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Reference Materials for Advising

Advising for Engineering and Interest in Engineering

If your advisees are considering an Engineering Major at Swarthmore, and they indicated that interest only moderately compared to another interest, then it is likely that they were not assigned an advisor in the Engineering department. Our hope is that you will encourage the student to seek an advisor in the Engineering department, as some care must be taken when scheduling a student's first semester to avoid difficulties in subsequent semesters (if he or she does pursue Engineering).

In particular, it is very important that a student take a math course (usually Math 15 or 25) and a Physics course (usually Physics 3 or 5, or Astronomy 5), or receive college credit (and not just placement) for these courses from high school. Depending upon the student's mathematics preparation, we also recommend the student taking Engineering 11a or 15a in the first half of the Fall semester.

If you find that your advisee is considering an Engineering major and was not assigned an Engineering faculty member, please encourage the student to contact Matt Zucker, Chair, sometime before registration.