Union College in Schenectady, New York is another gem that was well worth visiting! It's a wonderful liberal arts college with a very strong engineering program. In fact, Union College was the first liberal arts institution in the US to offer a degree in engineering. The program is ABET accredited and what I really love is that it's not direct-entry. Students have a year to explore the field of engineering before declaring a major. Union offers majors in computer, mechanical, electrical and biomedical engineering. They're adding civil engineering and they are upgrading their environmental engineering minor to a major. Two years ago, two married graduates of Union College class of 1980 donated $51 million to create the Templeton Institute for Engineering and Computer Science. The plan is to use the funds to recruit and retain women pursuing degrees in engineering and computer science through scholarships - love that! - as well as support and enhance the curriculum, faculty and facilities. That said, only 10 to 15% of students at Union major in engineering. There are lots of other wonderful programs. Union is on a trimester system so students are not in residence between Thanksgiving and January 1. This gives them an opportunity to pursue internships while other students are in school. During each trimester, students only take three courses, which gives them the opportunity to really dig in. We were told that there is a new core curriculum which will speak more to a student's interests and allow them to develop core courses around a common thread. I have to say that I was very impressed with Union. The campus is beautiful and extremely well maintained. Union offers merit scholarships of up to $25,000 and about 30% of students receive those scholarships. While they are need-aware, they do meet a 100% of demonstrated need, which is wonderful.