<p>Is it harder to be accepted for an engineering major than to be accepted for other majors? If so, to what extent? I'm wondering if the admission rate would be comparable to, say, Stanford for engineering. (In state btw)</p>
<p>does anyone know?</p>
<p>It is harder to get admitted into any major in the College of Engineering than to get into any other college in Berkeley. </p>
<p>Anecdotally speaking, it is harder to get into Stanford than to get into any Berkeley engineering major in-state. For OOS, it is perhaps equivalent.</p>
<p>Everything in Chemistry? And for the sake of being a punk, what of the college of law?</p>
<p>And people ask me why I don't write shorter posts. Then when I do, I get attacked for incompleteness.</p>
<p>Look, I think we can tell by context that we are talking about undergraduate admissions here, hence any discussion of Boalt is irrelevant. </p>
<p>And yes, the College of Engineering is more difficult to get into than the College of Chemistry. The CoC runs admissions by college, not admissions by major. I assume you are trying to point out that chemical engineering is taught in the CoC, not the CoE. Yet the fact is, nobody ever gets admitted specifically to the chemical engineering major. You only get admitted to the CoC, and from there, you can choose from one of the two undergrad majors, chemistry or chemical engineering. Furthermore, you are free to switch among the 2 majors at any time. So those who find that they can't hack it in ChemE can just switch majors to chemistry with little ado. This is a substantial improvement of what happens to those in the CoE who find they can't hack it and want to change to a non-engineering major. All of those students have to then apply to transfer to another one of Berkeley's colleges, which is far from automatic.</p>
<p>Sakky, no reason to get flustered by my mentioning Boalt. I was clearly not serious, hence the "my being a punk." Use shorter posts when shorter posts work best. Other times, use longer posts.</p>
<p>I really wasn't sure if admissions to CoC was as hard as CoE. Are you sure that every single major in CoE is harder than CoC? If so, I'll take your word for it, as you've probably looked at the data. I could imagine easily that, on the whole, CoE is more difficult to get into than CoC. But is the difference significant, or marginal? I would imagine in some cases it's marginal, in some cases significant, generally somewhat significant. Is that you notice in the data?</p>
<p>You mention that it's an improvement in the CoC, but what if the student is doing so poorly he can't switch out? It that is it not the same case as the CoE? Am I missing something?</p>
<p>i doubt that out-of-state engineering is equivalent to stanford ( as i did not get into both)</p>
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i doubt that out-of-state engineering is equivalent to stanford ( as i did not get into both)
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<p>Uh, if you didn't get into both, doesn't that actually strengthen the argument that they are equivalent?</p>
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I really wasn't sure if admissions to CoC was as hard as CoE. Are you sure that every single major in CoE is harder than CoC? If so, I'll take your word for it, as you've probably looked at the data. I could imagine easily that, on the whole, CoE is more difficult to get into than CoC. But is the difference significant, or marginal? I would imagine in some cases it's marginal, in some cases significant, generally somewhat significant. Is that you notice in the data?
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<p>I believe that the data indicates that every single major in the CoE is harder to get into than the CoC, although it is true that the difference varies. Note, that doesn't mean that ChemE is easy to complete. Far from it. It is just easier to get into than the CoE majors. </p>
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You mention that it's an improvement in the CoC, but what if the student is doing so poorly he can't switch out? It that is it not the same case as the CoE? Am I missing something?
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<p>The idea is that if he is doing poorly in ChemE, he just switches majors to Chemistry, which is an easier major. Not as easy as some of those creampuff L&S majors, but still easier than ChemE. What is nice is that because Chemistry is not an impacted major, and it's still within your own college, it's an automatic and assured switch. It's like when somebody in L&S wants to switch from Math to Physics, since Physics is within the same college and is not an impacted major, there is no issue. The switch is always approved. </p>
<p>Contrast that with the CoE situation. You're in CoE, you want to switch, what do you do? Every one of the other engineering majors is impacted. And switching to another major outside engineering means switching colleges. Either way, your chances of switching are not assured. Whichever switch you attempt, there is the significant risk that you will be denied the switch and forced to stay within the major that you are doing poorly in.</p>
<p>Too many people. Too many people.</p>
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I believe that the data indicates that every single major in the CoE is harder to get into than the CoC, although it is true that the difference varies.
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<p>Is there a link for this data?</p>
<p>I used to have it, but I lost it. But somebody here has it, I'm sure.</p>
<p>sorry for being unclear - I meant that I got into berkeley out of state engineering but not stanford (by saying that I didn't get into both, I meant that I only got into one)</p>
<p>Well, I'll put it to you this way. I know a number of people who got into Stanford and/or MIT, but not into Berkeley engineering OOS.</p>
<p>that's interesting - I never realized that they were that close</p>
<p>It should be noted that admission to the top private schools are run quite differently from Berkeley's admissions. Berkeley's admissions are far more numbers-oriented and are less cognizant of things like EC's, good essays, or rec's. Berkeley has no interview process, whereas most top private schools run at least an optional interview. And of course Berkeley by law has no AA, whereas the top private schools still do. </p>
<p>Hence, I can envision a scenario where it might be easier for even an instate student to get into HYPSM than to Berkeley. Granted, it would be a rare situation, but it can happen.</p>
<p>I question the degree to which people portray Cal as more numbers driven than top private schools. While I think it's true to some extent, I think it's overblown. I think Cal reads every essay, keeps the ECs and essays in mind. They do not have letters of rec or interviews, that is true, but I think they do admit some students who have lower stats but have had interesting experiences. Have you never heard Berkeley portrayed as a school that's looking to admit people with difficult experiences that they overcame in their lives? Although I think this too is overstated, there's some truth behind it. Do you disagree?</p>
<p>I never said that Berkeley is completely numbers-driven. Nevertheless, it is far more numbers-driven than are the top private schools.</p>