What are some LACs with good science programs?

College Search & Selection
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<p>In particular, I'm looking at CS and EE. Obviously you've got Harvey Mudd, but besides that, I'm really not sure which LACs are good at CS and EE. Normally, I think of LACs being really good for the Humanities, not the sciences. Also, are there any rankings for the LACs in these departments? Thanks in advance!!</p>

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<p>You will find very few LAC's that offer a degree in EE. Most do not have engineering majors at all, and those that do usually limit students to a degree in general engineering, rather than a specific field like EE.</p>

<p>Many offer degrees in CS, but they do not involve as many courses, or bring their students to the level of technical expertise that one would find in the BS program or equivalent at a research university. These degrees from the LAC's might be supplemented with extra math courses as a prelude to graduate school, but you might find job opportunities limited if you graduated from an LAC having fulfilled only the minimum requirements for a CS degree. Depending on the LAC, and the other requirements for a degree, it might be difficult to take many extra CS courses, if they are offered at all. Beyond those gross generalizations, you need to look individually at schools. The depth of CS offerings varies widely among different colleges.</p>

<p>If you really want EE, then you have to go someplace that has a full fledged engineering program, unlikely to be an LAC. If you are interested in the intersection of EE and CS, again you are probably not going to find what you are looking for at an LAC. </p>

<p>LAC's are really for people who want a classical liberal arts education.
Harvey Mudd is really an undergraduate technical college, like Caltech or MIT without the graduate programs. It is not really an LAC.</p>

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<p>I have enormous respect for what LACs can offer in the sciences (Swarthmore, Carleton, Wesleyan, and Pomona in particular come to mind). But if you are serious about CS AND EE, other than the excellent offerings at Harvey Mudd, only Rose-Hulman, Bucknell, Cooper Union come to mind and some of these schools on the basis of limited diversity of offerings, location/size may not be everyone’s cup of tea. If you’re very serious about CS and engineering, I would still look carefully at universities. On the small side is not only the obvious Caltech but Rice as well. From there, schools do get significantly larger, even the non-state's: MIT, Stanford, Cornell, Northwestern, Princeton, etc. </p>

<p>The last of options is a 3/2 program available at many LACs allowing for 3 years of study in math, chem, physic, bio, or CS with transfer in year 4 to a participating engineering school (e.g. Columbia). This is not a frequently exercised option, however. Many don't like the idea of bailing on their LAC -and 3 years of friends - after establishing close, usually very happy, ties.</p>

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<p>Most LACs do not offer engineering, but many of them are excellent in science. I know a kid who just graduated from Williams with a degree in Physics. This fall he'll be going to MIT in the Ph.D program.</p>

<p>However, the science offered at LACs, while excellent, tends not to be very specialized. For example at a large research university typically offers majors in Botany, Microbiology, Zoology, Biotechnology, and Animal Science. At an LAC you will probably see all that lumped together into Biology, with far fewer specialized undergrad courses offered.</p>

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<p>Lafayette College offers EE.</p>