My daughter (class of 2017) wants to major in chemical engineering. She just visited University of Texas and was intimidated by the size of the city/campus. I’m not quite sure if it was more the activity around Austin or the size of the campus that intimidated her more. We live in a smallish town in Texas…no traffic to speak of, we can’t go to Walmart without running into numerous people we know, and we sit next to the same people at church each Sunday. Just hoping to find my daughter a college with her major that won’t be too big of a shock for her…although I also know it’s time for her to grow up a little and experience the world. Any ideas?
She will most likely be a national merit finalist (NMF) with a 221 selection index on the PSAT. She scored 35 on the ACT and will take the SAT this weekend. She is a straight A student throughout high school and ranks in top 3% of high school class. Her extracurricular activities focus around theater and choir.
Most small colleges (excepting places like caltech & harvey mudd) don’t offer engineering–their future chem engineers do chem as undergrads and specialize/vocationalize in grad school. That’s a pretty good path if LACs are the right fit for her.
Or I assume they could do general engineering and then specialize. An engineering major at Mudd still has to take the core chem classes, and could pick up a few extra chem classes as well.
I think a LAC is probably something my D would enjoy, but I’m hesitant to start her in a school that does not offer her major. I’ve read about some 3-2 programs where you can finish the last two years at a different school to get an engineering degree. It just doesn’t seem practical to start at one school with the intention of finishing the degree at a different university.
She might like the traditional campus at the University of Rochester. Their chemical engineering program is one of the oldest in the country and choir kind of fits with their strength in music. Though UR wouldn’t have quite the degree of undergraduate focus that a LAC would, compared to UT-Austin, it offers a what may be a more personal environment. The edge-of-medium-sized city location would appear to be fine for her.
ABET accredited chemical engineering can be found at the following small and medium sized schools:
Bucknell
Caltech
Case Western Reserve
Christian Brothers
Clarkson
Colorado School of Mines
Cooper Union
Florida Institute of Technology
Hampton
Illinois Institute of Technology
Johns Hopkins
Kettering
Lafayette
Lamar
Lehigh
Louisiana Tech
Michigan Tech
Milwaukee School of Engineering
Missouri University of Science and Technology
New Jersey Institute of Technology
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
North Carolina A&T
Notre Dame
Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico
Prairie View A&M
Princeton
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Rice
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
Stanford
SUNY Environmental Science and Forestry
Stevens Institute of Technology
Trine
Tulane
Tuskegee
US Military Academy
University of Alabama - Huntsville
University of Dayton
University of New Haven
University of Rochester
University of Tulsa
Vanderbilt
Villanova
West Virginia University Institute of Technology
Widener
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Yale
If she can find schools that she likes, can get admitted to, and can afford out of the above, then there should be no need to bother with 3+2 programs, waiting until graduate school, or other roundabout ways to do chemical engineering.
Note that a few of the above may offer full ride merit scholarships for her stats (e.g. Louisiana Tech, Prairie View A&M, Tuskegee, University of Alabama - Huntsville; New Jersey Institute of Technology if National Merit Finalist), while others may have competitive full rides. See the following lists if big scholarships are of interest:
3-2s aren’t a great idea. Students almost never follow through with them for various reasons. There are a few LACs with engineering, but maybe not the ChemE concentration. Mudd and Swarthmore are often mentioned; Mudd has the larger number of engineering students and is primarily STEM focused. If you do a college swing anywhere near it, she should visit.
Most people here think of LACs when someone asks for a “smaller school”. But, for someone looking to major in engineering, there may be a better selection when looking at smaller engineering-focused schools like many of those listed in reply #6.
How sure is the student that the goal is chemical engineering? Swarthmore offers an ABET accredited program in engineering where students can specialize in Civil/Environmental, Computer, Electrical or Mechanical Engineering leading to the Bachelor of Science in Engineering.
OP - Wish I could rec ucbalumnus twice for the excellent list - & I liked the Lamar reference - I think Beaumont qualifies as a “smallish town in TX” - but I also want to add NU to the list. Maybe your D would like to look at a “smallish town” on the Chicago area lake shore.
