Dartmouth vs Middlebury vs Bowdoin

Corbett
Thu, 07 Dec 2017 16:27:27 +0000

5 years of intense math and science seems like a little much to me…

At most universities, the intense math and science needed for a professional engineering BS degree is compressed into only four years. This leaves relatively little opportunity to explore anything else.

At Dartmouth (or at LACs with 3-2 programs), that level of math/science intensity is not expected, so there is room to explore or double-major in other fields. But now the downside is that you can’t complete the full professional engineering curriculum in four years. If you want a “real” engineering degree in this situation, you should expect to spend an extra year in college.

The fundamental problem is that a traditional engineering program includes a lot of depth, while a traditional liberal arts curriculum includes a lot of breadth. You simply can’t squeeze all of that depth and all of that breadth into four years. In a four-year program, you have to sacrifice either the liberal arts breadth or the engineering depth; if you want both, you should plan for five years. Dartmouth engineering students typically go the five-year route:

Most students complete both the AB and BE programs, usually in 5 years.

{In Dartmouth terminology, “AB” = “non-ABET BA”, and “BE” = “ABET BS”)