<p>Funny last post, re: “the dregs of the engineering college who merely couldn’t hack it in engineering.” The comments were spot on. I’d say the College of Arts & Sciences accepts most internal transfer students with a GPA greater than 2.5. Anything below that, students end up transferring outside of Cornell. I’d say about 15-20% of Cornell Engineering freshman don’t make it and have to either transfer internally or outside.</p>
<p>Cornell Institutional Research data shows the measured 6 year graduation rate for students who entered in the engineering college has ranged from 91% to 94% over each of the last seven years. For the class entering the College of Engineering in Fall 2003, 83% graduated from the engineering college, 6% graduated from one of the university’s other “endowed colleges” (CAS, AARP, or Hotel administration), and 3% graduated from one of its “contract colleges” (ILR, CALS, Hum Ec).</p>
<p>I knew a few people who transferred internally from Engineering to the College of Arts & Sciences. All of these people could “make it” in engineering just fine, they were each doing quite well there, they did not “have to” transfer at all, actually. They just found they were more interested in something other than engineering.</p>
<p>I might add that I graduated in the mid 1980s, prior to a grade inflation boom that affected virtually all of the top colleges. The “curve” was much more strict, with a average grade of C+/B- for most of the required engineering courses (Chem, Physics, Calc, Comp Sci, etc.). Do the math, and you’ll see how it was quite easy for about the lower fifth of the class to struggle with maintaining a C average. I don’t believe that’s the case today at Cornell (see gradeinflation.com for an idea of what has happened over 25 years).</p>