<p>Hey all, I was accepted into Cal Poly as a Biomedical Engineering Major and will be attending Fall 2011. If any of you are currently engineering majors at Cal Poly, would you mind answering some questions I have?</p>
<p>1) What is the average GPA of students currently enrolled in the College of Engineering?
2) I know it’s hard to change majors but would it be extremely difficult to switch from Biomedical Engineering to Software Engineering? (Since they are both in the College of Engineering)
3) How much homework do you have on average and is it normal to see engineering students lead a social life while keeping a good GPA? (I’m aiming for a 3.5)</p>
<p>Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>1) I do not want to make a generalized guess of the average GPA of students within the College of Engineering but out of all of my friends, our average is around a 3.2.
2) You can find the requirements to switch into SE on this page: [College</a> of Engineering Advising Center - Changing Majors into SE](<a href=“http://eadvise.calpoly.edu/dept/softmajor.php]College”>http://eadvise.calpoly.edu/dept/softmajor.php)
I see that the only requirement is a 2.0 minimum gpa, without any required coursework within the major.
3) The workload is not too bad the first year but once the major courses stack up, you will see less of your friends and more of the books. </p>
<p>Source:
2nd year EE student at Cal Poly</p>
<p>1) For the whole of Cal Poly, the average GPA is around GPA 2.7. I am guessing College of Engineering will be lower.</p>
<p>2) Changing major within a college is substantially easier than between colleges. If you have a decent GPA in your current engineering major, you should have no problem changing to another engineering major.</p>
<p>3) For an average Cal Poly soul, they encourage studying at least 25-35 hours per week. This is in addition to all your class time, and lab time. If you are aiming for a GPA 3.5 in engineering, you will DEFINITELY be studying north of 35 hours/week. For an okay smart student, it will be substantially more than 35 hours. As a baseline, Engineering honors society (Tau Beta Pi) requires a 3.5 GPA for entry, and most engineering students in Cal Poly never get to join TBP. A 3.5 GPA also allows you to graduate with Cum laude honors, majority of Cal Poly engineering students never attain this honor.</p>
<p>BMED is one of the easier majors when it comes to workload. Just do all of your homework honestly and you’ll be fine. The first and second years are the toughest since you’ll be adjusting to the system and taking weed-out courses. Don’t underestimate those math and mech E courses and join a study group if you need motivation.</p>
<p>Not sure about switching majors but developing a solid gpa should help.</p>
<p>A long time ago (~2 years) I was considering switching from CSC to ME. At the time, they told me that ME and CSC were the two most impacted majors. I’m not sure if that applies to SE (which really isn’t that different around here). Currently, the requirement for switching into SE from inside CENG is a 2.0 in your latest term, your Cal Poly average and your higher education average. To be honest, that doesn’t sound too bad. But, there’s a catch. You have to make your decision quickly. They have recently changed their rules so that they will never allow a change of major if you will end up with more than 24 excess (ie, non degree) units when you graduate. And, you can’t go back once you do it. (In my opinion, this should eliminate Cal Poly as a viable undergraduate institution for 90% of it’s applicants. Unfortunately, most applicants don’t think like this and are overly concerned with the campus “vibe” other silliness like the US News and World Reports top n rankings). If you are committed to coming to Poly, make your change of major as soon as you feel confident that you want to do it. You might also consider the CSC minor, which is about the first 1/3 of the major coursework. </p>
<p>My GPA? 2.57somethingorother. Who knows, I might have done rather well on that 430 final yesterday and it might be higher next quarter. This quarter I did 9 units (well, 8 and a preforming ensemble. I suppose instant "A"s shouldn’t count). It was the hardest quarter to date for me. I easily exceeded the recommendation of “2 hours of class for every hour in class”. And I doubt that I did that well this quarter. Mine might have been a special case. I’m an absolutely burnt out 5th year CSC. I was taking two somewhat though programming classes. Your results may be entirely different. And academic conditions may change after you receive this report.</p>