KQI

What's the big difference between studying engineering, say Mechanical or Electric, in the engineering school versus studying something like Physics or Biophysics in the college?

ilovebagels

Your curriculum requirements and your email address.

mattwonder

Bagels has given you the literal difference. Obviously your classes will be different. Most people can't really describe the difference between science and engineering, and I don't know any HS students who really understand it.

Engineering (as opposed to the pure science areas it may touch upon) is very application focused. In electrical engineering, you'll spend a little time learning the physics of circuits/transistors/etc, and then you'll get straight into applying them, and the related work and specialties that accompany that work. Engineering is really more about design and creativity than about science; you'll also learn lots of math, but it will relate more to analyzing the work you're doing.

Physics in arts and sciences is about theory, and about theoretical math. Obviously, there's a lot of overlap between theoretical physics and the latest work in electrical engineering because you need to know a lot of the physics to do the latest stuff, but engineering is always about how you'll apply the work to something. This is one of the reasons that an engineering curriculum is often considered harder than a corresponding science curriculum: you have to learn the basics, and then think at a level higher than that to design with them.

I think this little essay captures the essence pretty well: Engineering and Science

However, rest assured that it's not an easy decision to choose between the two. Most of us engineers love science and weren't sure which route to take. At the end of 4 years, many people don't know. Take some time to think it over, and ask some older folks why they chose one over the other (your HS science teachers may have some good stories there, as they likely knew engineers, or studied engineering at some point also).

Obviously, I'm biased. I love being an engineer, and I knew I had to be designing things to make science meaningful. Of course, there are others who are equally passionate about their exploration and research in science.

Slim2None

Oh, and at Penn SEAS is somewhat easier to get into than CAS from what I've heard

ilovebagels

It has a higher acceptance rate but that doesn't mean it is easier. SEAS is looking for something different in their potential students than CAS. Same for Wharton. A shoe-in for one school could be am epic fail if applying to another within Penn