STEM, an acronym for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, encompasses some of the most successful and fulfilling careers in the working industry.
Not only that, but a STEM education in one field, such as engineering, can provide a student with the skills to succeed in many other fields, like finance or business. This is because having a diploma in a STEM field shows employers that you are intelligent enough to study such a difficult subject, and thus will be a valuable asset to their team.
A STEM education isn’t just a way to get money, but can be mentally stimulating and emotionally fulfilling. If you’ve always had a thirst for knowledge, a talent for problem solving, and a willingness to face challenges head-on, your time studying STEM at college will be extremely rewarding.
So, what are the best colleges for STEM majors?
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, right next to Boston. MIT is an extremely selective university with an acceptance rate of 4%, and it has an undergraduate population of over 4,000 students. MIT has some of the best STEM programs in the entire world.
MIT has contributed to groundbreaking research in many fields, including (but not limited to) GPS technology, the development of Boeing, and space research—which ultimately led to man landing on the moon. There is a focus on both theoretical and practical science. The programs MIT is known best for are computer science and engineering.
Although you need a very high GPA and SAT for MIT to consider your application, MIT cares most about specific projects you have completed, or skills you have spent a long time honing. What is valued most at MIT is having a specific discipline. That’s why, despite being such a technically-focused school, students are incredibly creative. Each student has something special to bring, let that be expertise in game development, chemical engineering, or robotics. MIT wants to see passion and creativity as well as technical brilliance.
California Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology, also known as Caltech, is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, located outside of Los Angeles. Caltech is an extremely selective school with an acceptance rate of 3%. Caltech is a very small school, with an undergraduate population of just under 1,000 undergraduate students. Graduates make up about half the student population.
Caltech and MIT have many similarities, although Caltech has slightly more competitive admissions. Caltech has a strong emphasis on hands-on research. As an institute of technology, it is concerned with the application of STEM as opposed to just learning the theory. Students spend time not just within classrooms, but in one of the many research facilities on the Caltech campus. One of these, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is co-owned by NASA.
Caltech’s strongest subjects are the “pure sciences”---physics, mathematics, astronomy, and geology.
Stanford University
Stanford University is located in Stanford, California, 40 minutes south of San Francisco. Stanford is an extremely selective university with an acceptance rate of 4%, and it has an undergraduate population of just over 8,000 students. Stanford is one of the most highly ranked universities in the country, and is well regarded for its world class STEM programs.
Stanford is most well known for its computer science major, along with engineering, biology, and psychology.
Stanford has a unique interdisciplinary biology program called Bio-X. Bio-X describes a collaboration between life scientists, medical students, engineers, and computer scientists to work towards breakthroughs in the function of the human body. An example of a Bio-X innovation is prosthetics that can be moved by the brain.
Other innovations by Stanford include digital music, Google, and recombinant DNA.
Harvey Mudd College
Harvey Mudd College is a small liberal arts college located in Claremont, California, a half hour drive from Los Angeles. It is a very selective university with an acceptance rate of 13%, and it has an undergraduate student body of just over 900 students. Most small liberal arts colleges are known for their social sciences, but Harvey Mudd is known best for its prestigious science and engineering programs.
Harvey Mudd is a small college, but it belongs to a group of schools known as the Claremont Colleges, or the five C’s. This group includes Pomona College, Claremont McKenna College, Scripps College, and Pitzer College. Despite Harvey Mudd being primarily a STEM-based institution, students seeking an interdisciplinary education have the opportunity to take classes at these other colleges, which often prioritize social sciences or humanities. Scripps, for example, has one of the best creative writing programs in the country. Pitzer has a particular focus on the social sciences.
Harvey Mudd is a great choice for STEM majors who want the benefits of a small, STEM-focused campus, while simultaneously having access to a wider community of students with many diverse majors and interests.
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California at Berkeley is located in Berkeley, California, just across the bay from San Francisco. UC Berkeley is a highly selective research university with an acceptance rate of 11% and an undergraduate population of over 30,000 students. UC Berkeley is renowned worldwide for its computer science program, often considered the best of its kind in the country. It is also very well regarded for its electrical engineering program.
Berkeley, as a very large school, has access to a variety of opportunities for STEM students. Berkeley has great research options, a myriad of brilliant faculty, and is the home of many great scientific discoveries. Berkeley is considered one of the birthplaces of nuclear power, and several elements of the periodic table were discovered at Berkeley.
UC Berkeley is located in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley. This means that STEM students often attain internships at large, well-known tech companies such as Google, Apple, and Amazon. After graduation, UC Berkeley alumni often go on to work at those companies.
Texas A&M University
Texas A&M University is located in College Station, Texas, equidistant from Houston and Austin. A&M is a somewhat selective, public research university with a 63% acceptance rate, and it has an undergraduate population of almost 60,000 students. A&M additionally has 11 universities within its educational network, and even one in the country of Qatar!
A&M is praised for its strong engineering program, and it boasts some of the most comprehensive agricultural studies in the country. A&M also has an amazing veterinary program.
Students at Texas A&M have a large amount of school pride, and alumni networks are extremely strong—students and graduates will go out of their way to help other “aggies” (what A&M students are called). A degree from A&M can help ensure a job after graduation due to this robust network of aggies.
A&M provides STEM students with fantastic research opportunities. A&M’s research includes land, sea, and space grants, and almost a billion dollars are spent on research yearly. A&M has also contributed to scientific breakthroughs. For example, A&M performed the first ever cloning of a cat in 2001 and has gone on to clone a variety of other animals. At A&M’s Galveston campus, which sits directly on the Gulf of Mexico, “Sea Aggies” have made leaps and bounds in marine and meteorological research.
University of Illinois at Urbana, Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is a slightly selective public research university, located in central Illinois. It has an acceptance rate of 45% and a population of over 35,000 undergraduates.
UIUC has very well-respected engineering programs, and has a wide variety of them as well. The best of these are its aerospace engineering and agricultural engineering programs. UIUC also offers exceptional bioengineering, chemical engineering, and civil engineering majors. Computer science and computer engineering are also highly ranked. Finally, its psychology program is among the best in the nation.
UIUC boasts exceptional research facilities, and 40% of undergraduates are involved with some kind of research—including both STEM and non-STEM majors. UIUC contains 175 research laboratories, led by expert professors to make progress on some of the world’s toughest questions.
In addition, UIUC has an on-campus technology hub known as Research Park. Research Park offers students great opportunities to access resources and find careers in your field. There are over a hundred companies and start-ups on Research Park looking to recruit students for careers and internships. Some of these companies are Fortune 500 corporations.
A STEM education is invaluable in the modern world. In order to decide which college is right for you, think about what your particular interests are, if you want to go into research or another field, and if you would rather study theoretical or applied science. For every path, there is a college for you.
But remember that no decision you make is set in stone. In college, you will always be learning new things and having new experiences, and these may lead you to reconsider your major or idea for your future. Don’t be scared of these changes—welcome them. Your whole life is ahead of you, and only you can decide where you will go.
