@danelord24 congrats! Here’s how it works: you are accepted to the college not to a particular major and you don’t need to declare a major till sophomore year or so. (assuming you will be a first-time freshman fall 2016). Many students change their minds once they enter college so you would want that flexibility to explore a bit before settling down into a particular course of study.
At CSE some majors will have GPA minimums that you would need to fulfill so be sure to understand what those are. All the majors will have prerequisites of course but as a resident of CSE you should be able to get those courses no problem. Your academic advisor will assist you in figuring out what to take to meet the requirements for your major of interest, and most if not all majors will have a proposed four-year plan that you can use as a guide so just check online for that.
@sjmaiklee both colleges offer the comp. sci. major but a BA through CLA is going to have fewer college-specific math and science requirements than would the BS through CSE. CLA would also has a foreign language requirement. Here is more information: https://www.cs.umn.edu/admissions/undergraduate
@sjmaiklee if you want to major in computer science I recommend getting the BS degree. The BA in CS has the stigma that you can’t handle the math requirements for the BS (this is per my son’s observation as friends are interviewing for internships/jobs).
How does MN’s rolling admissions work? The 8th of February will be 3 months since I applied. I am out of state, but others have applies later and have heard back earlier. I have a 26 ACT score and 3.7 unweighted G.P.A.
My son applied on August 18th and still has not heard back. I think when a University states “rolling admissions” it just means that there is not a specific date or dates that they will release all decisions. It means that they will release decisions on random dates up until the stated decision deadline (and not based at all on when you submitted your app).
Think of it like this. Someone tells you that they are going to randomly write out 10,000 checks payable to you in denominations from $1 to $100 over the course of 4 or 5 months, however you can only keep half of them and occasionally you have to promise to give them a indication of which ones you are going to keep, but you have to make your final decisions in no later than 6 months. Well, you are obviously going to keep any $100 checks you get and probably checks that are $75 or greater, and so you will let the check writer know that you are going to keep these. You might immediately reject checks less than $20 and hold off on committing to checks between $30-$70 until you have a better idea of the amounts of all the checks you get closer to the deadline.
Make sense? This is a bit over simplified and there is probably a better analogy, but it’s the only one I can come up with right now.
@BrewCrew82 your analogy fits. My son applied in August and has not heard back yet either. He was very keen on UMinn but not so much now. It’s like he asked a girl to a dance and she said “I’ll let you know after I see what other guys ask me.” I know that isn’t how UMinn intends it to feel but they should be able to determine if my son is or isn’t a good candidate without having to wait until every other application is submitted. Now, they’re losing ground to the other Big 10 schools that accepted him within weeks of applying and continue to send emails/mail every other week.
^^^ Us too! S applied in late August and hasn’t heard yet. Golden gopher application…I guess it’s better that they wait rather than do what OSU did, which was admit him on the first day, but not to COE. I could have gotten him to consider the U, depending on where else he got in, because I think there are some really neat things about the school, but I think that shipped has long since sailed since it is well over 5 months now. It’s almost a household joke as we talk about the schools left…“and of course, there’s still Minnesota.”
@s16s18s21s25 they’d be fools to turn down a 35 ACT. I continue to hold out hope for your son - they would have put him CLA by now if it was a no-go with CSE. He doesn’t have to accept of course (and that might feel quite satisfying LOL - who can blame him!).
@MTnest that’s not true at all. employers don’t care if you have a BA or BS as long as you have an impressive resume (personal projects that showcase your coding abilities and good grades).
@freakofnature22 I am just reporting what my son told me in regards to his friends interviewing for internships and such. Son already has a full time position waiting for him when he graduates so he doesn’t have to go through the job fairs/internship fairs etc. Companies want the best they can get – it is pretty competitive out there.
So is it better to go with BS(Ohio State) rather than BA(Minnesota)? Both in computer science major
Or transfer from BA to BS(Minnesota) is another path
@s16s18s21s25 Can you please elaborate on the good things you heard about OSU? There is a high likelihood that my son won’t make it to UIUC, so we might have to decide between the choices we have. He is waiting on a decision from Minnesota, Wisconsin (applied Regular there), and Virginia Tech.
Deferred at Northeastern and got Letters and Sciences at Maryland (not an option anymore).
He has been accepted at Purdue, OSU, PSU, and Rutgers so far. Rutgers would be the cheapest being in-state but OSU is also offering decent merit aid - close to 18K and the scholars program. Not expecting any aid from Purdue or Penn State.
We are planning to visit OSU but need some pointers to try to convince my son in case UIUC does not come through. At this point, he is leaning towards Purdue.
Any advice is greatly appreciated from all you experts out there! Thanks!
Actually, I meant Minnesota, not OSU which is on our bad list like MD is on yours. Personally I think OSU would have been cool and still can’t believe they wouldn’t accept a kid with a 36M in COE. I saw some articles about how Columbus was starting to get some tech companies or something, and it sounded like an up and coming area for CS people. Nice newer fitness center was a possible draw for S too. Sounds like you got a great deal for a highly ranked program and a fun campus–congrats!
We’re hoping for UIUC, but otherwise it’ll be UMCP where he got honors, or Purdue, depending on if either offers $ or is more appealing to S, who has not seen either school yet.
FYI - for those of us still waiting for a decision from Minnesota. Looking back on last years threads it appeared that many of the near deadline decisions were sent out on February 22, which was the last Sunday of the month. So, not sure if this year it will be around the 22nd again (probably would be the 21st, since it seems like Sundays are a popular day for Minnesota to release decisions) or if it will be on the last Sunday again (the 28th).
We waited for the rolling decision from UW-Madison. Their date was end of January. Most OS received decision at 6pm CST on the 31st. It’s electronic so it has nothing to do with if the admission office is open or closed. Obviously I have no idea if Minnesota is exactly the same but just wanted to let all of you know don’t read into not getting a response. It’s natural to be excited and anxious. Best of luck to everyone!
To clarify on the UW - Madison decisions (my son also applied there), they released some in state decisions just before Christmas and some were released January 8th. As @Seacoast stated, it appeared all of the OOS decisions were released January 31st.
From what I can tell from the way Minnesota has released decisions, it’s not really similar. I’ve seem people state post that they have been accepted on various random dates (many times Sundays) since the middle of October. It has not appeared to be big waves released only on a few dates (or in-state vs. OOS). My feeling is that anyone that is still waiting (including my son) is more of a borderline candidate in the eyes of the Minnesota Admissions office. That does not mean you won’t get accepted if you are still waiting (people were admitted towards the end of February last year), it just means that maybe you are not an automatic yes or no type candidate.
I understand that you are saying that this may mean that people that are still waiting are borderline candidates, but does this mean that we have a better chance of being waitlisted than accepted? I have a 3.6 GPA, a 21 on the ACT, I am in honors classes at my school, I have leadership experience, and many extracurriculars. I am an out of state student and Minnesota is the last school I am waiting to hear back from because they are my first choice. I guess what I am trying to say is what is your general opinion: people still waiting are at a greater chance to be waitlisted?
@mkobuns keep in mind that I really have no inside information on this (I don’t work for UM admissions or anything) and I’m just going by what I have observed so far this year and what I have seen by going back and looking at threads from last year. In regards of whether or not you have a better chance of being wait listed, that might have something to do with how many people have been denied so far and how many people are still waiting for decisions. Sorry, wish I could be more help, but I’m not sure anyone on this board has enough information to answer that question. Best of luck, hope you get in!