<p>Graduated in May 2009 with a dual degree in Engineering and Linguistics. I am an international, set foot on campus for the first time on the first day of orientation (in the Fall). I was chiefly involved in the Swarthmore Fire Company, IEEE and the Lang Center. The professors I've known the most are (in order of familiarity)</p>
<p>K. David Harrison, Ted Fernald
Erik Cheever, Lynn Molter, Faruq Siddiqui and the rest of the Engineering dept
Aimee Johnson from the Math dept
Catherine Crouch from the Chem dept</p>
<p>I am biased in the sense that I love the school, but I will try to be impartial when it comes to feedback and questions. Ask away, any and all!</p>
<p>riverguardian-what was your involvement with the Swarthmore Fire Company? I know it’s a volunteer department, but were you a volunteer firefighter? EMT? Can you tell me a bit about your experience? Thanks.</p>
<p>I know that on the website they make a big deal about how the Swarthmore Engineering program is different from others’ - how would you say that your approach to engineering is different compared to others, since you’re in the job market now, I’m assuming? </p>
<p>What kind of opportunities did you have with the Lang Center that involved Engineering, if any? </p>
<p>momof3sons - I was both a firefighter and an EMT, firefighter at the national level, EMT at the Pennsylvania state level. Combined that was nearly 500 hours of training, but it was very doable even with the Swarthmore workload (I took 5 credits while doing the training). I completed Firefighter I in the fall of freshman year, Firefighter II spring of freshman year, and EMT-B at Delaware County Community College during the spring of sophomore year.</p>
<p>butterfli - The Engineering department at Swarthmore allows for a surprising amount of depth despite the lack of specificity you may get at other more specialized schools. The breadth factor has you taking a myriad of Engineering courses up to your sophomore year, when you begin dabbling with courses you want to take depending on your interests. It also means you get a good grasp of what you like and what you’re good at. My class had a range of people interested in environmental engineering (I think one of the largest), civil (almost if not equally as many), electrical, mechanical, chemical in that order. What really got me interested in Swarthmore’s Engineering was being told at a college fair in Paris from a teacher that now teaches at Stanford that Swarthmore’s Engineering department was really and truly spectacular. It’s a small department so it has its drawbacks there (we’ve been trying to get a robotics professor into the department, but it’s hard), but overall I can’t complain a bit.</p>
<p>I think what it affords you is a deep appreciation for Engineering not only as a difficult discipline that provides all sorts of practical knowledge but that it also gives you a way of thinking and a way of solving problems that is very practical even beyond Swarthmore.</p>
<p>For the Lang Center I was mainly doing stuff related to my interest and passion in web design - doing techy stuff and teaching a course on web design for a semester, which was a lot of fun.</p>
<p>Pros:
There’s a fantastic faculty who are all really nice and really fun to work with and learn from. From my standpoint I benefited from being interested in endangered and dying languages, as I had the opportunity of working with Dr. K. David Harrison and also Keren Rice, who was invited to teach a semester from Toronto. I took a Syntax class with then-new professor Vera Lee-Schoenfeld and I was so impressed I decided to continue taking another of her classes the following semester in Semantics. I’ve helped Prof. Harrison do fascinating research on Siletz and Tuvan, and I also started a website project with other students in Keren Rice’s class ([Endangered</a> Languages - Information and resources on dying languages of the world](<a href=“http://endangered-languages.com/]Endangered”>http://endangered-languages.com/)).</p>
<p>Cons:
I think it’s unfortunate that there’s a general (mistaken) perception that Linguistics is an easy department because the people there are so nice to work with. By easy I mean relatively easy to pursue a major (as though you may opt for a linguistics major if all else fails). It’s really what you make of it, as with any department on campus, I guess, and I think the Linguistics department decides to put the burden of responsibility on the student.</p>
<p>Thanks for answering questions, Riverguardian.</p>
<p>On the engineering department, I guess it’s a rather obvious point, but probably needs to be highlighted: The mere thought of a double-major in Engineering and Linguistics is inconceivable at most engineering programs. Not rare. Inconceivable.</p>
<p>The very fact that many students can, and do, double major in Engineering and fields like Linquistics, Music, Economics, or History is in and, of itself, one of the most unique aspects of an engineering program in the context of a liberal arts college.</p>
<p>Graduates of a standard specialized engineering program take courses and study things that Swarthmore engineers don’t, but the converse is true, as well – like being to write, for example!</p>
<p>interesteddad - it’s perhaps even rarer to be provided with both an MS and a MA given that the Engineering department at Swarthmore is ABET accredited. I really cherish that interdisciplinary approach that Swarthmore students are able to enjoy - I have peers who also crafted special majors in Environmental Engineering, for example, including aspects of a biology education.</p>
<p>Keilexandra - Sometimes I have thought it would be nice to have a larger department, but I like the way it is because it gives opportunities for students to really be supportive. In the context of Senior Design projects, for example, rather than being overly competitive and snide, I felt that my peers were really interested in what I was doing (as I was interested in their projects). This in turn gave me more ideas and motivation to do better. I did end up taking a class at UPenn (Computational Linguistics) but I felt it was easier than Swarthmore (though I can’t really make a fair comparison as I didn’t take it at Swarthmore - I took NLP at Swarthmore and had a lot of fun, though I fared slightly worse).</p>
<p>I’m actually also interested in Engineering. Though i’m sure you will be a bit biased towards Swarthmore, which I don’t mind and in fact I would love to hear why Swat engineering is good do you think I should chose it over Carnegie Mellon engineering? Also, did you take classes at Penn?(This that common and was it good?)
