Haverford doesn’t offer engineering on its campus, and I read that the Tri-College Consortium allows students to take classes or even major at the other college. So is it doable to major in engineering at Sawrthmore as a Haverford student? And is is true that the courses you take at the other college won’t contribute to your GPA?
Haverford students can take classes at Bryn Mawr, Swarthmore, or the University of Pennsylvania College of Arts and Sciences. The grades from those other schools are included as part of a Haverford transcript and GPA calculation.
https://www.haverford.edu/sites/default/files/Office/Registrar/transcript_key.pdf
Haverford students can declare a major at Bryn Mawr, but not at Swarthmore or Penn. Note that Bryn Mawr is relatively close to Haverford (within walking distance) while the other schools are more like 30-45 minutes away by car or train.
I believe Lafayette made you an offer this year. That school would be a good choice should you want on-campus engineering.
Lafayette wasn’t helpful with financial aid at all and they refused to make any adjustment and even though I asked for about two thousand dollars increase and provided supporting documents. So I enrolled at Hamilton which was my top choice but just to be safe i want to go to a college that offers engineering. But I’m currently more interested in physics and computer science.
Hamilton will be superb for your current interests.
@AbdelHady major in physics or CS or mathematics at Haverford College. Get positions in engineering over the summers, to see if you like it. Most engineering firms love physics majors. CS can lead to all sorts of engineering positions too. You can take a masters in EE, ME or materials science if you want to be an engineer as well.
@Coloradomama yeah but doing masters in engineering will require me to take some undergrad courses first at my own cost, which won’t work out for me as an international student on aid. I also believe engineering firms don’t usually hire internationals.
Are you enrolling in Hamilton College? It does not seem to have engineering either, but offers 3-2 with RPI and Columbia U. Haverford would have given you access to Swarthmore’s engineering classes, I don’t now if you have any options at Hamilton but you can study computer science. Thats an easy way into engineering jobs today. You may easily get work if you learn say design software tools on your own, like Solid Works. You can learn to program on your own too, with many on line tools.
You can qualify for a masters in materials engineering degree with a bachelors in physics degree, without any extra classes. But it would be helpful to take thermodynamics, a chemistry class, that might be available at Hamilton, Haverford or Bryn Mawr, and some mechanical, chemical or electrical engineering at Swarthmore College. Penn does limit cross registration to Arts and Sciences for Haverford students, but Swarthmore you could take three key engineering classes and do fine. Getting a masters in Mechanical or materials or even electrical may be possible. I think many companies do hire foreign nationals in the USA. Google has come out batting for that. Only federal government jobs will be closed to you, for the summers, as they require naturalized citizenship. You can also try to get summer work in your home country too.
There are plenty of TAs available at U of Colorado for engineering masters programs for instance, and its got a medium rank. They would take a strong physics or CS student from Hamilton or Haverford College. You could also make up some engineering classes in the summer, potentially at any US public college, but that would cost money.
You might be surprised at how flexible and easy masters in engineering programs are to get admitted to, in the USA. They are often short of applicants in fact, at the second tier schools for engineering. Lots of physicists go directly into engineering positions in industry, as well, such as optics, semiconductors, or numerical simulation companies. A few bachelors in physics grads become techs at research labs like IBM Watson in NY State . You do not need an engineering degree to become an engineer today., though if you have coding skills. Physics degrees often including coding, so be sure to take that. Larger engineering firms offer on the job training. Most big firms like IBM, GE, Google and Apple hire plenty of physics majors. It does not matter that much. Whatever you learn in engineering college may become obsolete, whereas physics is the same. Some theoretical concepts of engineering have not changed though. You can learn it.
Also there are numerous Japanese, Chinese and European companies set up in the USA today. Depending on your home country , look into those options. Both Americans and foreign nationals work in the USA for foreign companies.
UAI owns Global Foundaries in Vermont and New York State. The world of high tech has internationalized. if you speak a second language beyond English, that may be helpful.
You can also look at becoming a physics teacher, with a physics degree.
correction, note above that should say United Arab Emerites, UAE, not UAI. UAE bought IBM’s cleanrooms in Vermont, semiconductor chip manufacturing, and also invested in the USA in New York State, near Albany and Sematech. This is just as an example. This does not mean they will automatically hire foreign nationals from UAE, or anywhere else, but its just good to know that there are many foreign firms located in the USA.
US firms have a variety of restrictions about citizenship. Anything related to defense is not usually open to foreign nationals, but many other jobs are filled by foreign nationals every day of the week.
Yes I enrolled at Hamilton, and I didn’t get into Haverford yet as I’m still on their wait list. I’m currently interested in physics and computer science, but I’m just afraid that i may change my mind in the future and consider engineering. Actually I’m planning to go to grad school and then apply for work at colleges and universities because i hear that this way i won’t have to go through the lottery thing as with other jobs like working at tech companies for example and I also want to do research as a career so here it goes.
@Coloradomama and i got in touch with Swarthmore and they confirmed that Haverford students cannot major at Swarthmore and that only their students are allowed to major in engineering.
@AbdelHady You do not need to major in engineering, you can major in physics. I did not suggest majoring in engineering, I suggested majoring in physics if you read my post. MIT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering admits physics majors to their masters and PhD programs all the time. Its a route to becoming an engineer. Or major in CS.is an equally strong route. You do not need an engineering major, because most engineering jobs today are quantitative and engineers get trained on the job. Thousands of physics majors are engineers in today’s world, as the quantitative skills are the same.
Haverford has 4+1 engineering program with Penn. After 5 years you will have a Bachelors from Haverford and a Masters in engineering from Penn. But it will be difficult to gain acceptance and it will be very expensive.
Focus on Hamilton. Focus on physics.
deleted
You could also get a PhD in physics by the way, if you want to do research work. You have lots of options for graduate school if you study physics or CS. By the way, federal physics labs like NIST and I think JPL, have a method to hire international students, on contracts, and eventually if they want to stay they might apply for citizenship. Universities in the US do not care if you are a citizen, for PhD programs and post docs.
One thing thats not available to you is REUs in physics as thats an NSF funded program, summer program limited to citizens.
But there will be other summer options at Hamilton and other places to do research work.