I am working on my list of colleges to apply to. My two top choices right now are Carnegie Mellon and Harvey Mudd, for computer science. I am not just interested in them because of their great reputation, but when I visited I really liked all of the students I met. They had a nerdy vibe I haven’t felt at any other colleges I have toured. I would love to go to one of these two colleges but I know that they are very difficult to get into. I was wondering what are some other nerdy colleges that are similar to these two? Maybe some that are easier to get into as well.
Well if by nerdy you mean quirky and highly intellectual, I would check out Reed. MIT and Caltech also seem to fit your requirements.
Carleton.
RPI.
Columbia, Tufts, and for some less selective options, many of the CTCL schools - New College of FL, Knox, Hendrix.
University of Rochester. The “nerd factor” was a big part of its appeal for D.
Case Western, perhaps?
I would look at colleges with little or no Greek life. Not that there’s anything wrong with Greek life, it just seems opposite of nerdiness. All depends on your stats, financial situation, where in USA you are willing to go.
Georgia Tech
RPI, WPI, RIT, Case, Cal Poly, GATech.
Any school that ends in “institute of technology”?
Minnesota State University – Moorhead is supposed to be a nerdy place.
Olin, in Massachusetts, if Engineering/Tech is your area of interest.
Swarthmore, for sure.
Frankin W Olin college in Needham MA. Impressive engineering school. Small class size like 150 kids. All get half scholarship from Olin foundation. Used to be free ride but guess the economy tanked.
Some Midwestern choices that get overlooked: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Case Western.
Colorado School of Mines
Pretty much everyone at Northwestern is a nerd about something. Definitely not everyone is going to be interested in CS or even STEM for that matter, but all the people I know are intensely interested and invested in some topic or other. Its pretty cool. You can have a good, intelligent conversation with just about anyone.
There are frats, but it is definitely possible to avoid them. Even the guys in the fraternities are nerds though (at least the ones I know).
NU isn’t significantly easier to get into than the schools you listed, however.
Swarthmore, U of Chicago-- but both of those are as hard to get into as the ones you named. Easier admission with strong intellectual bent: Reed and Bard.
Son at tufts is a nerd as are his friends, but they also have a cool, hipster vibe. Other son was to brown and he was a stem nerd surrounded by other nerds. Also great for comp sci.
If you have the stats for CMU, perhaps Macalaster would be a safe choice for you, although I don’t know whether they have comp sci.