Colleges/Universities with high academic standards (engineering)

[DonnyS]

UT Dallas has a great Engineering School. The school is not small though. D3
https://engineering.utdallas.edu/

Thanks. I probably inartfully worded the question by writing "smaller." Not only looking for small schools, just less widely recognized schools. My wife and I met at a university that until I was a senior in HS had never heard about, even though it is a highly ranked academic school on the west coast. Just don't want to overlook potential opportunities.

 

[DonnyS]

You can create an account free on NCSA. That will give you the ability to search schools by division, location, major, and academic selectivity. While not perfectly accurate, that search is a good place to start. You will not find a lot of d2 and d3 high academic options on the west coast for engineering (Harvey Mudd has a general engineering degree). You will find plenty for d1. Check out Colorado School of Mines for d2.

Thanks. We have an account and will check it out. Colorado School of Mines is on the list for sure. As is Embry-Riddle. As are Cal-Poly, USD and UCSD (though some of those are not small). I think I'll try to make a list and track it for not only ourselves but anyone else who is looking.

 

[DonnyS]

Worcester polytechnic institute just made the d3 WCWS. I talked to the parents. I think most of the girls were engineering majors. They had girls from all over the country. They had a great season.

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Obviously nursing is completely different then engineering but it's frequently said if you go to nursing school you can't play softball. Maybe some of these schools would have the same openness to engineering and playing softball

List of Nursing Friendly Softball College Programs

Known Nursing Friendly Softball College Programs: Fairfield U (CT) - D1 St Francis (PA) Red Flash - D1 Liberty (VA) - D1 South Alabama (AL) - D1 Alabama (AL) - D1 Dominican College (NY) - D2 Concordia - Portland (OR) - D2 Holy Names (CA) - D2 Willliam Jewell (MO) - D2 University of Charleston...

www.discussfastpitch.com

MIT, Lehigh, Tufts, and Carnegie Mellon come to mind but are East coast schools.

You can probably add Case Western and Swarthmore to the list.

WPI, MIT and Wentworth Institute of Technology are all fairly local to me. DD has friends at WPI and Wentworth who all seem to love their schools.

Thank you! I think I will compile a list by division and location. Maybe it will help someone else too. Appreciate the feedback. Please keep it coming.

 

[DonnyS]

Best thing (IMO) is to find a few schools near to you that you think DD is capable of achieving admission to and academically suceeding. Try to be expansive, meaning pick a school that is competetive in softball within their conference. Go to softball games and see if you and DD could see herself playing there, skillwise. Granted this takes some level of projection but you must start early. In my experience most programs have recruits targeted by start of Jr year HS. Be on their list, it is hard to break thru later unless your player is exceptional for that school. Talk to players at various levels to gauge the level of commitment (off season practices, workouts, travel obligations) the coach requires and whether this will be acceptable to your DD and her academic goals.
High academic schools are labelled that way because they require hard working, smart students. Sports can be a great pursuit but many athletes must compromise some experiences to make it work. The more info you gather, the better "fit" you can find for your DD. Having one DD who is on cusp of graduation and another just finished 1st year, I cant emphasize enough the the concept of finding the right space to allow your child to flourish.
Best wishes going forward!!

Thanks for the great advice. Not a lot near to us but we've been trying to go to camps/showcases with schools that fit her ideal situation. Starting to ramp up the emails to coaches as well. We've gone on two trips already just to check out location in the US and secondarily to do some campus tours. We plan to visit as many as possible over the next two years. Agree with finding the right "space" or location for her. I know for my wife and I "we just knew" when we set foot on campus.

 

[Dabears17]

My college started a D3 softball program 7 or 8 years ago. Pretty good engineering small school.

Clarkson University Ranked Among the Nation’s Best by U.S. News & World Report and by College Factual | Clarkson University

www.clarkson.edu

 

[Rolling Hard]

Thanks. We have an account and will check it out. Colorado School of Mines is on the list for sure. As is Embry-Riddle. As are Cal-Poly, USD and UCSD (though some of those are not small). I think I'll try to make a list and track it for not only ourselves but anyone else who is looking.

Dont think cal poly has a softball team??? Very interested in list of colleges that will allow student to play ball and major in engineering. Any size is ok.

 

[Cougars]

My daughter is undecided, but looking for something STEM related. Her high school counselor mentioned this school (D3). Softball team seems to be typically +/- .500, and they are called the "Fightin' Engineers".

Softball

The official Softball page for the

athletics.rose-hulman.edu

 

[DonnyS]

Dont think cal poly has a softball team??? Very interested in list of colleges that will allow student to play ball and major in engineering. Any size is ok.

They do indeed. Big west conference. https://gopoly.com/sports/softball

Agree, I think this will be a good list to compile. I'll take the task to at least start a list.

 

[DonnyS]

My college started a D3 softball program 7 or 8 years ago. Pretty good engineering small school.

Clarkson University Ranked Among the Nation’s Best by U.S. News & World Report and by College Factual | Clarkson University

www.clarkson.edu

Awesome. I love hearing about these types of schools. Thank you.

 

[chinamigarden]

Most engineering majors require an internship of sorts. I know my dd had to do 3 semesters of engineering work. So she had to do classes every other semester and the work component on the off semesters until her internship was done. And jobs don’t care about softball so it would have been impossible to fit in a softball schedule. But as I have pointed out before Club softball is a good fit