<p>I'm interested in pursuing chemical engineering, specifically, but I value a liberal arts education. What are some liberal arts colleges with reputable engineering/chemical engineering undergraduate programs? Would a prestigious liberal arts b.s. be worthy enough of admissions into a place like Princeton?</p>
<p>P.S. I've heard some great things about Smith's new engineering program</p>
<p>1) prestige of undergrad has fairly little to do with graduate admissions. be a strong candidate, do well, research etc if you want a shot at grad school.</p>
<p>columbia has one of the most famously liberal arts based engineering programs and their cheme is quite well regarded.</p>
<p>Look into Harvey Mudd.</p>
<p>If you're interested specifically in chemical engineering, a LAC may not be your best choice.</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd and other LACs will give a great engineering foundation, but it will not award a B.S. in chemical engineering.</p>
<p>If you know you're going to go to grad school right after college, a LAC will give a fantastic foundation for MS and PhD programs at a prestigious research university.</p>
<p>One option, I would strongly recommend:</p>
<p>Go to a LAC for 3 years and then apply to Caltech for a B.S. in chemical engineering. Caltech has 3/2 programs with prestigious LACs.</p>
<p><a href="http://admissions.caltech.edu/applying/32%5B/url%5D">http://admissions.caltech.edu/applying/32</a></p>
<p>Lafayette and Bucknell immediately come to mind. They're both LACs that offer majors in Chem E.</p>
<p>Tufts in Massachusetts, Union in NY.</p>
<p>Does Lehigh offer ChemE?</p>
<p>University of Rochester offers a BS in Chemical Engineering and is strongly a Liberal Arts college with a LAC feel and an emphasis on undergraduate teaching.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt Univ., Washington Univ., both offer chem E majors and encourage students to take classes in the college of arts & sciences, even to double major in a non-engineering field if the student is academically strong. While neither school's engineering school is top-ranked, both are somewhere in the top 50, and both have active research labs which invite undergraduate participation.</p>
<p>Both schools place graduates in a wide variety of top institutions for graduate school or professional school.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I'm interested in pursuing chemical engineering, specifically, but I value a liberal arts education.
[/quote]
Traditional, 4-year, ABET-accredited engineering BS programs have demanding requirements for math, science, and engineering coursework, and provide only limited room for non-technical electives. There is no really good way to combine the relatively narrow technical focus of a traditional ABET BS degree with the breadth of a traditional liberal arts degree, and do it all in 4 years. Possible options:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>You can go to a LAC that offers ABET BS degrees (e.g. Swarthmore, Smith, Trinity). However, you may not have the same freedom to explore non-technical electives as the other students, despite the fact that you are at a LAC.</p></li>
<li><p>You can stretch your undergraduate studies over 5 years, with a combined 3-2 program at a LAC and a university. Some schools, like Dartmouth, offer dual BA/engineering BS programs over 5 years.</p></li>
<li><p>You can get a BA in math or physical science from a LAC, then get an MS in engineering in grad school. This is probably the most popular route. You would most likely major in chemistry as an undergrad, then get an MS in chemical engineering.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Smith if you're female, Harvey Mudd. Tufts is now considered a research university, not an LAC, I think. But it does give you a "liberal" education. Same for Columbia and Cornell.</p>
<p>I don't know how much liberal arts you want, but even MIT requires eight humanities classes in order to graduate.</p>
