering at #21 (with Lafayette), higher than the Trinity C in CT.</p>

<p>Great weather and ~$10,000 cheaper than the others. Generous w/merit, even for intels.</p>

18

<p>Yeah! TU is awesome…both with academics and aid(even for internationals!!)</p>