My idea of a perfect college...Does it exist?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Ok here's my version of a perfect college, but I've come to the conclusion that such a thing doesn't exist. Are there schools even close to it?</p>

<p>Size
[ul]
[<em>]Small and Nurturing - Probably 800 Undergrads in Total and about 200 Graduate Students.
[</em>]Professors teach all the classes.
[li]Class Sizes are around 20.[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>Academics
[ul]
[<em>]Strong in Engineering and Humanities.
[</em>]Open Curriculum that allows students to take a broad variety of courses, yet a majors' requirements are flexible enough to allow a student to take several electives.
[<em>]Incredible research opportunities for all Undergrads.
[</em>]Emphasis on leadership and soft skills.
[/ul]</p>

<p>Location/Weather
[ul]
[<em>]Completely isolated but an urban location is present within 60 miles.
[</em>]Campus is beautiful with plenty of greenery.
[li]Weather manages to go through all the seasons.[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>Culture
[ul]
[<em>]Students not only work hard, but also know how to have fun.
[</em>]Very entrepreneurial and "Change the World" type students.
[<em>]Diverse community of students (academically speaking).
[</em>]33% Liberal, 33% Conservative and 34% Centrist.
[li]Wide plethora of Extra Curricular activities available.[/li][/ul]</p>

<p>Do colleges like this (or atleast something close to it) exist?</p>

2

<p>Ok some of your stuff is a little hard to come by (your 1/3 each split for political affiliations, for example).</p>

<p>But most eastern LACs would basically fit the picture. And maybe even some midwestern ones.</p>

<p>Amherst, Williams, Wesleyan, Carleton, Macalester, Vassar, Sarah Lawrence, etc etc.</p>

3

<p>It will be difficult to find are a school that small with that ratio of undergraduates to graduates and a strong engineering program. The political affiliations split is rather improbable for any school, as ses said. Definitely look at LACs - many of them have 3-2 engineering programs with other schools if they don't have engineering on their own campus.</p>

<p>In addition to ses's list, consider Swarthmore and Haverford, and possibly Harvey Mudd (though I don't think it meets your criteria for weather).</p>

4

<p>I hear Harvey Mudd when I read this. Mudd is its own little engineering school inside the larger (and when I say large, I mean about 5,000 students total) Claremont Consortium. Socially, you have a lot of opportunities to do things and meet people, plus the advantages of cross-registration with the other Claremont Colleges.</p>

5

<p>I agree the claremont colleges fit the bill</p>

6

<p>There are fourteen colleges among the USNWR Top 20 LACs that are under 2000 undergraduate students. They are:</p>

<p>1648 Amherst
1484 Swarthmore
1980 Carleton
1545 Pomona
1734 Bowdoin
1168 Haverford
1667 Davidson
1153 CMC
700 Harvey Mudd
1589 Grinnell
1752 W&L
1821 Hamilton
1378 Bryn Mawr
1865 Colby</p>

<p>None will fit your description exactly, eg, too close to city, weather issues, lack of grad programs and/or research opps. Nonetheless, all are terrific schools with mostly happy and devoted students and I encourage to look more closely at each.</p>

7

<p>medha, I was looking at LAC-type Engineering schools and was notified that Engineering students have more resources at larger universities!</p>

8

<p>Rice is close, but doesn't have the snow season, and has more undergrads than 800 (800 is very small). Harvey Mudd is the smallest engineering school besides Olin, and Harvey Mudd allows for strong humanities through the Claremont colleges as others have said. CalTech sounds close, too, except I don't know how strong they are in humanities (and there's that weather "problem"). CalTech will have better research opportunities.</p>

9

<p>Size
Small and Nurturing - Probably 800 Undergrads in Total and about 200 Graduate Students.
- Mudd has 700 students, no grads.
Professors teach all the classes.
- 100% classes are taught by professors with PhDs at Mudd
Class Sizes are around 20.
- Yes again for Mudd</p>

