SLAC with Strong STEM?

[TennisParent]

@1NJParent

There’s a trade-off between the intimacy offered by a small school and the variety that a larger school can offer. A small LAC that aim to offer a broad liberal arts education to mainly undergraduate students can’t offer the specialties in engineering by necessity. Even Harvey Mudd, a STEM-focused LAC, can only offer general engineering. For a college to provide a specialty in a certain field, it must attract faculty in that field. The cost would be too high unless it can offset the cost with research. For most researches in STEM (especially engineering), a professor can’t do the research by him-/herself. He/she needs the assistance from graduate students (and postdocs). LACs, by definition, don’t have those programs. If your student prefers a smaller school, but not necessarily an LAC, then I’d suggest you expand your search to include some of colleges on the list @ucbalumnus provided in post #6.

Several LACS offer a joint program with Columbia that offers the best of both, you can start at the LAC with their smaller classes and finish at Columbia. Also, a Comp Sci, Physics or BioChem major from Williams or Swarthmore, will be a very marketable degree. The STEM departments at Williams and Carleton are actually fairly large, similar in size to a Case Western , RPI or Olin, and they are more selective generally. Thus, also consider that employers are realizing that technology is so quickly advancing that the LAC skill set is equally important in the longer term.