<p>Caltech is tiny ~900 students. So is Harvey Mudd.</p>
<p>Since you said your son likes sports: Lafayette, Lehigh and Bucknell may be small but all are Division I schools (for football they are 1AA or whatever they’re calling that divison now - non-Bowl Division). They are in the Patriot League, along with Holy Cross, Fordham, and American - plus Army and Navy for everything except football, and Georgetown for football only. They play a lot of their non-league games against the Ivies. All are also within an hour of skiing in the Poconos.</p>
<p>Of the 3, Lehigh is the largest and probably also the best known for engineering, and Bucknell has the most recent successes in sports. Lehigh and Bucknell are Universities and have grad students. Lafayette is a true LAC (no graduate students) and yet about 1/4 - 1/3 of Lafayette students are engineers. Laf is kind of unique in that respect, and prides itself on turning out engineers that can write and communicate effectively, and liberal arts grads who appreciate technology.</p>
<p>H, S and myself are all Lafayette grads, and though none of us were engineers many of our friends were.</p>
<p>I believe Lafayette is also one of the few colleges where engineers can go abroad during the regular school year and not fall behind in their engineering classes. They can go spring of soph year, to either Bremen or Madrid. </p>
<p>(1012mom - Northeastern has over 10,000 students.)</p>
<p>Thanks Lafalum for the insights and differences. None of these colleges were on S1 or S2s list so it’s a fresh start with #3. We did the Maine/Vermont/New Hampshire corridor with #2 and the California/Colorado excursions with #1 so Pennsylvania would be fun (and I’ve got friends along the way) I’ll tell 3 to read up on Trinity’s interdisciplinary approach, too…give me an opportunity to see a friend in Wilton. Got to have some fun sidetrips when you take the kids on the looksees! H doesn’t do college trips so it’s just me and the boy.</p>
<p>Surprised no mentioned Stevens Institute of Technology. Under 3K, right in Hoboken and you can take the path train to NYC if you want. Skiing at Mountain Creek is about 1 1/2 hrs away.</p>
<p>Clarkson (waaaaay upstate NY in Potsdam, mostly engineering). Hockey is the big spectator sport there.</p>
<p>This is a good thread, I’ve never seen all the smaller engineering schools talked about in one place…</p>
<p>Webb Institute, Long Island, NY.</p>
<p>Small. In fact the smallest engineering college in the country. But with a LARGE rep within the maritime industry.</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd is part of the Claremont College consortium - 5 small LAC’s all within walking distance in the lovely little town of Claremont. Total UG population is 5000. Students at any college can take classes offered at any other college in the group, which is comprised of Pomona, Claremont, Pritzer, Scripps and Harvey Mudd. Each college has its own focus and strengths.</p>
<p>here is a link to the latest USNWR engineering rankings for non universities
<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-no-doctorate[/url]”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering-no-doctorate</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.hmc.edu/newsandevents/us-news-2012.html[/url]”>http://www.hmc.edu/newsandevents/us-news-2012.html</a></p>
<p>One that I thought of that doesn’t look like it’s been metioned yet is Union College near Albany, NY.</p>
<p>It’s similar to Trinity College in CT in that it’s an LAC with an Engineering component. Probably similar in student size…so if you check out Trinity, you may want to consider Union as well.</p>
<p>Don’t know your child’s stats, but there’s also Western New England University in Massachusetts that could fit the bill. Not sure of student count, but on the smaller side. Again, not knowing your child’s stats, there is also Wentworth University in Boston, down the street from Northeastern. It doesn’t have the best “ranking”, but it’s courses are pretty intense and am told it could compete with many other colleges with higher “rankings”. I believe their student total is @3000 or so.</p>
<p>Does your S have a certain area of the country he’s interested in, or open to anything?</p>
