Today's college spotlight features one of the great undergraduate science and engineering colleges in the United States. While places like M.I.T. and Stanford often top the rankings of best engineering programs, some future engineers prefer a more intimate and personal educational setting. With an entirely undergraduate focus and a mere 735 students, Harvey Mudd College provides just that. The school's 9 to 1 student / faculty ratio means that students get to know their professors well, and undergraduates won't be competing with grad students to do research with the faculty.

Harvey Mudd's curriculum emphasizes the liberal arts and sciences as an essential part of an engineering degree. As a member of the Claremont Colleges, Harvey Mudd gives its students access to all of the academic offerings of the member colleges. The five undergraduate colleges in the consortium mean that a Harvey Mudd student can easily take an English class at Pomona, Sociology at Pitzer, and a language class at Scripps. Library, dining, and other resources are also shared between colleges.

Harvey Mudd College has a hefty price tag, but they do pretty well with financial aid. 85% of students receive aid, and the average institutional grant is over $20,000.

To learn more about the costs and admissions requirements of Harvey Mudd College, be sure to check out the Harvey Mudd profile and visit the official Harvey Mudd website. If you're familiar with Harvey Mudd, please share your thoughts in the Harvey Mudd College discussion thread in the College Admissions Forum.

Every week I spotlight a great college that might be off the radar of college applicants. If you'd like to recommend a school for a future spotlight, please do so here in the forum.

Last week saw a lot of attention on the SAT and ACT when NACAC, the National Association for College Admission Counseling, presented a report criticizing the over-emphasis of standardized test scores in the college admissions process. The heads of admissions from top colleges and universities including Harvard noted that the exam scores aren't the best predictors of college success, and that many institutions place too much weight on the tests when making admissions decisions.

This criticism is good news for students who aren't fans of the ACT and SAT. Despite all the media play, however, the NACAC critique won't have much impact on students applying to college this year. If a school's admissions officers have historically placed significant weight on test scores, chances are they still are.

Non-seniors, however, are likely to see the list of test-optional colleges grow in the near future. I've created a list of the most selective test-optional colleges, and FairTest.org maintains the complete list of over 775 four-year test-optional colleges here.

Sewanee, The University of the South, is certainly well known in the southern United States, but the school deserves to be on the radar of any student looking for a strong liberal arts college. Although technically a "university" because of its graduate programs in English and Theology, Sewanee has the feel of an undergraduate college. With an 11 to 1 student / faculty ratio and small classes, students at Sewanee get a lot of personal attention. The university has produced 25 Rhodes Scholars, a remarkable number for such a small school.

Owned by the Episcopal Church, the 13,000 campus stands on the Cumberland Plateau between Chattanooga and Nashville in Tennessee. Of the many attractive stone buildings on Sewanee's campus, the All Saint's Chapel is the most remarkable. Construction of this European-style cathedral began in 1894, and the last stained-glass window was not put in place until 100 years later.

English study is particularly strong at Sewanee. The university is home of The Sewanee Review, one of the country's top literary magazines, and every summer the school hosts the well-known Sewanee Writers Conference. The university also owns the copyrights to the works of playwright Tennessee Williams.

To learn about the costs and admissions requirements of Sewanee, The University of the South, be sure to check out the Sewanee profile and visit the official Sewanee website. If you're familiar with Sewanee, please share your thoughts in the Sewanee discussion thread in the College Admissions Forum.

Every week I spotlight a great college that might be off the radar of college applicants. If you'd like to recommend a school for a future spotlight, please do so here in the forum.

The news is horrifying to some students: a Kaplan survey found that 10% of admissions officers at top colleges visit social networking sites to get more information about college applicants. What colleges find online is more often bad than good: 25% of the time the web information made a positive impression, while 38% of the time the impression was negative.

Does this mean that you should run out and shut down all of your social networking sites for fear that something online might sabbotage your college applications? Of course not. But you should be aware that your online image does matter. If approached thoughtfully, Facebook and MySpace might actually help you get into college. The strategy is simple -- make sure anything an admissions officer might find online makes you look good. Be sure to check out this article on Facebook and MySpace that outlines what you should and should not do to make Facebook and MySpace work in your favor.

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