I would like to pursue a degree in engineering and/or computer science with a possible minor in finance or econ. I was wondering which liberal arts colleges would be good for this?
First, would a major from a LAC be a hindrance to me getting into grad school? (I eventually would like to go to MIT, Stanford, Cal etc for grad school in CS or engineering). Would I be able to get in from a Liberal Arts college?
Also, I was looking at W&M’s 3-2 plan with Columbia. How is this? Are you guaranteed admission if you have a certain gpa or is it like reapplying for admission.
If anyone could provide some LAC which are strong in CS or engineering (besides Harvey Mudd), that would be great.
Occidental has a nice 3+2 engineering program with Caltech. Also, if you are looking to do your engineering udergrad all in one school you may wish to consider Dartmouth. While it technically meets the definition of a university, it’s small (the smallest Ivy) and works hard to keep its functional LAC roots and identity intact. It’s on the border - you could consider it to be either a very small university or the biggest and shiniest LAC. And it has Engineering /CS. In fact the computer language BASIC was developed at Dartmouth.
Relatively few LACs offer engineering, except through 3/2 programs, which are rarely utilized in practice.
Some LACs that do have engineering programs include Mudd, Swarthmore, Lafayette, Bucknell, Smith, and Trinity College (CT). You would have more options if you also considered small universities, such as Dartmouth or Lehigh. All of these schools do fine in terms of grad school placement.
Any ABET-accredited engineering program (at a LAC or otherwise) will leave relatively little room for economics or finance courses. Some schools offer “lighter”, non-ABET engineering degrees (these are often BA degrees, instead of the usual BS) that would offer more flexibility. In such cases, you can sometimes get the ABET BS degree by staying for a fifth year of study.
Computer science programs typically have more room for unrelated electives. For example, Lehigh has a 4-year “Computer Science and Business” program; the CSB degree is accredited by ABET for computer science and by AACSB for business. So it counts as a full degree in both fields.
I’d add Union to the colleges mentioned by @Corbett.
Dartmouth offers a 2-1-1-1 dual-degree engineering program with a range of schools that could be of interest to you:
Amherst
Bard
Bates
Bowdoin
Colby
Grinnell
Hamilton
Hobart & William Smith
Middlebury
Morehouse
Mount Holyoke
Pomona College
Simon’s Rock
Skidmore
Spelman
St. Lawrence
Vassar
Wesleyan
Wheaton
Williams
An ABET-accredited engineering degree program must include 3/8 of the credits in engineering science and engineering design courses, and 1/4 of the credits in math and natural science, plus a general education component (not specified in amount). While this means that the minimum technical requirement is 5/8 of the credits, many engineering degree programs require more than that in practice. Economics courses could fit into general education courses at some schools (e.g. as social studies breadth courses), though (unless one overloads or is exempt from some required courses with AP credit or some such) there may only be 1/8 to 1/4 of the credits available for humanities and social studies courses with engineering curricula that consume significantly more than 5/8 of the total credits in technical courses.
For CS, ABET accreditation is not strictly necessary, although one does have to be more careful evaluating non-ABET-accredited CS degree programs. ABET-accredited CS degree programs must include 1/3 of the credits in CS and 1/4 of the credits in math and (non-CS) natural science (total 7/12 of the credits in technical courses). The natural science curriculum requirement is absent in many non-ABET-accredited CS degree programs. CS degree programs are less likely to require significantly more than the ABET minimum of technical courses, leaving more room for other courses.
My D knew engineers (graduating from an ABET accredited program) at Lafayette who were able to double major in a liberal arts course of study and graduate in four years. I don’t know the details but I’d guess that their ability to double major would depend in part on the number of credits they come into the school with, the distribution requirements of the school (which are pretty flexible at Lafayette) etc.
In addition to the list provided in the second paragraph of post #2, Union College in NY is a LAC with strong engineering. Many other LACs offer CS.
Personally I’m not a big fan of the 3+2 programs although I’m sure that they serve some people well. Many people don’t follow through with the program and decide they want to graduate with their class at the LAC and others don’t qualify to finish the program. In addition, the program takes an additional year to complete at BS degree and financial aid packages don’t always transfer and often don’t extend for the fifth year. If you do choose to consider that path be sure to find out in advance 1) exactly what is required to make the transfer into the engineering school (classes, GPA, anything else) 2) how many people per year make the transfer to the engineering school and 3) financial implications.
Another way to make an ABET degree plus second major work is to take classes during the summer. For example, the Lafayette dual BS Engineering + AB International Studies is “designed to be completed in at most four years and a summer, with careful advising.” https://engineering.lafayette.edu/engineering-international-studies-dual-degree/
Lafayette also offers a non-ABET “engineering studies” program, which would be much easier to combine with a liberal arts program.
I’m sure this is true, but it is also true that several of the LACs or small universities mentioned in this thread – including Dartmouth, Lafayette, Smith, Trinity, and Tufts – offer non-ABET engineering degrees. So do some larger schools, like Harvard and Johns Hopkins.
So there appears to be some demand for non-ABET engineering degrees – possibly among non-engineers. For example, if you were pursuing a career in tech-related management or finance, then a LAC economics degree plus demonstrated proficiency in engineering might be a marketable combination, even if the engineering qualification fell short of a full ABET degree.
Not an LAC, but RPI is a small school with strong engineering and CS programs, and has a good business school so you can minor in finance (it has a top-rated quant masters program, and its biz school courses tend to be tech oriented and pair nicely with eng/CS majors).