Applying to engineering schools with no experience in engineering (undergrad)?

Greetings. I’m a senior at Stuyvesant HS (school notable for sending many grads to the best schools)

Facts you may want to know about me:
----95.33 GPA weighted,
----A 32 on the ACT
----A 2190 SAT (superscored)
----Taken 4 AP courses: (Psych, US History, World History, English Lang.)
----Planning to take 4 more AP’s (English Lit, Calc BC, Gov, Spanish)

Extracurriculars:
—Mostly writing things like short stories and poems (I plan to add a portfolio)
—Writer at Humor section of newspaper
—part time teacher at a tutoring facility

And guess what? I plan to major in engineering. Yup. Engineering, with ABSOLUTELY NO EXPERIENCE whatsoever.

There is nothing about my academic record to suggest that I have had a longtime interest in engineering, but it’s something I’ve grown to love over this summer. I hated Physics in the beginning of junior year (91 first semester) but I grew to love it and got a 98 the next semester. My math skills in my 4 years at school are all consistently high
I have a fascination with flight, and really want to design wings based off of animals and study aerodynamics (but most likely mechanical engineering).

I feel like an engineering degree will (in addition to becoming an engineer) allow me to further my writing. My “writing flaw” is my inability to craft and interweave subplots into stories, and I feel the planning and innovative skills that accompany an engineering degree will help me with that. I want my stories to have blueprints. I kind of already consider myself an engineer, but one that uses words and language.

I plan on applying to some of the best engineering schools in the country. My question is, am I at a supreme disadvantage here?

I hate to tell you, but engineering is unlikely to help you much with your creative writing skills. Technical writing skills are the ones that can be (are) important to engineers.

Now that that is out of the way, I can tell you that the vast majority of students joining engineering programs have no experience in engineering. You are not alone! My only suggestion is that you ought to do what you can to try and take a calculus-based physics course (it is unclear if you have taken any physics from your post).

Lots of high school students do not have any engineering or design experience while in high school.

The main advantage of having such available in high school (e.g. robotics teams and similar extracurriculars) is that students can find how interested they are in the engineering design process. But many go into engineering after attending high schools where such was not available. Of course, if you liked building or tinkering with things, that may also be an indicator of interest.

Almost nobody does when they apply.

Agree with drbnhd…this has nothing to do with engineering. In fact, you might have less time to work on writing while in school. (That’s the case for me.) You can keep it as a hobby though.

Engineering schools almost certainly will ask you “why engineering?” in one of your college essays, but their courses will not be taught with the assumption that you have previous engineering experience. Like others mentioned, most people don’t go in with previous engineering experience, and there is no evidence to show that those who had such experience perform better than those who did not.

Thanks for the responses everyone, was out of my mind for a bit.

As for the engineering-writing combo, I was referring to this:
http://www.eng.mcmaster.ca/news/2015/terry_fallis_interview.html

I meant that the raw discipline and rational approach to writing could help me, but to each his own, I guess. Sucks that I’ll have less writing time tho, but yeah I’m definitely keeping it as a hobby bodangles.

Thanks again y’all!

I disagree - engineering requires considerable creative writing skills, and even science fiction can be useful if you have to communicate with customers or upper level management :)…

You might need communication skills, but is character/setting/plot/dialogue really directly applicable? It’s like the difference between writing college essays and writing fiction. Being good at one doesn’t necessarily make you good at the skills required for the other.

I know Olin makes it a point to get all kinds of different students into their engineering specific school. I don’t think they would ever fill an incoming class only with “prior engineering experience” people. Check the school out, I suspect it may be a good fit for you. It’s highly competitive, but you already got into Stuy so you should be used to that kind of thing.

Engineers that can write very well are maybe a bit unusual, and my kid is finding that great writing skills can mean you stand out–professors notice, potential employers notice. It’s good skill to have.

And my kid had art and music related ECs but nothing engineering other than obvious aptitude in math and physics. it worked out just fine.

" I kind of already consider myself an engineer, but one that uses words and language." - In your college essays, it would be fine to talk about your writing interests and creativity. But don’t use that sentence.

If you have questions about Olin, there are helpful threads in the Colleges section. It’s too teeny and limited for most students, but for the right-fit student it’s an awesome place.