What's the best path to take while pursuing engineering at a liberal arts school?

Emelia,

Interesting question...well ultimately, you will get your engineering degree from the engineering college of your school. However, in your first two years, you will get your foundational math courses on the liberal arts side of the campus. That's where your basic math, physics and sciences are taught. At most schools, there is a recommended set of math courses that will be suggested for you to take as an engineering student...please take them as they will best prepare you for your latter years. You can imagine that if you take your math courses that were designed for business majors, you'd be at a disadvantage in your curriculum.

Your advisor will/should have all of these questions answered and ready for you to ask. Make sure that you ask them as YOU interview schools seeking your talents :)

Be careful about taking math and science courses for engineering at a liberal arts college. Many math courses are not advanced enough and sciences courses are not calculation based to satisfy the engineering requirements. I took several courses that didn’t transfer and wasted precious money and time. If you want to persue engineering, contact the school you want to finally get the degree from and work closely with them and get a course plan in writing. I think the best way to achieve both your passions is to concentrate on one at a time since the requirements are so different. Engineering will be the more demanding and I suggest you investigate this one first. If you find out this is not what you want to do, more classes will transfer over to your liberal arts curriculum. Good luck.