<p>Corbett's comments about the difficulty of combining a traditional engineering major with liberal arts are correct, but the extent of the difficulty depends somewhat on the policies of the university with regard to AP credit and advanced standing for university courses taken while in hs. If you have a particularly strong hs record, it would be worth your while to investigate closely the policies of the schools that interest you. Some will make no exceptions to the standard introductory curriculum, and some will grant considerable advanced standing, allowing a student to bypass some math and science courses.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt U, for one, considers it a selling point that quite a few of their students double major in a non-engineering field, or at least take a larger helping of liberal arts/humanities classes than is standard for an engineering program. They do enroll a number of students who could/do easily qualify for better known engineering programs because of that flexibility. For many students, though, it is quite enough of a challenge to finish in four years with the standard program.</p>
<p>Somebody please list here the total number of engineering (not physics, not math, not chemistry) courses actually given last semester by engineering professors at Smith.</p>
<p>Then please list here the number of full-time engineering professors at Smiith.</p>
<p>Then do the same for, say, Cornell.</p>
<p>firsttimemom: forgive me if I'm out of date, but I don't think Union offers a ChemE degree (other Eng degrees yes)</p>
<p>Smith College Engineering courses for Fall 2007:</p>
<p>Dept Subj Course</p>
<p>EGR EGR 100 Engineering for Everyone</p>
<p>EGR EGR 201 Mathematical Methods of Physical Science and Engineering I</p>
<p>EGR EGR 220 Engineering Circuit Theory</p>
<p>EGR EGR 250 Microprocessors and Assembly Language</p>
<p>EGR EGR 270 Continuum Mechanics I</p>
<p>EGR EGR 290 Engineering Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer</p>
<p>EGR EGR Materials Engineering</p>
<p>EGR EGR 311 Aqueous Geochemistry</p>
<p>EGR EGR 372 Advanced Solid Mechanics and Failure Analysis</p>
<p>EGR EGR 390 Topics in Engineering</p>
<p>EGR EGR 391D Engineering Forum</p>
<p>EGR EGR 410D Engineering Design Clinic</p>
<p>The Engineering faculty is 1 full professor, 5 associate professors and 3 assistant professors...<a href="http://www.science.smith.edu/departments/Engin/faculty_profiles.php%5B/url%5D">http://www.science.smith.edu/departments/Engin/faculty_profiles.php</a></p>
<p>And, PS, Manhattan College is an LAC with Chem E, along with Lafayette and Bucknell as mentioned earlier. Just so you know, Manhattan is Roman Catholic affiliated while the other two are private</p>
<p>Chemical engineering courses at Berkeley for Fall 2007 Semester:
<a href="http://sis.berkeley.edu/OSOC/osoc?p_term=FL&p_classif=--+Choose+a+Course+Classification+--&p_session=&p_deptname=Chemical+Engineering&p_dept=&p_course=&p_presuf=--%20Choose%20a%20Course%20Prefix/Suffix%20--&p_title=&p_instr=&p_exam=&p_ccn=&p_day=&p_hour=&p_bldg=&p_units=&p_restr=&p_info=&p_updt=&p_print_flag=Y%5B/url%5D">http://sis.berkeley.edu/OSOC/osoc?p_term=FL&p_classif=--+Choose+a+Course+Classification+--&p_session=&p_deptname=Chemical+Engineering&p_dept=&p_course=&p_presuf=--%20Choose%20a%20Course%20Prefix/Suffix%20--&p_title=&p_instr=&p_exam=&p_ccn=&p_day=&p_hour=&p_bldg=&p_units=&p_restr=&p_info=&p_updt=&p_print_flag=Y</a></p>
<p>Berkeley chemical engineering faculty:
<a href="http://cheme.berkeley.edu/people/people_faculty.html%5B/url%5D">http://cheme.berkeley.edu/people/people_faculty.html</a></p>
<p>The big advantage of Smith is automatic acceptance into top engineering graduate programs (Princeton and Dartmouth are two that I know of) with a 3.5 graduating GPA. Plus, there are merit scholarships available to women who plan to major in engineering. If you go the liberal arts route, you'll have to accept that graduate school will be a must.</p>
<p>Lehigh does have chemical engineering. Although Lehigh is not a LAC, its campus has the feel of one, and a student changing her mind can easily transfer into the College of Arts and Sciences to major in, say, chemistry instead of chemical engineering. Both Lafayette and Bucknell have engineering programs, and they are liberal arts institutions. (At least, I think Bucknell is.)</p>
<p>If you want a B.E., then you'll have to go the university route.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Somebody please list here the total number of engineering (not physics, not math, not chemistry) courses actually given last semester by engineering professors at Smith.</p>
<p>Then please list here the number of full-time engineering professors at Smiith.</p>
<p>Then do the same for, say, Cornell.
[/quote]
And while you're at it, count the number of undergraduate engineering majors and engineering grad students at the two schools.</p>
<p>Then calculate the student-faculty ratios.</p>