Small Schools With Strong STEM Programs And Stats-Driven Admissions

College Search & Selection
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From Reading here the past few weeks, I’ve gathered that STEM schools tend to be more stats-driven than other schools. Also, it seems logical that the more selective the school is, the more it has to rely on something other than stats.

Let’s take the super selective schools out of it. What I’m looking for are examples of schools that have the following qualities:

-Small class sizes and personal attention from professors.
-Strong STEM programs and maybe Business too, but not super selective like Harvey Mudd and Olin.
-More stats-driven than you might expect or more stats-driven than it’s usual competitors for students.
-Somewhat balanced gender percentages, if possible, but I know this is asking a lot, so please include tech schools, too.

Let me give some examples that I’ve looked at myself. Lafayette and Bucknell seem to have everything on the list above, except the stats-driven part, I think, but please correct me if I’m wrong. Union is another one that I would guess is the same. RPI and WPI don’t have the gender balance, but I think they probably are more stats-driven. Stony Brook is probably stats-driven like many state schools, but I’m guessing it doesn’t have the small classes and personal attention.

I think Rose Hulman sounds great, but again, gender balance.

Out of the ones I’ve mentioned, I think Union might be the best match. What does everyone think?

Please include state schools. We’re in NY, but I’m starting to think that OOS schools might work if they fit the requirements above.

On another thread someone mentioned New Mexico Institute Of Mining and Technology. That’s an interesting one that I never would have found.

Let’s assume an A-/A student(93 - 96 unweighted average) and SATs somewhere between 1900 and 2100. She’s only a freshman, so I have to pick something, so we know what kind of stats we’re driving with.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

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Yes, there is New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology. There is also South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Both are relatively inexpensive. Colorado School of Mines and Missouri University of Science and Technology are also small engineering-focused schools, but are more expensive than the previous two.

If you want to check class sizes, check to see whether a given school has its class schedule on-line and whether the class schedule lists class sizes. For example, here is the class schedule for New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology: https://banweb7.nmt.edu/pls/PROD/hwzkcrof.p_uncgslctcrsoff

What specific STEM subjects are of interest? The schools that will match academically may differ depending if the main areas of interest are biology, chemistry, physics, geology, math, computer science, or some kind of engineering.

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Thanks @ucbalumnus. That’s a great idea about the class schedule. I’m going to use that to look at other schools. Hopefully they’ll list it. Thanks for the correction on the name of NMIMT. I fixed it. Those class sizes are nice. 40 students in Intro To CS!

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I’m just guessing, because she doesn’t know yet, but I’m thinking CS, Math, Engineering, Actuarial Math. If the school has Finance and Accounting, that would probably be a bonus to have as an option.

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If she is in 9th grade, her interests may change several times between now and college.

If math is her strongest and best-liked subject in school, then it does appear that your guesses of probable interests (at least the first four, and perhaps quant finance) are probably more likely to be correct than most other guesses. But be aware that interests can still change.

Actuarial preparation does not require any specific major, although many do it from a math or statistics major. See http://www.beanactuary.com for more information.

As a parent, probably your biggest priority now is to figure out your college budget for her, and be able to tell her what the cost limits are before she makes her application list.

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You do not need to be picking schools for a freshman. I say back off, give the kid time to enjoy high school.

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It is not too soon to have some goal schools in mind. If Rose-huhlman is a possibility, check out Valparsiso. They are also highly thought of for UG focused engineering, gender balanced, and only an hour outside of Chicago with public transportation to the city available.

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It’s also too soon to ascertain that she would do better in stats-focused admissions.

Agree with backing off. Right now, you don’t know what she will want in 3 years (and selectivity can actually change a fair amount in 3 years; just as the UofC).

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If you want information on class sizes, the Common Data Set for each school has that (not all schools make their Common Data Set public).

Here is RPI’s most recent Comon Data Set. See Section I3:

http://provost.rpi.edu/sites/default/files/CDS_2014-2015_0.pdf

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Why do you care about stats-driven admission? Encourage some ECs that interest her (math competitions, FIRST robotics, quiz bowl, etc). If she isn’t applying to top schools like Mudd, a couple of things like that are fine. Why not Bucknell or Lehigh? I am confused…

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Are you worried about her chances of getting admitted or the possibility of getting grants? If you need financial aid, look into the NYS STEM scholarship. I think it offers tuition to STEM majors who agree to work in NYS for 5 years after graduation.

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If available, on-line class schedules that list class sizes will give a better idea (including the difference between introductory and advanced courses). For example, RPI’s class schedule is here:

https://sis.rpi.edu/stuclshr.htm

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This is definitely my top priority, and this is the thing I’m hoping does change between now and the time she’s a senior. Three years is a long time, and with two people working, there’s definitely the possibility of a promotion. Our financial situation is pretty bad, but I’m hoping it will be very different in 3 years, so I’m casting a wide net as far as schools go.

I’m not discussing specific schools with her at all. She has no idea where she wants to go. Actually, she has asked me about a few schools, but I’m making a list completely independent of her. If she were a junior now, I’d be panicking. I definitely don’t feel like it’s too early to be learning about what schools are out there, and what they’re like.

Thanks for the tip @Cheeringsection‌, I haven’t looked at Valpariso. I’ll check it out.

I’m not resigning myself to the fact that she’ll definitely have weak EC’s, but so far she’s showing no signs of any kind of motivation or passion for EC’s, outside of Track, and some tutoring that she’s doing. I’m just trying to prepare for the worst, but at the same time I’m talking to her about what she might want to do as far as EC’s go.

