Looking for a Liberal Arts school with good STEM departments. Student interested in engineering, physics and math, but does not want to attend a huge university and I don’t rule our a change in heart once he starts down the engineering path. Have looked at many LACs, and these STEM departments feel like afterthoughts (other than biology departments to support all the premeds) - not many students enrolled in math or physics. Any ideas for me?
Without knowing any info (grades / scores, etc) it will be hard to get info from CC. But assuming strong student, consider Tufts. Very strong in all those areas. Just outside of Boston but easy to get into the heart of the city with public transportation for all it as to offer.
The Princeton Review includes several liberal arts colleges in a sampling, “Great Schools for Mathematics Majors,” such as Amherst, Williams, Hamilton, Bowdoin, Haverford, Harvey Mudd, Pomona, Reed, Carleton and Grinnell. Most of these schools would be top-notch for physics as well. For engineering, most depend on 3–2 and 2–1–1–1 programs, however.
Lafayette, Union, Bucknell might be good options to look into. If size is the biggest issue, there are many small STEM schools such as WPI, Clarkson, Stevens, RPI, etc. that might fit the bill.
Bucknell came to my mind too.
Engineering LACs - Swarthmore, Trinity (CT) are two.
Thanks, I know the area well. On our visit list. While a strong student, limited ECs. Need to develop a list that includes less selective schools as well. Any other ideas welcome.
In some cases, the presence of engineering programs appears to impact the vitality of departments in core sciences and mathematics. Bucknell, for example, registers a fraction of the physics, chemistry and math majors of some smaller liberal arts colleges.
Thanks, we walked the Swat campus (no tours available that day). I really need him to visit and interact with the students. He likes the idea he could also take classes at Penn. He loved the Penn program, but not location (wants a little more green space). Trinity is on our visit list, but I also think in the city, which is not a nice city.
Thank you, Lafayette, Bucknell and Union are the on visit list. We found Clarkson too remote. Wish there was a better gender balance at RPI. Need to see WPI. Really like the sound of Rice and WUSL, but both so selective these days. We are east coasters and not sure I have the time and money to do the visit. will look into finding students from these schools we can speak with.
We don’t know anything about your son’s stats, but most of the colleges mentioned above are very tough to get into. Union College could be a good choice for a student with not stellar stats.
If Mathematics and hard Sciences (such as chem and physics) as a major are in the cards, many LACs are going to do a great job with that. If it’s strictly engineering, LACs with good engineering are already mentioned above. It’s getting in that’s the hard part. Agree with the suggestions in #3 above.
If you are open to exploring non LACs, how about Case Western? It’s in the city but a beautiful area with green spaces nearby.
Union, RPI
Thanks, wondering what Cleveland is like. Also don’t know much about the student body/social scene at Case Western.
Do you know specific LACs with strong hard sciences and math? We toured Vassar, William and Mary, CT College, and URichmond. At WM met a physics major, but son was turned off to learn only 30 students a year major in physics. At Richmond, 10 kids on a panel, no hard sciences, Vassar, same thing. Wondering if there is central place to find info on size of departments when you research, other than asking each school.
Haverford, Wesleyan, Carleton are both excellent in the sciences and math. Opportunities for research are easy to find.
St. Olaf is definitely worth looking at. Very strong in math and solid in sciences, too.
For this, you can search through IPEDS. Bucknell, for example, recently graduated 6 physics majors, 6 chemistry majors and 16 math majors: https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=Bucknell&s=all&id=211291#programs. When comparing across colleges, I recommend you adjust figures you encounter for the size of the school.
Also look at medium-size private universities. There are a number of possibilities at various levels of selectivity. For example, scan down the list of the top-100 national universities, skipping over the publics, and you may find that many of the privates are medium-size, with undergrad enrollment somewhere between 3k and <10k.
Thanks, that is one of my strategies,and I think could be a great option. I am finding, however, that many are very selective. Need to really bulk up on schools that are not hyper selective. Although my student has good grades and scores, ECs are light.
THANK YOU. Never heard of IPEDS, our tax dollars at work! This is very helpful