Clarkson.
Don’t forget Princeton. Or schools that offer a 3-2. And by the way, if you happened to have taken both the old and new SAT, schools are unlikely to superstore across the old and new.
I’m not a fan of a 3+2 or 4+1 option. It takes an extra year to get your Undergrad engineering degree and there is that additional cost. Frequently the + option is not automatic but competitive, and many students change their minds about the engineering side (perhaps because they would leave their friends before graduation in the 3+2 schools).
Most people who think they are going to do a 3/2 don’t end up doing it. But it si an option of you want a LAC.
However:
- You then have to leave the LAC to finish your engineering major.
- Admission to the "2" school is not guaranteed, and may be competitive. Even if guaranteed for grades/GPA, the thresholds may not be easy to meet. Example: https://undergrad.admissions.columbia.edu/apply/combined-plan .
- Financial aid at the "2" school may be different from that offered at the "3" school, and not known at the beginning when entering the "3" school. One of the common "2" schools, Columbia, claims to meet 100% of need (as determined by them) for frosh and regular transfer students, but *not* for 3+2 Combined Plan students: https://undergrad.admissions.columbia.edu/apply/combined-plan .
- Five total years could mean higher cost, even if financial aid is good.
Environmental Engineering majors are kind of a specialty and hard to find in small engineering schools…
Tufts Engineering would be a reach (about 11% acceptance rate last year) but not as crazy as Stanford. Also, there is not as big of an Asian population, so that should help.
Undergrad engineering at Tufts is less than half the size of Stanford and graduate engineering programs at Tufts are around one tenth the size of Stanford. Tufts biggest grad programs are in the health sciences and are mostly located at the downtown Boston campus - which makes Tufts feel more like a LAC. The engineering culture is LAC-like and there is a net positive attrition rate between Liberal Arts and Engineering (i.e. more transfer into engineering than out).
Tufts has both Civil and Environmental Engineering Majors (in the same department, like Stanford) and both are ABET accredited (Stanford’s Environmental Engineering is not ABET accredited).
Tufts also has an Interdisciplinary Environmental Health major that is not ABET accredited.
Tufts also has ABET accredited Chemical and Mechanical Engineering Majors.
To gain maximum leverage across all of engineering, engineering research is organized around interdisciplinary themes rather than traditional disciplines. This means that Chemical and Mechanical Engineering will also have environmental components (since sustainability is one of the three research themes)
http://engineering.tufts.edu/cee/undergraduate/
http://engineering.tufts.edu/undergraduate/ABETgrad-enrollment.htm
http://engineering.tufts.edu/research/
On the Liberal Arts side, there are also a couple of interdisciplinary majors related to the environment/health. The Environmental Studies Major has tracks that incorporate engineering. The Economics Department, despite not having a Phd program, is among the top environmental and energy economics research groups in the world.
http://as.tufts.edu/environmentalStudies/about/
http://as.tufts.edu/environmentalStudies/curriculum/index.htm
http://ase.tufts.edu/commhealth/
https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.env.html
https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.ene.html
There is also a central organization for Environmental activities across the University
http://environment.tufts.edu/about-us/
The Fletcher School (which is co-located with the undergrad campus) sponsers a major energy conference each year.
hthttp://www.masscec.com/events/tufts-energy-conference-2016
The Boston area is a Clean-Tech hub so there are lots of opportunities for internships (including during the school year) and the largest Clean-Tech start-up incubator in the country is only a couple of miles away.
http://greentownlabs.com/
Tufts is a Questbridge school, and it meets full need. It is no-loan below around $40K.
tp://admissions.tufts.edu/apply/first-year-students/questbridge/
@ucbalumnus VERY helpful, thank you. Money is definitely a factor for me, so LAC’s are looking like a dwindling option
@Mastadon Thank you so much for the comprehensive info! I will definitely have to start stressing on whether to put Tufts or Stanford near the top of my rankings.
@MurphyBrown Yes, I know that Tufts’ policy is much less generous than Stanford’s (though both are quite generous as it is!). I do feel that both are so comparable except for possibly prestige. Any other special considerations that would help me decide?
(Of course, realistically both of these schools are extreme reaches in any case. So perhaps my time would be better spent researching other matches)