Why Study Physics and Engineering at E-town?

Faculty with real-world experience

To underscore our strong belief in the importance of outside-of-classroom experience, all of our engineering professors have solid real-world engineering experience. While we hire professors based partly on their non-academic experience, our professors nonetheless have outstanding academic credentials.

A distinctive learning community

When you come to the Department of Physics & Engineering, it's like being part of a family. Unusual as it may seem to use the word "family," we use it advisedly. About 35-45 new students each year - taught by eight professors whose prime responsibilities are to develop your scientific and critical thinking abilities. In addition to those eight professors in the department, a full time physics research scientist, a full time fabrication technician, adjunct faculty with a wealth of practical experience, and about 115 other professors on the college faculty will round out a truly enriching education. Part of what makes "family" a reality is our upperclassmen: They take pride in mentoring new students. Elizabethtown College offers a unique environment; there are not many ABET accredited engineering degrees available at schools of less than 2000 students with the broad liberal arts tradition of Elizabethtown.

Project-based curriculum, projects that make a difference

Robots. Solar-powered boats. Arbors. The physics and engineering programs at Elizabethtown College are built around hands-on projects and collaborative student-faculty research. Students complete multidisciplinary design and prototype-building team projects in all four years. These projects are more than an academic learning experience, but also ring true to the College's mission of "Educate for Service." During your first year, you'll participate in a fall community service project as part of your Introduction to Engineering course. Here, you will learn skills – and how engineering can make a difference.

Learning experientially

We encourage students to get good summer jobs in their career areas and we are often directly responsible for finding those jobs. Good exposure to the career field outside of classrooms is an almost sure ticket for work-experienced graduates being preferred over others. In recent years, nearly half our returning students had such summer positions. Just as a sampling, recently students have worked in paid summer engineering positions with federal and state governments, world-class research laboratories and with high profile companies such as Maxima, McCormick and Lutron. Additionally, as an engineering or physics major, you are likely to work for the department (tutors, lab assistants, or computer administration), the Learning Center (tutors), or the Computer Center (installation, networking, Help Desk).

Research. Build. Compete.

Motivated students involve themselves in research as part of course requirements and others work on research projects for academic credit during the school year or are hired as research assistants during summers. Recently, students in Club FEAST (Future Energies and Sustainable Technologies) built a solar boat for international competition; other students in the Robotics & Machine Intelligence Club built an autonomous robot for competition in another international competition; and additional students presented their research at regional and international meetings of professional societies. These opportunities are quite unique for undergraduate students, yet they are routinely available at Elizabethtown College!

Graduate success

Our focus is on mentoring, coaching, and guiding students not only to success in making a living but also to the living of fulfilling lives. Each year, several graduating students choose to enroll in full-time graduate programs (for example Ph.D. and Masters programs in physics, mechanical engineering, civil engineering and electrical engineering, at schools such as Vanderbilt U, Penn State, Dartmouth, and Notre Dame; recent graduates have also continued their studies in law and medicine). The majority of our graduates move directly into full-time employment rather than pursuing graduate studies. They have landed jobs with world-class companies including High Concrete, Ingram Micro, Tyco Electronics, Frito-Lay, Bayer Pharmaceuticals, Goodyear, Hershey Foods, Phoenix Contact, Armstrong World Industries and many others.