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Comment by doom2 | Hacker News Reader

How many of them have strong STEM programs though? My partner went to a PUI, but it was firmly a liberal arts school (not that you can't move into STEM with a liberal arts degree). I chose my own undergraduate school because it had a decent engineering program but obviously was a research university.

The two I can think of are Harvey Mudd and Rose Hulman.

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I think a lot of times, "strong STEM programs" in the public perception is equated with "big research university" which leads to oxymoron when looking for PUI for STEM.

Loyola Marymount University, in LA, fits the description. The STEM program wasn't the most competitive out there (but that's in comparison to nearby schools like UCLA, Cal Poly, etc), but the teaching quality was top-notch and there was a pretty direct pipeline from the engineering school to the big aerospace/defense contractors in the surrounding area.

I don't know anybody from any of my programs who isn't either gainfully employed in their field of study, or at some competitive grad school, and we graduated in the middle of COVID.

Of course it seems to be in a competition with USC to be the most expensive stickerprice university in the country, but the dirty little secret of private schools is that almost no one pays that price. To keep diversity up they shower disadvantaged students with scholarships, to keep academic standards up they shower academically competitive students with scholarships, and that's all paid for by charging the obscenely rich an elevated tuition, who in exchange are put in a situation where they're rubbing shoulders with a mix of talented students and a much higher than average concentration of other rich kids, leading to networking opportunities for everyone involved.

For those looking, this list is probably a good start: https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/search?schoolType=engin...

Disclosure: my alma mater is on that list.

I went to one of these liberal arts college. They all (typically) have science and math departments. Engineering typically doesn't fall under the purview of liberal arts (though pure science and math certainly do). The problem tends to be availability of upper-level electives if you actually care about learning certain topics and don't want to just complete the requirements. Also, your exposure to research opportunities are typically external to your own institution (there are exceptions to this). I'd say the required courses in the first two+ years are a better experience than large research universities though.

Many of them have excellent STEM programs. You don't have to be a world-renowned researcher to be an excellent educator and have excellent facilities. I have two kids that went to a PUI and then got funded by top-ranked research universities in their fields (geography and computer science) for their Masters and Ph.D. work. They've earned advanced degrees with a total debt of $28K.

This is related to the HN person yesterday asking whether going $180K in debt for MIT would be worth it?

I know somebody with really impressive engineering skills who works for Rolls-Royce and graduated from Rose Hulman. Anecdotal but if he is anything like their typical students, that school has a good engineering department.

There’s also my not alma mater (I didn’t graduate) the Olin college of Engineering

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