<p>Wow - wonderful information here! Daughter is trying to narrow down her schools. She's looking for a good mechanical engineering school with a great choir and the ability to continue her study in classical guitar. These qualifiers are really narrowing down her selections. So far, only University of Delaware and Princeton meet the criteria and we're not so sure about Princeton's choir program. Parent criteria, of course, is more about finances. Dad is staff (not faculty) at PSU and the budget has been planned around attending there with the 75% tuition discount. Naturally, D wants to look elsewhere. She really wants to visit Swarthmore and Bucknell and from what I've read and heard, she'd be a good fit for either. I think she has the stats, but it will really come down to $$$. If classical guitar instruction is available, I'd be a bit more encouraged. Thanks for any input.</p>
<p>musicmom3 this is a larger school than the ones you've mentioned, but MIT surprisingly, has an excellent music program. And, obviously, excellent engineering.</p>
<p>That is surprising. She's been inundated with mail from them, but just assumed that the "T" in MIT meant music was low priority. In fact, her preference has been an LAC with engineering in case she changes her mind.</p>
<p>The best thing for your daughter to do is e-mail a couple of appropriate professors in the Engineering and Music departments, schedule meetings with them, and drive over for a day or an overnight visit:</p>
<p>In the Music Department, I would recommend Thomas Whitman, who is the current chairman of the department or John Allston, who is the "choir guy". I'm pretty sure that classical guitar instruction would be with a private instructor arranged by the college. Depending on the situation, the college could pay for as much as 100% of the private lessons.</p>
<p>For the Engineering Department, Eric Cheever is the chair of the department. Lynne Molter is a female professor in the department, who might give your daughter a relevant perspective. Both were Swarthmore engineering undergrads. Cheever got his PhD from UPenn; Molter from MIT.</p>
<p>You can look up their e-mail addresses from the directory search at the Swat website.</p>
<p>The Swarthmore Engineering program is not a typical engineering school program. It is ABET accredited, of course. But, you get a B.S. degree with a major in General Engineering and take a wider array of courses outside of engineering than you would in a typical engineering school. There is a degree of specialization (in Mech or Elec or whatever), but you do not actually get a specialized degree in Mech Engineering.</p>
<p>Good prep for engineering grad school, entrepreneurial positions in tech related fields, etc. Not as vocationally oriented as typical engineering schools where you graduate as a Mech Engineer and immediate take a career position in a cubicle with an engineering company.</p>
<p>Meeting with one of the Engineering Profs would be the best way to evaluate whether this program is right for your daughter.</p>
<p>Thanks, interesteddad. She's talked in the past of doing graduate work in accoustical engineering, combining her love of both math and music in some way. She did meet with the director of choirs and an engineering prof at UDel and you are correct that personal meetings can really help in getting a feel for the programs/school. That's what has convinced her to focus (today at least) on engineering primarily. I will encourage her to email these professors and try to work out a date for a visit.</p>
<p>It is surprising about MIT, but true. John Harbison, one of today's most significant composers is head of the music dept. His music was performed at Tanglewood this summer. There are many talented music students who attend the school also. Obviously it's rather a different school than Swat, but worth looking into.</p>