<p>You have to think about what you want out of college and what you see after college.</p>
<p>If you want to get an engineering degree and go straight into an engineering cubicle and you know, today, that there is zero chance that you won’t like engineering or that you won’t want to study other things in addition to engineering, then going to an engineering school is probably the best bet.</p>
<p>However, if you find that you don’t like engineering or that you don’t have an aptitude for engineering or that you also want to study linguistics or economics or music or learn to write, then you are screwed because you may have to transfer to shift gears.</p>
<p>Swarthmore offers an excellent ABET-accredited Engineering degree in the context of the best all-around liberals arts education in the country. You will learn to write. You will learn to discuss and debate in class. You will be surrounded by engineers and economics an biology and theater and classics and linguistics and English and psychology majors. That’s a very different experience from an engineering program at an engineering school. </p>
<p>I don’t think anyone can tell you which is better. You have to think about what you are looking for in a college experience, how married you are to engineering for the rest of your life, and so on and so forth. Personally, I’m not wild about 18 year old high school seniors making their final career choice and locking into an engineering school, but there are lots of students who are prepared to make that choice.</p>