<p>I'm a junior in high school and I recently began to consider engineering as a career path. Please don't lambaste me if any of these questions have been asked before as I tried searching and I could not come up with any answers.</p>
<p>If I apply to an engineering school (i.e. Columbia SEAS) and I decide I don't want to do engineering, how difficult is a transfer to the Arts and Sciences college of the given school? Since I had already been admitted, would I have to go against all the other applicants or could I easily just transfer? What if I were to go to the Arts and Sciences college at a school and then transfer to the engineering school?</p>
<p>Could I complete a minor in Music Composition along with a major in Engineering, or would that be too rigorous?</p>
<p>Could I go to an Arts and Science college, major in, say, Chemistry, and then go to graduate school for engineering for a Master's/PhD?</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>For universities divided into colleges or divisions (Engineering, Arts and Sciences, etc.), changing may mean applying to do so; the engineering division is often harder to transfer into than the arts and sciences division. In some cases, changing major requires applying to do so, with more popular majors (relative to their capacity at the university) being more difficult to transfer into. This is all very university-specific.</p>
<p>Major and minor doability would depend on the university’s requirements for each and breadth requirements. Basically, you need to add up the requirements for the major, minor, and breadth requirements, then subtract any overlapping courses or credits, and any useful AP or other credit you have on entry, to see if that is doable within the number of semesters you will be in school.</p>
<p>Engineering graduate school typically favors those who majored in the same or closely related engineering; others may have to do significant catch-up work. Physics is usually the closest of the non-engineering majors; math or statistics may be somewhat close for industrial engineering. Chemistry may be somewhat close to chemical or materials engineering.</p>
<p>If you are thinking about engineering, it would be very helpful to you to talk with a practicing engineer to get a feel about what engineering is really about. Engineering is about applying the knowledge you have in the STEM fields. Some people will do well in the stem fields but have difficulty aoolying that knowledge in real systems.</p>
<p>Changing majors once you are at a college depends on the specific college. Typically the engineering majors are harder to get into. Moving out of one is typically easier.</p>
<p>Minoring in something else can be done. A lot of students do but it will depend on how easily the engineering classes are to you. No general rule.</p>
<p>Going between the sciences and engineering isn’t always easy. Different emphasis. Can be done but you will probably have to take a few extra classes to make up the differences.</p>
<p>Kind of a general response, but your question was general.</p>
<p>Changing majors from engineering is basically much more easier than the other way around. Most people that are from another major needs to complete their own degree before going into engineering, but not vice versa when lets say an engineer major wanted to switch to business.</p>
<p>Minors are very common. Alot of people minor in econ or another engineering field /computer science or business.</p>
<p>In terms of getting hired, a bachelors of engineering is much more valuable in the engineering field than a science major with msc/phd in engineering. I have talked to alot of corporate managers from different companies and that is what they said.</p>