<p>The problem is that your criteria, small size but with extensive offerings in many subjects, are somewhat contradictory. Most UCs fulfill the latter, but not the former.</p>
<p>Other options involve two schools:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Start at community college (with small classes) for two years, transfer to UC or CSU as a junior (with large selection of majors to apply to and small upper division classes) to finish bachelor’s degree in another two years.</p></li>
<li><p>Start at a liberal arts college (with small classes) for three years, transfer to a college with engineering to finish dual bachelor’s degrees in the next two years (“3+2 program”).</p></li>
</ul>
<p>However, these options do have drawbacks compared to attending a single school for all four years.</p>
<p>CMK does not list a general engineering program on its “Academics” page. They do offer 2 joint/dual degree 5-year programs, one in “Management-Engineering” and another in “Economics and Engineering”. The former is basically the same as the “3/2” programs offered by many other LACs; it requires a transfer after 3 years at CMK to complete another 2 years of engineering at another school. The latter offers 2 options; one is a 3/2 program with Harvey Mudd, the other a 3/2 program with another institution.</p>
<p>In either program, you are not dipping your toes into engineering at CMK to see if you like it enough to transfer. You’re doing 3 years of liberal arts at CMK, then 2 of engineering at another school. With the “Economics and Engineering” option, you do take several courses in science and engineering during the first 3 years, but you take the engineering courses at Mudd, not at CMK.</p>
<p>Pitzer does not have its own general engineering program. It may have a 3/2 option, as many LACs do.</p>
<p>Hmm I’m not sure if I like the idea of the 3+2 program. I was going to drive down and visit Claremont Mckenna and USC this weekend… now I’m questioning whether I want to go to CM at all. What a turn of events haha.</p>
<p>BTW Thanks for all the input! I’ve learned a lot from this.</p>
Not quite true. Although Mudd itself offers only STEM departments, students are welcome to major in any of the disciplines at other Claremont colleges as long as they minor in a field at Mudd. It’s perfectly possible to go to Harvey Mudd and major in classics or dance.</p>
<p>
Well, that depends on what you’re looking for.
[ul][li]If you are at all interested in pre-professional fields like nursing, architecture, agriculture, and the like, you’ll probably have to look at medium or large universities (e.g. Cornell, Michigan, Washington). </p>[/li]
<p>[li]If you’re mostly interested in liberal arts but have extremely specialized interests like East Asian studies or Egyptology, you might be best off looking at small or medium universities (e.g. Tufts, WUStL, Yale). </p>[/li]
<p>[li]If you’re mostly interested in liberal arts and have interests that range from theatre to biology but nothing super specialized, you’d do perfectly fine at almost any decent LAC. Many top LACs offer quite a good selection of majors, including programs like film studies, neuroscience, and Japanese. For example, the offerings at Bryn Mawr compare quite favorably to those of the much larger Emory.[/ul][/li]You may want to especially consider LACs in a consortium with universities. Examples include Haverford, Swarthmore, and Bryn Mawr (Penn), Amherst, Hampshire, Smith, and Mount Holyoke (U Mass), Goucher (Johns Hopkins), Barnard (Columbia), Wellesley (Brandeis, MIT, others), Agnes Scott (Emory, Georgia Tech, others), Occidental (Caltech), Mills (Berkeley), etc.</p>
<p>
Majors and careers are often only loosely linked and often not linked at all. Be aware of this. One of the most outstanding genetic engineers I know has a PhD in anthropology (!). Incidentally, she attended a liberal arts college.</p>
<p>
Assuming you can afford them, I would focus on liberal arts colleges and small/medium universities for those interests. They’re hardly such specialized interests that you need a huge university. </p>
<p>If you are extremely interested in engineering, small/medium universities are probably best. Among liberal arts colleges, however, you have three options:
[ul][<em>]Attend one of the relatively few LACs with engineering (Swarthmore, Smith, Trinity (TX), Trinity (CT), Union, Lafayette, Bucknell, etc.)
[</em>]Complete a 3+2 or 4+2 program (pick a guaranteed program to avoid problems)
[*]Major in math/physics and do a master’s in engineering[/ul]</p>
<p>You’d be considered a student at Mudd. As all Mudd students do, you’d live in Mudd housing, pay Mudd tuition, have to complete the Mudd core curriculum, receive a Mudd diploma, etc. The only difference is that you’d take your ~10 major (or however many minor) courses through at least one other Claremont. Cross-registration is pretty common even among students who aren’t majoring at another campus, at least from what I understand. Everything you need to know is here:</p>