<p>Academics
Strong in Engineering and Humanities.
-Mudd is a LAC that has engineering. We are supposed to be super competetent in out technical fields but also know how our work will impact society (and have an appreciation for other things in life). That is why we have a 12-course hum/soc sci requirement.</p>

<p>Open Curriculum that allows students to take a broad variety of courses, yet a majors' requirements are flexible enough to allow a student to take several electives.
- Mudd's curriculum is sorta open. You have to take a lot of Core and Major classes. Yet, you get to choose your Hum/Soc Sci and tech electives on top of your General Engineering Degree.
Incredible research opportunities for all Undergrads.
- Yup. Mudd requires research in the form of Clinic or Thesis for a graduation requirement. Engineers must do 1.5 years of research. I think 70% or more students also do research over the Summer at some point while at Mudd. There are definitely tons of research opportunities.</p>

<p>Emphasis on leadership and soft skills.
"Harvey Mudd College seeks to educate engineers, scientists, and mathematicians, well versed in all of these areas and in the humanities and the social sciences so that they may assume leadership in their fields with a clear understanding of the impact of their work on society." - HMC Mission Statement</p>

<p>Location/Weather
Completely isolated but an urban location is present within 60 miles.
- Claremont isn't completely isolated. It is suburban (and quite nice!) and is 30 miles East of Los Angeles. We are 20 minutes from Mt Baldy and an hour from the beach.</p>

<p>Campus is beautiful with plenty of greenery.
-Meh, Mudd's campus is unique. I find it very functional and consistent. In that, it is beautiful to me. There is definitely lots of grass and oak trees.</p>

<p>Weather manages to go through all the seasons.
-SoCal weather: Hot, Very Hot, Nice, Chilly. The leaves change color and drop in fall and you can see snow on the mountains half of the year.</p>

<p>Culture
Students not only work hard, but also know how to have fun.
- Lol. The HMC way. We work pretty darn hard yet many know how to throw down a good time on the weekend.</p>

<p>Very entrepreneurial and "Change the World" type students.
- I think Mudd students are ambitious. However, Mudd is like a bubble and I would be lying to you if I said most Mudders want to change the world. The fact is there is an organization (Mudders Making a Difference) and I venture to say that 30% of students are actively engaged in that stuff. The rest are just tired and apathetic.</p>

<p>Diverse community of students (academically speaking).
- We have Engineers, Scientists, and Mathematicians. How much more diverse can you get?! Actually, the Claremont Colleges help balance everything out. It is refreshing to take classes at other schools and meet art majors and anthropologists and stuff. There are quite a few "5C parties" in which a lot of socializing occurs.</p>

<p>33% Liberal, 33% Conservative and 34% Centrist.
-I think Mudd is 50% Liberal, 25% Conservative, and 25% Centralist.</p>

<p>Wide plethora of Extra Curricular activities available.
Yes, we have multiple orchestras and bands with the 5Cs (though, I would like to see more percussion stuff). There are art clubs, gamers clubs, a rocket club, a airplane piloting club, service clubs, pointless clubs, etc, etc....</p>

<p>Do colleges like this (or atleast something close to it) exist?
Harvey Mudd College. Perhaps Swarthmore as well. Caltech meets a lot of the academic requirements (minus having a grad school 1.7 times larger than the undergrad school) though the extracurriculars lack. (Orchestra is shared with Occidental, etc)</p>

10

<p>Wesleyan; 2700/300 undergrad to grad ratio; excellent cs, math and physics depts. Can combine interest in humanities and computers in a number of areas (e.g., computer generated images in film.}</p>

11

<p>CalTech....</p>

12

<p>Maybe you can check out Olin College (although it might be a little too small at around 300 students). I'm not sure about how flexible the curriculum is, but it's definitely worth the look.</p>

13

<p>If you are doing engineering, then "open curriculum" will not mean much to you. There will be a very long list of required courses, including some in humanities and social sciences. </p>

<p>Very few places that small will have graduate programs at all. I agree that Caltech may be the only one. It has a very rigorous core curriculum for all students.</p>

