<p>i am a chinese student who is planning to study in usa in 2011. during the time i studied in china, i knew that i was interested in math and physics. i am pretty good at both sujects. idecided to major in engineering.
i applied to 9 schools:
1. haverford college
2. washington university in st louis
3. university of michican
4. unuiversity of purdue
5. university of washington, seatle
6. university of wisconsin--madison
7. university of illinois--champion
8. case western reserve university
9. university of miami, ohio</p>
<p>i know that it might be weird to apply to haverford as a student interested in engineering. however, i've heard that i can take engineering courses in swarthmore or university of pen, if i am admitted to haverford. it seemed that i was so lucky(even though i do not know if that is true), but lately i was informed that i will get a general engineering degree if i graduate from swarthmore...</p>
<p>i am really confusing, which one should i choose?..
please help me.</p>
<p>Swarthmore has a top undergraduate engineering program, which leads to a B.S. in engineering (the other stand-out LAC engineering program is at Harvey Mudd). Haverford is a great school (in my opinion at the top of your submitted list), and has great sciences, but not an engineering degree. Swarthmore is considerably harder to get into than Haverford, but both are top schools.</p>
<p>If you go to Haverford you may be able to take the occasional course at Swarthmore or Penn, but I certainly wouldn’t anticipate that you could complete the engineering curriculum at either, and even if you could you wouldn’t have a degree in engineering. I concur that its probably the top school on your list, but not if you’re certain about engineering.</p>
<p>Haverford students who want to go into engineering usually major in a science and then get a Master’s degree in engineering. Haverford itself is very much a liberal arts college and emphasizes breadth of knowledge across disciplines. If you would rather focus on engineering, you might be better off at an engineering school.</p>
<p>“3/2 Engineering Program with Caltech
We also have a 3/2 Engineering Program option with Caltech. In this program, students have the option of taking courses at Haverford for three years, then following up with two years of engineering study at the partner institution, Caltech. Admission into the program is required. Please contact Walter Smith for more details. If you wish to elect this program, very early course planning is essential.”</p>
<p>“Admission to the 3/2 Program is not guaranteed and is determined by the Caltech Upperclass Admissions Committee. Students applying should have a record of superior academic achievement at their home institutions, and strong letters of recommendation from their 3/2 liaison and from a mathematics, science, or engineering faculty member. They must have completed, at their home college, a minimum of one year of physics, one year of mathematics (including multivariable calculus and differential equations), and one year of chemistry. Two years of mathematics and physics are recommended, however.”</p>
<p>Either way, good luck and if you decide on Haverford, then see you there!</p>
<p>thanks alanhf, b@r!um, gadad, and Dad2 for your advice. haverford is my ideal school, and i am intersted in the 3+2 program.
again, thanks a lot!</p>
<p>Only enroll at Haverford if you would be happy to attend without completing the 3/2 program. Caltech may reject your application; the prerequisites at Haverford might turn out infeasible to complete in three years; and it might not be the best option financially (you’d have to pay an additional year of private college tuition). </p>
<p>As far as I know, we may not take engineering classes at Penn. The regular cross-registration agreement only covers classes in the College of Arts and Sciences, not the College of Engineering. If you got your information from anyone other than the registrar or a dean, I suggest that you double-check with an official authority before you make a college decision based on this information.</p>
<p>Many graduate programs in engineering are willing to admit non-engineers in a remedial status. Then you might spend your first year catching up on undergraduate engineering courses before you start the graduate curriculum. The bad news is that Master’s programs in engineering are not always funded. Your odds for funding are much better if you apply to PhD programs. A senior physics major friend of mine is pursuing this route right now. </p>
<p>Taking engineering classes at Swarthmore is not very practical. Here’s an example. Suppose you wanted to take Mechanics, the first course in the engineering sequence. It meets MWF 8:30-9:30 with a lab on M or W from 1:15-2:30. You would take the 7:10 van to Swarthmore and come back to Haverford at 4:35. (You’d probably spend the 4-hour block between class and lab at Swarthmore because you would only have 1 hour at Haverford if you chose to come back in between.) That basically means that you would not be able to take a single class at Haverford on MWF. </p>
<p>Trying to fit three classes into TTh is tricky enough as it is. The real problem is that most of the lower-level math and science classes at Haverford are scheduled on MWFs (when engineering meets at Swarthmore), while they are scheduled on TTh at Swarthmore (so you cannot take them in the 4-hour break between your engineering classes). That means that you would not be able to start the engineering sequence until your 3rd year in college, and you will be facing similar scheduling conflicts throughout your college career. Most students don’t take classes at Swarthmore at all because they are extremely inconvenient scheduling-wise.</p>
<p>Haverford is a great liberal arts college. If you want a broad liberal arts education and maybe go into engineering later, there are ways to make that happen. But if you want to study engineering at the undergraduate level, I promise you that you will be miserable at Haverford.</p>
<p>I hate to be a Debbie Downer but it had to be said.</p>
<p>Hi, I’m a bryn mawr student and I just wanted to say that my one of my quad mates (also from china!) is taking an engineering class at Penn. Its not exactly convenient because she spends most of tuesday and thursday in philly/on the train, and she isn’t eligible for a degree there by any means, but she is enjoying the class overall.</p>
<p>Do you happen to know if the Bryn Mawr physics department is paying for the course? I talked to my dean about the possibility of taking engineering at Penn at some point, and she sent me to a physics professors. I got the impression that the regular cross-registration program does not cover engineering classes, but that the Bryn Mawr physics department is willing to make arrangements for some students.</p>
<p>Yeah, if engineering is your main goal for college, go to a school with an engineering program. I do know though 2 people in my class who were physics majors and then went on to MIT for a masters in mechanical engineering right after HC (brilliant guy and also captain of the basketball team) and another who went to GA Tech for engineering after a stint in the Peace Corps. So I know it’s possible to do this with a physics degree and not do the strange 3/2 caltech program.</p>
<p>So the conclusion is this: You don’t need to be an engineering major to become an engineer although it will be easier for you. If there’s something that really resonates with you about HC, then go for it. If you are applying to HC because it happens to be an outstanding college and particularly noteworthy in the sciences but nothing else about it grabs you, then you’d be better served by going to Michigan or any one of your other schools with an engineering program.</p>