ps. Since you graduated in '09 What are yu doing now? My mom wants to know whether its possible to get a job after 4 years at Swat or does everyone go to grad school, which seems like that’s what Swat prepares for.</p>
<p>I am currently working as a software engineer with a fantastic (I mean truly fantastic) salary. I think half of my classmates are working, the other half are at grad school. I’ll quote a response I made about Swat engineering vs UPenn engineering:</p>
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<p>"The one reason I’d go ahead and suggest Swarthmore over Penn is if you may ever consider actually doing math with a minor in economics you’ll have a much better opportunity at Swat. The marvelous thing is that Swarthmore is one of the few liberal arts schools that does Engineering well and provides a BS in the field, ABET accredited and all. A good friend and Engineering classmate of mine is at Morgan Stanley now, and enjoying it a lot. Another graduated the year before mine and also worked in Wall Street. There’s a certain benefit to having a BA and a BS, in my opinion, but you have to make an effort there too.</p>
<p>If you find some courses at Penn that aren’t offered at Swarthmore you can also end up taking them there, including some odd Engineering class. I ended up taking a class in computational linguistics there and the class was mildly easier compared to Swat.</p>
<p>The thing is, if midway through Penn you realize Engineering isn’t quite what you wanted to do, you would probably find fewer options to pursue at an in-depth level than you would at Swarthmore. If Engineering <em>is</em> what you want to do, or you know that there are certain things you <em>really</em> want to do, UPenn is likely a better bet. There were plenty of recruiting events (though not specifically targeted at Swarthmore) but I wouldn’t go into a school just for the recruitment. </p>
<h2>Did you visit both? UPenn and Swarthmore have radically different environments too, which is a surprisingly big factor for me."</h2>
<p>Granted, CMU is a fantastic school, though that’s based on hearsay. Do you know what you want to major in or what sorts of stuff you want to do after graduating?</p>
<p>First of all I JUST got back from visiting Swat… Beautiful i’ll give it that
Well “if” I go to CMU I would double in Electrical and Biomedical (at CMU in order to get Biomedical, which is my main interest, you HAVE TO double with another field) I would be fulfilling preDental requirements with Biomed and focus in robotics with the electrical (a lot I know, but when I talked to them they said a lot of what I want overlaps with other things so its possible) I know Swat I heard is great for pre-anything including dental. But I might just end up going into Engineering so for definite after grad Im not sure…
My main concern is two-fold: A) how does swat engineering compare to CMU and a more general Q B) Are there opportunities for students to do some research and interships or not really since it is only for undergrads.</p>
<p>Two Swat engineering majors built a hydrogen fuel cell powered motorcycle last year for their senior design project. Does that count as research?</p>
<p>Hey thanks for this great info. Im an international student as well and I just got accepted. However I come from a very urban city so I was wondering how big the cultural shock was for you in your freshman year?</p>
<p>It wouldn’t be shocking to someone who’s used to cities–there’s a train station right on campus that can have you in Philadelphia in less then 20 minutes. It’s not an isolated environment. If you want to have Chinese food at midnight in the city, you can go in and come back by 2:00 a.m.</p>
<p>The wonderful thing is that Swarthmore has the perfect combination of rural and urban setting. I’ve biked into Philly before (with a bleeding/bandaged hand, crashed shortly before heading to Critical Mass but managed to get in nonetheless) and the train is very convenient. Then again, when you’re on campus you have a hundred and one reasons not to leave (people, classes, WORK, extracurriculars, arboretum, sleep). I am an international as well, and first set foot on campus on the day before orientation, and it’s been a fantastic experience ever since.</p>
<p>As for ibnemesis:</p>
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<p>But if you don’t mind taking beautiful path down a wonderful, undiscovered road where you’ll have plenty of opportunities to find out who you are, and meet some great people along the way, then I’d say go for Swarthmore. Its Engineering department is small but I’m very proud of it, particularly because of the camaraderie it generated, and because the teachers are so willing to go out of their way to help you achieve what you want. So the bottom line is that it’s not about what Swarthmore can do for you, it’s what you can do <em>with</em> Swarthmore.</p>
<p>Beyond the access to Philadelphia, New York City is two hours away (cheap, as little as $12 each way). Washington DC is a couple hours away. Again, cheap options. Philadelphia Airport, 20 minutes from campus, is served by most of the discount airlines including Southwest. So you can get to Boston or Atlanta or Miami for $150 roundtrip. </p>
<p>This was great for my daughter who loved a weekend in New York or a visit to friends at Georgia Tech in Atlanta or spring break in Miami. I would think this whole transportation issue (and ability to visit other places easily and cheaply) would be a huge plus for internationals. I mean, you probably have friends from home in school somewhere in New York City. Perfect weekend. Especially considering that going home for Thanksgiving weekend is probably not an option and where having a car in college would be a nightmare in terms of licensing and insurance and so forth. There are many US colleges where you are just stuck without a car.</p>
<p>Actually this is not true. Septa runs once every hour and takes about 40 minutes to get into Philly. It also stops running about 12:30 during the week and 11:30 on the weekends. Its not really the best mode of transportation if you want to spend the night out in Philly. If you have lived in a city with good public transportation, this will be quite a let down. It really was inconvenient for my friends and I.</p>
<p>Worst case is every hour. Parts of the day is more frequent. It takes 24 minutes to 30th Street Station, 34 minutes to Market Street Station. Try getting from Amherst to a city in 34 minutes. I can’t think of another elite liberal arts college that matches Swarthmore’s access. Wellesley is close, but the train station is a mile or two from campus. Vassar to NYC is a lot longer trip and you’ve got to get to the train station. Davidson is fairly close to Charlotte, if you have a car.</p>
<p>Check the bus schedule from Williams to NYC or Boston for a fun. It basically takes all day.</p>
<p>If you are not a train person, Swarthmore runs Philly vans.</p>