At UIUC, you can’t double major across different colleges (e.g., Business and LAS), you have to pursue a dual degree. Other schools may be more flexible. This is also one of the reasons my daughter preferred a LAC (we’re in Illinois).
1 Like
Double majoring in English, while theoretically possible with either CS or engineering at many colleges, shouldn’t be your focus. Its feasibility is highly dependent on the school’s general and major-specific requirements and the amount of AP/IB credits it allows. Generally speaking, the more challenging (perhaps thus more “elite” in some perspective) the program is, the fewer credits it allows. Additionally, as often the case, you may decide, once you’re in college, that you’d rather take more electives (beyond those minimum requirements) in your primary major to enhance your knowledge, in depth and/or in breadth, in some more specialized areas, than taking all the required courses for your second major.
2 Likes
I think that you will win the lottery.
First generation college student,woman in STEM, outstanding GPA (most rigorous courses) & strong SAT along with ECs that portray you in a very positive light suggest that MIT early action is a strong possibility.
4 Likes
this was encouraging thanks! how big of a hook would you say first gen and woman in STEM are today (and to MIT especially)? i feel like there are lot more of them so has the desire gone down as well?
Significant enough to post that: “I think that you will win the [college admissions] lottery.”
1 Like
VC111, I appreciate your preference for a medium to large size college/university.
With regard to Harvey Mudd (~900), it is part of the Claremont consortium of 5 undergraduate colleges and 2 graduate schools. Facilities are shared and there is cross registration among all 5 colleges. The campuses are all immediately adjacent, so you can literally walk from one to another. Total enrollment is about 5000 undergrads and 7500 total. It’s really a unique situation.
I think of the Claremont colleges more as one mid size university in reality than as a collection of small colleges. Just think about the fact that any engineering school will be just one of a number of undergraduate schools at any mid to large size university. It’s really those who are in the same school as you whom you will be going to class with, not the thousands who are in Arts & Science, Business, Education, Nursing, etc. No different at Claremont.
The other 3 colleges I mentioned are all 2000 or more.
1 Like
I knew of the consortium but didn’t know all the claremont colleges shared facilities, really interesting. Thanks for the detailed answer!
You’re welcome. I think you’re going to have a lot of good opportunities.
2 Likes
College courses (that are advanced relative to high school) taken while in high school are looked upon favorably for college admission.
Note that while UCs and CSUs will be generous with transfer credit from such courses, many private colleges will be much less generous. So if you really want to take lots of English courses alongside a mechanical engineering major, it may be easier to do at a UC* than at a private college that is less generous with the transfer credit, if you college courses are helpful with subject credit (e.g. calculus, general chemistry, calculus-based physics, frosh-level English composition). If the college is a community college, you can use https://www.assist.org to check transferability to UCs and CSUs.
*CSUs tend to have more voluminous general education requirements than most UCs, so they may be harder to squeeze concentrated English courses into the schedule than most UCs.
3 Likes
I have time on my hands while I’m doing day care at the pool, so here’s the make:femalegender breakdown in engineering at some of the schools you listed.
Rice - 64:36
MIT - 54:46, BUT 50:50 in mechanical engineering due to proactive recruiting of females
JHU - 60:40
Duke - 65:35
Vandy - 59:41
NWU - 65:35
Wash U - 67:33
Stanford - 58:42
Cornell - 50:50
Harvard - 60:40
Brown - 59:41
Yale - 53:47
Princeton - 62:38
Penn - 60:40
This kind of information is difficult to access. Since it is constantly changing, it is also a moving target. So, the numbers I could find may not be accurate. Cornell, for example, changed dramatically from 60:40 to 50:50, but I don’t know if they were able to maintain that. The best source is the colleges themselves. So, consider this list a starting point.
For perspective, 22% of engineering majors nationally are women.
6 Likes
This is really helpful, thanks so much! Could I ask for the links for where you got these numbers? especially for MIT, I see their common data set but I’m not sure where to find it for mechanical engineering specifically
I googled them school by school.
Here’s a link that I used as a fall back in a couple of cases. The data is from 2017-18. Not super old, but a little out of date:
2 Likes
I also suggest that you look more closely at Harvey Mudd. It has a 50:50 ratio. In fact, I think a couple of years ago, the graduating class of engineers had more women than men. But in addition, Harvey Mudd wants students with primary interests in STEM but who also have interests in the humanities and social sciences. Look at the mission statement on the HMC website. Your interests in English could fit well with the type of student Mudd is looking for.
Thanks! Someone else mentioned it above as well and Ive been doing more research on it
I love what Harvey Mudd does in engineering, and I recommended it to you. But in interest of full disclosure, Harvey Mudd offers a general engineering major, not mechanical engineering. Their general engineering major is broad and deep, and students specialize by the electives they take - although the number of electives you can take is limited. As a point of fact, their curriculum leans more heavily toward electrical than mechanical.
If you become interested in Harvey Mudd, you most definitely should have a conversation with the head of the department or a faculty representative from that department, comparing your interests with their program.
The other small colleges which I recommended to you - Bucknell (3600 undergrad enrollment), Lafayette (2700 undergrad enrollment), and Rose-Hulman Institute (2000 undergrad enrollment) all offer traditional mechanical engineering majors. Their advantage is small class size, low student:faculty ratio, and excellent facilities. Bucknell and Lafayette are liberal arts colleges where you can pursue your interest in English. Bucknell offers a 5-year dual degree program with a double major in both an engineering and a liberal arts discipline.
A bigger school that you should consider putting on your list is Cal Poly at San Luis Obispo (21,000 undergrad enrollment), which has excellent facilities. It is a full university , not just a technical college, and offers diverse majors, including English.
2 Likes
It would depend if the computer science major is in the college of engineering or college of arts and sciences. At CU-Boulder, there are two options for computer science, and one is a BA in the college of arts and sciences. Since English is also in Arts and Sciences, the student would only have one set of core classes for that college.
Years ago (so don’t know if it is still true), if the student was getting a BA and a BS from different colleges, the minimum number of credits was 150 rather than the 124 required for A&S. A friend tried to graduate with a BA in History and a BS in Recreation. Met the requirements for each college separately, but didn’t have 150 credits so had to choose.
My daughter needed 131 credits for her engineering degree. She could not have fit enough English courses into those 131 credits to get a major completed. She had 15 non-engineering credits required for the ABET major (2 English comp courses, 2 history, etc) and in the last semester I think she had room for 4-5 credits of true electives (Spanish, tennis). There just isn’t room in an engineering major for 40 or so English credits.
2 Likes
I’m sorry that I overlooked your question about MIT. That information was from an article in MIT News:
2 Likes
Thank you for clarifying!
Thank you for going in depth about the credits. I should’ve done much more research on the double major before seriously considering it
Vanderbilt has traditionally been the most stats-based T20 college. From our school’s scattergram, we can see a pretty clear demarcation between students that get in vs students that don’t based upon GPA and test scores.
If you are set on MIT for EA, I suggest Vanderbilt for ED2.
2 Likes