<p>I know he’d prefer a non-urban area if he has his choice. He’s the one who would stay home rather than go to Chicago for a weekend, who can’t wait to get out of Denver and really dislikes LA. He’d rather go climb a dune or hike a mountain than go up in a monument. To him vehicular traffic is for getting out of a city as opposed to going into a city. I can talk about great cities I’ve lived in or visited until I’m blue in the face and my H and the boys look at me like I’m the village idiot.</p>
<p>Another suggestion:</p>
<p>This doen’t fit into the 5,000 and under category, probably double that. However, it sounds like it could perhaps be a good fit:</p>
<p>University of Vermont, also known as UVM. Large, yes, but great Engineering, right near skiing and tons of outdoor activities and in the cute little city of Burlington. Check it out! Could be just what he’s looking for!</p>
<p>He is applying to UVM, he “found” that one without even a prompt from me.</p>
<p>Oh well, why not: New Mexico Tech has ~1,300 kids; NYU Polytechnic has ~1,700; Illinois Tech ~ 2,600; Florida Tech has ~4,800; RPI ~5,500 and Carnegie Mellon ~ 5,700</p>
<p>“I know he’d prefer a non-urban area if he has his choice.” - Clarkson could work. for him… more cows than people in the county;) Potsdam is small, dominated by Clarkson and SUNY Potsdam. </p>
<p>Clarkson is not quite as academically rigorous as the tippy top engineering schools. It tends to have students slanted toward high math/science skills. But DH and I both enjoyed our time there and felt we got a good education. In our day, the top employers of Clarkson grads were were IBM (who also favored MIT, RPI, CMU, Penn State) and GE. </p>
<p>One CC poster last year commented that Cornell a grad school prof liked having students from Clarkson as they were well prepared. (Post was recent. Story was from years ago).</p>
<p>Kettering University (my alma mater!).</p>
<p>A great resource for questions of this sort is [Rugg’s</a> Recommendations](<a href=“http://www.ruggsrecommendations.com%5DRugg’s”>http://www.ruggsrecommendations.com). </p>
<p>They have lists of colleges by undergraduate programs and majors. The college lists tell you which state the college is in, and how big it is.</p>
<p>Under Engineering Group I (most selective), you can find the following:
Brown ¶ - M
Bucknell ¶ - M
Carnegie Mellon ¶ - M
Case Western Reserve (OH) - M
Clarkson (NY) - M
Cooper Union (NY) - S
Dartmouth (NH) - M
Duke (NC) - M
George Washington (DC) - M
Harvey Mudd (CA) - S
Illinois Inst. of Tech - R
Johns Hopkins (MD) - M
Kettering (MI) - R
Lafayette ¶ - R
Lehigh ¶ - M
MIT (MA) - M
New Mexico Inst. of Mining & Tech - R
New Jersey, College Of - M
Northwestern (IL) - M
Notre Dame (IN) - M
Olin (MA) - S
Rensselaer (NY) - M
Rice (TX) - M
Rochester, U. of (NY) - M
Rose-Hulman (IN) - R
Smith (MA) - R
Stevens Inst. of Tech (NJ) - R
Trinity (CT) - R
Tufts (MA) - M
Tulane (LA) - M
Union (NY) - R
Vanderbilt (TN) - M
Villanova ¶ - M
Washington (MO) - M
Worcester Poly Tech (MA) - R</p>
<p>in their key:
S = small (less than 1000 students)
R = moderate (1000 - 3000 students)
M = medium (3000 - 8000 students)</p>
<p>There’s also a list for Engineering Group II (very selective), which has a lot more schools!</p>
<p>You might see if your school has a Rugg’s in their Counseling Office. Otherwise you might be able to find it at the library.</p>
<p>My S is at RPI and really likes the school.</p>
<p>Great facilities, academic support, opportunites for co-ops and for jobs upon graduation. Big time hockey, too.</p>
<p>We’ve been really impressed with all his friends - bright, smart, and friendly.</p>
<p>Our son wanted a slightly larger (15K) school for engineering so didn’t consider Leheigh but a close friend is there and loves it. The student and family can’t say enough good things about the school. I would keep it on your short list.</p>
<p>One thing to be aware of with smaller schools and engineering is that they don’t necessarily offer all the main subfields. S wanted civil, but Union doesn’t offer that, so that was off the list. He ended up at Swarthmore, but Swat doesn’t offer chemical. If your son has a preference he should check course offerings and make sure the school has what he wants. </p>
<p>ABET certification is another thing to check for, as you probably already know. Ask admissions people if engineers typically graduate in 4 years. At Dartmouth they told us that the heavy liberal arts requirements meant that a BS in engineering usually took an extra semester.</p>
<p>^ Good point, S2 also wanted aerospace which narrowed his list considerably more then the size.</p>