<p>OP–Have you seen Swat’s engineering dept mission statement?</p>
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<p>My son graduated from Swat with a concentration in civil engineering a few years ago, and this statement reflects his experience pretty well, especially the “deep sense of ethical and social concern” and teaching “the skills to adapt to new technical challenges, communicat effectively, and collaborate well with others.”</p>
<p>Small class sizes mean you have to speak up and defend your ideas beginning in freshman fall, whether it’s in a science or a philosophy course. You learn to write by writing all the time. And every senior presents their final project orally to the entire engineering faculty and students.</p>
<p>The numbers of engineers at Swat is small. Each class starts out around 30 but by graduation that number can be halved, as people switch to physics math,etc. So you will know every engineering prof and every engineering prof will come to know you–no hiding!</p>
<p>Swat is part of a consortium with Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges–DS took a couple of courses at Bryn Mawr, which he really enjoyed. You can also take courses at Penn A&S and Penn Engineering (tho not at Wharton), if they are unavailable in the consortium.</p>
<p>Swat’s engineering program is ABET-acredited, which is the key thing you need. Some students are able to pass the FE exam while still at Swat. (FE = Fundamentals of Engineering, the first step in state licensure.)</p>
<p>My son was interested in a particular subfield of civil engineering, so he went to a major research university to get an MS after Swat. He’s now working as an engineer at a major engineering consulting company. He finds he’s doing a lot more writing that he expected, and Swat prepared him well for that too.</p>