As I said above, I’m curious about stats-driven admissions because I’m just not seeing much motivation for EC’s in her. She’s not against it, but I think if I left it up to her, she wouldn’t do anything. I mentioned First Robotics to her, and she actually made a face :slight_smile: I don’t think she’s interested in hardware at all. I’m hoping that she might change her mind, and that she could be a team member who works on the software part only. Do you know if this is possible? I’ve never heard of Quiz Bowl, but I’ll check it out. Thanks.

I would love to see her apply to Bucknell and Lehigh. They both sound like great schools to me. But I know a kid who had very good stats who got rejected by both of them, and received merit aid from RPI. That made me worried that they might weigh EC’s very heavily. He had lots of sports, and I think he had other EC’s too, but I’m not sure. I think he did trail off in senior year academically.

Yes, I’m worried about both, but mostly about her getting admitted. I’ve pretty much given up on the idea of getting aid, unless she gets some merit aid. Unless there’s a significant change in our finances, I think the STEM Incentive program may be in our future, if she keeps her grades up. I would love to give her the small college experience, and that’s why I created this thread. Unfortunately, the schools with the good STEM programs in the SUNY system are all big.

@ucbalumnus and @dadinator‌, thanks for the info about researching class sizes. I’ll use both methods. Do either of you know if the Common Data Sets are available in a central place that’s accurate? I’ve been using a website that I mentioned here before, and the name was starred out by the moderators. I don’t want to mention it again, but could one of you PM me if you know of a web site that has current information about colleges’ Common Data Sets. Thanks.

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http://www.collegedata.com has much of the common data set information. Under the “Academics” tab for each school’s entry is the class size information.

Note, however, that even if only a small percentage of classes are large, the fact that they are large means that a lot of students take them. For example, if a school has 100 students, each of whom takes two classes, and there is one 100 student class and ten 10 student classes. If each student is in the 100 student class and one of the 10 student classes, then each student will see an average class size of 55, which is much higher than the average class size of (10 * 10 + 1 * 100) / 11 = 18.2.

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@ucbalumnus‌, that is the site I was referring to. Thanks.

Great point about the average class size. I’ve looked at the data for some of the schools I’m familiar with, and some of them didn’t seem to match what I knew about those schools. I guess it’s better than nothing though, if viewed with skepticism.

I’m going to look for class schedules, and use them if they list class size, and use collegedata to supplement that. The other thing about class schedules is that they let you look at specific majors. I do like the collegedata site, though. It has a lot of great information. Thanks.

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You might add leigh, clarkson and university of rochester to the list. Stony brook also has honors college. Select accepted students are invited to join. Colorado school of mines does offer some full tuition merit scholarships. You cant apply directly. Select admitted students are invited to apply. My son made that cut but not the final one. The school was on his shortlist but he opted for elsewhere. I’d suggest going on a couple of informal tours at 2 or 3 colleges over the summer to get a feel for size, programs, etc. Out of state university of illinois-champagne urbana is strong. University of pittsburgh has rep of good merit $$$. Youre smart to at least start thinking about things now. Good luck.

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I think you isolated a number of schools that would fit (except Lafayette and Union offer economics, not full business programs). There is also Stevens Institute of Technology but I imagine the gender balance is skewed there as well. SUNY Binghamton is a mid-size university worth considering as well since you live in NYS. From what I gather, it is generally the very large universities that just look at statistics since they have so many applicants.

As another poster noted, since your D is a freshman it is too early to start targeting specific schools. Not only could her stats change over the next two years, but she will change and develop as a person. Someone who you may not see being able to handle a larger university might well be up for the challenge and may actually prefer a larger environment by the time college arrives. And once you start looking at schools, her desires may surprise you (ex. my quiet S who we thought would like a small college, did not like LACs and my outgoing D who we thought would like a larger school fell in love with LACs – in the end I must admit that they both knew what environment was right for them).

Again, your D is a freshman so I’d continue to encourage her to get involved in a couple of activities so you don’t need to seek out a school that is so stat driven in its admissions. See if her friends are involved in activities at school and encourage her to join them. If school activities don’t interest her, perhaps you can get involved in the community – some things you can even do as a family (ex. working at a soup kitchen or something). I’d really insist that she do something on an extracurricular basis. I had to push my (then) very quiet S to get involved but in the end he became very active in two clubs at school and volunteered with his old swim coach to help teach disabled children how to swim. These activities added a lot to his HS years and really helped him to grow as a person (and now that he is grown, he “forgot” that I pushed him to join and thinks back to his activities with pride). Becoming involved goes way beyond just helping with college admissions – it will be another way she can expand her horizons and grow as a person.

Good luck. And BTW my D is at Lafayette and loves it (Union was another school that was high on her list as well).

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I think that being involved in tutoring and track is a very nice EC resume for a 9th grader!

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Union is a good school and the great Chad Orzel is on the Physics faculty.

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Apologies, I saw in a later post that your D does track and tutoring as a freshman. That is a good start to ECs. Admission officers always say that they prefer depth of involvement to people who spend an hour a week on many different things. And it is likely that she will add one or two things along the way (perhaps something related to her academic interests or some community service things). My S applied to a similar level of schools (different schools because he studied business) – he had three major activities and just one or two smaller things and did just fine in the admissions process.