Liberal Arts Schools?

<p>I've heard that liberal arts colleges dont offer classes in EE and stuff like that, so would it be a good choice in case I choose to do electrical engineering to go to a great liberal arts school?</p>

<p>LAC's generally do not have any engineering classes (unless they are part of the small group of schools usually considered LAC's that have an engineering program). If you really want to do engineering then an LAC is not the choice. There are a number of LAC's that have what are called "3-2" programs where you can attend there for three years, take necessary math and science courses that engineering students usually take in first two years at an engineering college, and then transfer for the last two years to another university, which has the approved program with that LAC, that has engineering and you ultimately get a degree in liberal arts and sciences from the first school and one in engineering from the second. Though there are many who attempt that program, majority begin it and then never end up completing it, often because they don't want to change colleges after being at one place for three years and also because they discover they really are going to need more than those two years at the engineering school to complete all the requirements.</p>

<p>Two LAC's with good engineering programs (not just 3-2): Union College in NY, and Smith College in MA (if you're female). Both schools give a full range of majors if you change your mind from engineering. Both let you "sample" engineering if you're not sure.</p>

<p>Check out Harvey Mudd.</p>

<p>Mudd is a LAC-like environment but really is science/math/engineering directed. All we do are those subjects...</p>

<p>there are other LAC's surrounding Mudd like pomona, claremount, pitzler, scripps and I believe ppl from Mudd can take classes from other colleges.</p>

<p>rocketDA -- A substantial hum requirement is worth mentioning, as is the fact that Mudd students can (and do, if only a small minority) have major/minors at other schools (on top of a Mudd major or minor), not to even mention the opportunities presented by regular cross-registering. Obviously it's neither a traditional LAC nor engineering school, but "all we do are those subjects" is slightly (not totally) misleading.</p>

<p>It's also possible to go to a liberal-art school and major in a natural science then go for a Masters or PhD in engineering.</p>

<p>Williams has a pre-Engineering website: <a href="http://www.williams.edu/Physics/programs/eng.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.williams.edu/Physics/programs/eng.html&lt;/a>. Many liberal-arts schools have similar options.</p>

<p>Swarthmore College also offers engineering... and is a GREAT liberal arts school.</p>

<p>It is possible to pursue a career in engineering with a LAC degree. Most of the people who do this will get an MS from a university engineering dept. after graduating.</p>

<p>A few well-known LACs do have ABET-accredited engineering BS programs (e.g. Swarthmore, Smith, Trinity). But even then, the degree will not exactly correspond to a typical university engineering degree. The LACs are only accredited to issue "general" engineering degrees. The LAC degree program may permit a "focus" or "concentration" in electrical engineering or some other subdiscipline, but will not be as specialized as most university EE degrees.</p>

<p>So LAC alumni usually go on to grad school, even if their LAC has an engineering program. LACs generally are very successful at placing their students in top graduate schools. Swarthmore, for example, [url=<a href="http://www.engin.swarthmore.edu/Engineering_at_Swat.pdf%5Dclaims%5B/url"&gt;http://www.engin.swarthmore.edu/Engineering_at_Swat.pdf]claims[/url&lt;/a&gt;] that 95% of their engineering students attend their first-choice graduate school, with MIT and Stanford as the most popular options (followed by Penn, Berkeley, Cornell, CMU, Princeton, and Columbia).</p>