Engineering, Nursing get a little liberal

As advanced registration comes to an end this weekend, students are busy skimming the course booklet for classes that satisfy both their requirements and their curiosity.

For students in Penn's more pre-professional schools - Nursing, Engineering and Wharton - getting a liberal-arts education while following a more structured curriculum can present a challenge.

Administrators and professors at these schools try to ensure that students receive educational variety by adding liberal-arts requirements to the curriculum.

Liberal arts and professions like business, nursing and engineering are not "mutually exclusive," said Nursing professor Sarah Kagan, who is also the director and faculty advisor of the Nursing undergraduate honors program.

A "liberally-educated citizen makes a better nurse, and a well-educated nurse understands the value of a liberal education," she added.

As part of her honors project, Nursing senior Stephanie Johnson is writing a paper on the integration of liberal arts into the nursing undergraduate curriculum.

She said that although there is no statistical correlation between the liberal arts and nursing, theoretical evidence proves that integration of the two curricula is beneficial.

Johnson aided the Nursing school when they revamped the sector requirements to allow more flexibility in course planning.

Director of Academic Affairs of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Joseph Sun wrote in an e-mail that his school values students' ability to take courses outside of math and engineering.

"This is one of the greatest advantages in studying engineering at a place like Penn," he wrote.

The availability of two different Engineering degrees also allows students to take more liberal-arts courses if they want.

While the Bachelors of Science in Engineering allows students to take up to 25 percent of the course requirements in the liberal arts, the percentage is even higher for students pursuing the Bachelor of Applied Science.

Engineering sophomore Yash Mittal, who is pursing a B.A.S., said although he will have to "compromise on [having] the word 'engineering'" in his degree, he decided to pursue that degree so he could take more liberal arts classes and is even doing a minor in the College.

He added that the most common minors pursued by Engineering students are Economics and Mathematics.

Johnson said Nursing students often try to gain breadth through minors such as Spanish or Health and Societies.

But Wharton sophomore Giresh Mirpuri said the wide range of subjects offered within the pre-professional schools makes up for the lack of liberal arts opportunities.

"I would have taken more Wharton classes if I did not have to fulfill the liberal-arts requirements," he added.

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