Northwestern is the smallest school in the B1G Ten… and they have a great ChemE program, and also recently ranked #2 in the WORLD for theater. Full disclosure - As of June 16, will have 2 kids with ChemE degrees from NU To get you started:
Have your D go to Google Earth and walk around campus, or to Evanston for a burger at Edzos. You can PM me if you have more detailed questions. Good Luck!
She sounds like a great candidate for Lafayette, if she is willing to move to the east coast. Wonderful, small (2400 students) LAC school in a great little town (Easton, PA), on a beautiful campus. They have a great engineering program in a beautiful, stand alone building. They offer merit aid to high stats students like your daughter. The atmosphere has been described to me as “high school-ish” which I don’t necessarily agree with, but for some this may be exactly what they are looking for.
Plus a full liberal arts curriculum if she finds that engineering is not right for her.
Another benefit is that its a quick 70 minute bus ride to NYC.
Seldom mentioned are 2-1-1-1 programs at LACs. This structure offers several advantages: 1) The first “1” (away, at an engineering school) offers some of the feel and scheduling ease of a typical junior year abroad 2) The second “1” (back at the home college) allows the student to graduate with her class with a BA degree 3) the third “1” (at the engineering college) will feel much like a common post-graduate year and 4) the student has the opportunity to benefit from the traditional college experience at an undergraduate-focused college while 5) ultimately obtaining degrees from two institutions.
@merc81 Of all the 5 year LAC + engineering programs I’ve looked at, that 2-1-1-1 setup sounds the most compelling.
But for me, the best 5 year program of all is the Haverford/Penn 4+1. Three years at Haverford, one year mixed Haverford/Penn, last year at Penn. Incredibly difficult, but you end up with a BS from Haverford and an MSE from Penn.
Skidmore offers a similar program with dual programs at Dartmouth, RPI, and Clarkson. Both the 2-1-1-1 and the 3+2 options are available. With those options, you receive a Bachelors from Skidmore and a Bachelors from the dual program school as well.
My engineering D is at Illinois Institute of Technology (stats similar to your daughter and she has a competitive named scholarship). They share space on campus with a music school so there are good music-related opportunities on campus. It is a good size for her and she loves the diversity. It is definitely in the city-- your daughter will have to decide if that is a pro or a con–my daughter, raised in a quiet suburb, has really enjoyed it–art museum, opera, Shakespeare, musicals, no need for a car, beautiful architecture, etc.
I’d suggest taking your daughter to visit some smaller colleges in varying locations to get a feel for what she is looking for. We visited Trinity and Southwestern in TX with D2 (the non-engineering D who wanted a small college and reacted like your daughter to our big state universities). Trinity (~2500 students) offers engineering but maybe not chemE. We were very impressed when we visited. It’s near the center of San Antonio, but doesn’t feel that way. Southwestern doesn’t have engineering but is in a smaller town (Georgetown) and is a small LAC (~1500 students) with a small LAC feel. The comparison with UT might help her and you sort out what she would prefer in terms of environment and narrow down the search.
@“Erin’s Dad” : Amherst, Bard, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Grinnell, Hamilton, HWS, Middlebury, Morehouse, Mt. Holyoke, Pomona, Simon’s Rock, Skidmore, Spelman, St. Lawrence, Vassar, Wesleyan, Wheaton, Williams, all with Dartmouth College. From what I’ve seen, participation ranges to about 8 recent students per institution (in competition with the 3-2 programs also offered at most of these schools).
@jerzmaster : You might as well take a look at some of these excellent colleges. At this stage, your daughter still has time to explore various options.
I think the 2-1-1-1 program sounds awful from a social standpoint. Constantly changing schools would mess-up friend connections and maybe even an SO relationship.
And if off campus housing is involved, it would be a pain to move each year rather than get settled into an apt for (say) soph year and then stay for 3.
another problem with that program and a 3-2 program is that who knows what the aid would be for the 2 school.
And, as mentioned before, kids don’t end up doing the 2 school because they want to graduate with friends at their original school.
Since many CoE’s now have freshman engineering programs (both educational and good for making fellow en’g friends), going to a school that doesn’t have eng’g would cause the student to miss all that.
To get you started: