Making in College

There's an article on the Make: Blog asking about schools for making stuff. I'd like to respond to this: first of all, if you're into making things, you need to pick what kind of things to determine your major. Personally, if you're into making electronic or mechanical things, I'd recommend either going with Electrical Engineering, or Mechanical Engineering, respectively. However, if you're like me and like making anything, it's electronic or mechanical nature notwithstanding, go instead for a Physics major.
I went to two universities during my undergraduate career: the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and Ramapo College of New Jersey. The former was a great place to make things, as they are a large engineering school. However, it is located in Newark, NJ, which is a bit of a crime-ridden pit, especially in the University Heights section where NJIT is located. My major there was Applied Physics. While there, I was mentored by a brilliant professor by the name of Dr. Gordon Thomas. On my first day in his lab, he showed me to the main room of the lab suite and said, "This is your playground. The most important thing is that you have fun, and create something new."
Due to external pressures, I eventually had to leave Dr. Thomas's lab, and moved to Ramapo College. Here I enrolled in the Physics program, which has since changed to Engineering Physics. I also made the acquaintance there of two similarly brilliant professors, Drs. Anderson and Halpern. Dr. Halpern is the reason that the Physics department at Ramapo got started the way that it did, and the reason that the students always have someone to talk to about various issues. He is a professor emeritus ("retired"), and as he says, is "unable to cut his ties with the students." Since he lives locally, that comes in the form of still showing up on campus most days, hanging out in the "Physics Lounge" in G116, and mentoring students.
However, the reason to attend Ramapo College as a maker and as an Engineering Physics student, despite its small size and Liberal Arts emphasis as a college, is Dr. Phil Anderson. Dr. Anderson (not the Nobel Laureate) is the inventor of the magnetic security tag that you see used in retail stores. He is also on the board of directors of a few companies, a licensed pilot who has also flown fighter jets for the Air Force, and an EE, technically; he's full of fun and inspiring stories of vaporizing small fruit with 55-gallon drum sized capacitors, and other fun things like that. In my opinion, however, his biggest contribution outside of his interactions with students is his work in crafting the college's intellectual property policy: thanks to Dr. Anderson, if you invent something at Ramapo, you own it in its entirety. This is very, very rare in a college/university environment, and I have several friends who have used Ramapo's facilities to create things that they later patented. Dr. Anderson also teaches an "Invention for Scientists and Engineers" course that focuses on IP policy and law, prototyping, and other issues involved in making making your profession.
More information on life as a student at Ramapo can be found on my old blog, "Tales from the Lab", and for general advice to Physics students, check out "The Informed Physics Student".

Later I might tell you why not to go to Penn State, where I'm now working, but just take my word on it for now.