<p>Engineering:</p>
<p>The pro arguments are simple. Students want it, it’s an important area of human endeavor, it complements research activities in physical science, biology, math, computer science.</p>
<p>The con argument, though, has so far been devastating. In order to have an accredited engineering program, Chicago would have to abandon the Core as a universal part of its undergraduate experience, and its commitment to the idea that undergraduates should get a thorough grounding in liberal arts and science before specializing. Both of those principles have been fundamental to the identity of the University of Chicago since at least the 1920s, and the people there tend to believe in them. </p>
<p>So notwithstanding the nibbling around the edges of some sort of bioengineering major in the foreseeable future (but not for kids applying now), as far as I can tell a real undergraduate engineering program is not anything the existing generation of Chicago leaders will ever consider seriously. It’s not that they don’t know it would be popular; it’s that they think it’s for institutions other than the University of Chicago to offer. Graduate engineering programs? That’s likely to happen.</p>