<p>Hey people
What is your opinion about the LACs with regards to the number of grads going to top graduate programs.</p>
<p>For the 3+2 dual degree program. Is it worth it?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>J.Z</p>
<p>The best LACs’ placement into top professional schools (Business, Law, Medicine) is rivaled only by HYPS, and placement into top graduate programs in the humanities and social sciences is very strong as well.</p>
<p>If you’re 100 percent intent on studying engineering, you would be wasting a LAC education/experience by attending one.</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>You should look at Lafayette College in Easton, PA is you are interested in a strong lac + strong engineering. 1/3 of the students there are engineering in 5 disciplines.</p>
<p>Swarthmore and Harvey Mudd are top notch LACs with engineering programs.</p>
<p>my thoughts on 3-2 programs are here:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/oberlin-college/859076-engineering.html?[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/oberlin-college/859076-engineering.html?</a></p>
<p>If you want to study engineering, and also liberal arts college subjects, there are several paths you can take:
-stand-alone LAC which offers an engineering program
-multi-college university including engineering & Arts & sciences colleges;
(most provide for a liberal # of free electives to expore other subject areas)
-stand-alone engineering/science college which offers free electives in liberal arts areas, either at its own school or via cross-registration.</p>
<p>Each has pluses & minuses. The smaller programs offer fewer options and courses in engineering. But if engineering is a real interest, IMO they all may be preferable to the 3-2 option, for the reasons I detail in that link.</p>
<p>monydad:
You need not restric to multi-college universities. Most of the “pure” engineering schools have plenty of liberal arts subjects (and people who major in them), and typically cross registration as well. For example:</p>
<p>MIT - outstanding economics, political science, Junat Diaz teaching literature, etc. ; cross-register with Wellesley and Harvard</p>
<p>Caltech - again, plenty of LAC-type courses, and cross-registration at Occidental</p>
<p>Stand-alone engineering schools have an LAC like feel and include:
Olin
Rose-Hulman
Cooper Union</p>
<p>not an LAC, but smaller than the major universities (4,800 undergraduates students) and good in engineering:</p>
<p>Lehigh</p>
<p>As a direct reply to the OP:</p>
<p>You should look at the list of [Baccalaureate</a> Origins of Doctorate Recipients, 1997 ‐ 2006](<a href=“http://www.swarthmore.edu/Documents/administration/ir/BaccOrSum1997-2006.pdf]Baccalaureate”>http://www.swarthmore.edu/Documents/administration/ir/BaccOrSum1997-2006.pdf)</p>
<p>"monydad:
You need not restric to multi-college universities. "</p>
<p>uhhh, I didn’t. But very true, nonetheless.</p>
<p>“As a direct reply to the OP:”
Actually, OP asked for the number, not the percentage.</p>
<p>The percentage may vary if different proportions of other people at the school have other majors or other careeer objectives. Or are too stupid.
None of those things necessarily impact your ability to earn a Phd. If numerous people have done so from your school- by absolute number- good chance you can do it too, if you want to and are good enough. Even of other people at that school don’t want to, or aren’t good enough. IMO.</p>
<p>You can also go to a top LAC with excellent sciences (i.e., Haverford, Carleton, Grinnell) and then do grad study in engineering. I know of several engineers who followed that path and were happy with the decision to get a solid/well-rounded undergrad education before pursuig a specialized degree in engineering.</p>
<p>I myself got a science B.A. degree then an engineering Master’s degree. It can be done obviously, I did it, but it’s not necesarily the optimal path if engineering practice is the goal all along. There were holes in my engineering educational background that I was never able to remediate when I practiced as an engineer. YMMV.</p>
<p>Pursuing this strategy, additional time may be required to get the engineering degree, in order to remediate deficiencies. I avoided this because I attended a multi-college university and hence was able to take some engineering courses during undergrad.</p>
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<p>Here, I think that percentage is more relevant, especially if you look at both doctorates in science and in engineering (as are shown in the link I posted). The number between a small LAC (or Caltech for that matter) and Cornell or Michigan for example, is confounded if not dominated by the size of the institution. The proportion tells you whether the institution is oriented towards sending graduates to get PhDs, or not.</p>
<p>Your Majesty, for the “3+2 dual degree program”, are you interested only in engineering? There are also 3+2 programs for business, architecture, etc. I don’t get the impression that LACs get very heavy enrollment in these programs. The cynic in me sees them as marketing ploys to attract students who otherwise would not consider a LAC. Once students find themselves at Amherst, Pomona, Bowdoin, etc., how many of them actually leave in the 4th year to go study at another school?</p>
<p>As for the PhD production data, they say nothing about who goes to “top graduate programs”, only the per capita numbers getting PhDs from anywhere (which is a significant accomplishment in itself). LACs do appear in disproportionate numbers among the top performers. However, it’s hard to say if that’s because LACs as a class really do better at PhD preparation (plausible) or if universities prepare more students to go off to do a greater variety of other things (also plausible). So, as with other kinds of rankings, it may be better to separate LACs from universities to compare apples to apples.</p>
<p>I do think it’s safe to say that at schools like Reed or Carleton, you’ll find a greater concentration of students intent on academic careers. This is bound to affect the campus atmosphere. Does breathing this atmosphere, in itself, make it likelier that a random smart kid will go on to get a PhD if s/he attends Reed, as opposed to Michigan? Hard to say. The number of students who go on to earn PhDs is a relatively small minority, even at Reed, Carleton or Grinnell.</p>
<p>How about Bucknell?</p>