ENGINEERING PREPARES FOR PRACTICAL POSTS

The main choice which a prospective science concentrator must make, once he has decided that he wants to study his sciences against the broad background of a liberal arts college like Harvard, lies between the engineering and the so-called pure sciences. Broadly speaking, the emphasis in the latter is upon the theoretical, in the former upon the practical application of those theories.

This division is not clear-cut, however, and certain intermediary courses in mathematics and physics are included in the concentration requirements for Engineering Sciences. There is considerable freedom of choice in the field, since the underlying principle of this department is to turn out students with a balanced background, and not necessarily to train engineers. Consequently, concentrators in this field usually plan upon one or two years of graduate work, depending upon the percentage of engineering courses they have taken as undergraduates.

The gap between engineering and pure science becomes great only beyond the elementary stage, and there are many cases of students who transfer, for example, from physics to an engineering science as late as their Junior or even the beginning of their Senior year.

Students are also at liberty to specialize or not in one of the various subdivisions of the fields--civil engineering, electrical engineering which includes communications, mechanical engineering which is allied with aerodynamics and chemical engineering. In two phases of engineering, namely sanitary engineering and communications, Harvard's reputation is perhaps the best in the country.

Easier than Physics

Engineering Sciences is generally considered less difficult than such fields as physics and chemistry. There is less lab work, but at the same time the training in practical application is much greater. One of the principle complaints about this field has been that it fails to correlate its courses properly with the prerequisites in physics and math, and consequently there is much repetition of fundamental theories.

den Hartog, Bollay Gone

Another unfortunate, but unavoidable weakness has arisen from the loss last fall of two of the best men in the field, den Hartog and Bollay, who are both working in Washington at present. The courses are well organized, with the exception of the one which Professor Westergaard, who is also Dean of the Graduate School of Engineering, gave for the first time this year. Haertlein and Dawes are particularly outstanding.

In addition to training prospective engineers, Engineering Science is an excellent background for executive and administrative work in companies where a technological knowledge plays an integral part. In line with this same idea, Engineering Science and Economics may be taken as a combined field of concentration.