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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I was going to say Rose-Hulman too.  OP— DH and I are both SLAC grads.  He’s a software engineer, who believes he benefitted greatly from the reading, writing, small class heavy curriculum and has a huge advantage in his career because he can communicate and problem solve well. We felt very strongly about our kids attending SLACs. One did. The other is at W&M (which is close to being a SLAC) and all the other options were SLACs.  We are all in on small liberal arts schools.  Except for engineering. I would not send a kid to an actual SLAC for engineering.

I think you can be Rose-Hulman, Cooper Union, Olin, etc and do engineering at a small school or undergrad focused engineering. But I don’t think you can get a good engineering education at a true liberal arts school.  And SLACs recognize this and offer the 3+2 and 2+2 programs— which really are the worst of both worlds.

Actual liberal arts is a rigorous program of study. Engineering is a rigorous program of study.  You can’t really do both well— especially on a small campus.

Harvey Mudd is an excellent education.  And may call itself a LAC. But you can’t get a decent humanities major there. It’s isn’t truly a liberal arts college, because good liberal arts colleges benefits from having majors across the humanities-STEM spectrum. [/quote]

Can Harvey Mudd student double major in humanities with classes from other Claremont colleges?[/quote]

Technically, maybe??  But practically??  Not in 4 years. I don’t care how much AP credit your bring in.  Engineering has so many required classes. It’s nice they are with the other colleges. It adds something. They can get good humanities electives. But the school itself is closer to Rose-Human than a LAC. Not to ding Mudd which is top notch at what it does. But you just don’t have the cross disciplinary living and learning that is the hallmark of a good liberal arts education. And if you go too far into the humanities side with your courseload, you water down the engineering education. Maybe you could do both. I don’t think you can do both well. And engineering isn’t worth it if you aren’t going to do it well.

I believe strongly in undergrad focused institutions for undergrad education, and the larger schools with grad programs for grad school.  I would consider a larger Purdue/VT school for an engineering kid. I’d prefer a midsize private  (like Case, Tufts, Rice) or a small engineering focused school (Olin, Rose-Human, Cooper Union, Mudd) for an Engineer.  Probably the midsize private because I know kids who have gotten started in engineering and changed their minds. At a Cooper Union type school, that’s not an option. At a school like Case, you don’t have to transfer.

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