<p>Of the LAC's that Hawkette notes, the only ones I know of with engineering are Swarthmore and Harvey Mudd.</p>

14

<p>Consider Bennington:</p>

<p>Size
Small and Nurturing - 650 undergrads, 150 Graduate Students.
Professors (and/or professionals) teach all the classes.
Class Sizes are around 20 (or fewer).</p>

<p>Academics
Strong in Humanities.
Open Curriculum that allows students to take a broad variety of courses.
Research opportunities for all Undergrads.</p>

<p>Location/Weather
Completely isolated (yes!) but an urban location is present within 60 miles. Albany is 40 miles away, and there are several medium to larger towns close by.
Campus is beautiful with PLENTY of greenery.
Weather manages to go through all the seasons (the most beautiful is the crazy, colorful Fall, the longest, but also quite beautiful is the very snowy Winter, and the most fleeting, but very welcome is a brilliant Spring).</p>

<p>Culture
Students not only work hard, but also know how to have fun--witness the infamous Bennington theme parties!.
Very entrepreneurial and "Change the World" type students (definitely).</p>

<p>Wide plethora of Extra Curricular activities available--you can do whatever you can think of, but there are also many already in place.</p>

<p>Bennington fits all of your criteria except for strength in Engineering (although if you are really motivated you can figure out a way to make it strong for yourself through tutorials, field work terms and classes at Williams) and the political affiliations split.</p>

15

<p>Your description immediately made me think of Lafayette. They are a small liberal arts kinda school (around 2200 undergrads, no grads) but have very strong engineering. It's one of the few schools in which u will find engineering/writing double majors and similar people. It's just a small notch below the top LACs and university so still has dedicated students, but they spend a bit less time studying and more time having fun than the very top schools. Oh yeah, and they have plenty of research opportunities, or so they told me when I visited.</p>

<p>BTW, I did not think Lafayette made sense for me personally and I'm not applying there, but it seems to make a lot of sense for you.</p>

16

<p>In general, small schools do not have meaningful graduate programs. Professors tend to be there to teach and don't have significant grant money or research programs. There are a few exceptions to this. Several participants suggest Harvey Mudd. There are pockets of researchers in some LACs. There is, for example, a psychology prof at Swarthmore who has done some wonderful work on the psychology of choice. Wesleyan, Williams and others say that their faculty is engaged in research. </p>

<p>But, it is relatively rare to have first class researchers at small LACs. I see research in a number of different fields and almost never come across faculty at LACs. For example, Williams describes its faculty (with $2.9 MM total in research grants last year) as being active in research but lists the awards its professors have received: </p>

<p>MacArthur Fellowship, Poet Laureate, Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Distinguished Teaching Award of the Mathematical Association of America, Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teachers, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Professor of the Year, Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, Princeton University's 250th Anniversary Visiting Professorship for Distinguished Teaching, American Astrophysical Society Award, Elliot Rudwick Prize, American Academy of Religion Award for Excellence, Lannan Literary Prize, National Book Award, National Poetry Services Manuscript Competition, Kurt Weill Award, Julia Child Cookbook of the Year Award, Field Hockey Hall of Fame, and National Soccer Coaches Association of America Div. III Soccer Coach of the Year.</p>

<p>It is not clear that any of these awards are for research, though one or two might conceivably be.</p>

<p>So, if you are really looking to get into serious research, I think your odds of finding real opportunities are at a school with more of a graduate school. I could be wrong about this, but the evidence that I do have suggests that, with some exceptions, you'll find the best opportunities to be involved in cutting edge research at universities that hire people for their research abilities.</p>

17

<p>^^^<a href="http://www.wesleyan.edu/sciences/sciencefacts.html#1%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.wesleyan.edu/sciences/sciencefacts.html#1&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

18

<p>Olin College of Engineering.</p>

19

<p>^^^ definitely olin. free ride for all :)</p>

20

<p>"Rice is close, but doesn't have the snow season"</p>

<p>I believe it's called 'Winter'.. :rolleyes:</p>