Change to engineering major later?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>Alright so right now I'm about to be a senior in high school and I have a feeling I want to be an engineer, but I'm not completely sure what the career consists of. I like math and science, and I'm also interested in computer science. I also like to know how stuff works. II plan on going to a college with a good engineering program .. but I want other options at that school as well. You see.. I'm not completely sure what I'm going to major in. </p>

<p>I kind of want to just go into my first year of college in general studies, with math and science included of course. I kind of want to get a feel of the coursework and the career because I honestly am just going off a gut feeling . I'm interested in it .. but I don't want to blindly jump into a career path that I know little to nothing about. </p>

<p>Alright so say I got into a college like Cornell or UVA (for example) going into the school with an undecided major, taking math and science included with maybe an intro to engineering course? Can I do this if I just apply for the non –eng college? Are there even intro classes to engineering paths outside of engineering school and could I switch to engineering school after … say the first year. If so how far behind would I be?</p>

<p>So to sum it up . I pretty much wanna know if I can apply to a college as an undecided major and then switch to engineering school after a year or so if I like the field. Addition info/ advice would also be much appreciated :) thanks</p>

2

<p>You can always switch majors.
My friend’s friend went on as far as putting the least popular major as his intended major in his application, got into UCLA, then switching to major of his choice.
I’m not promoting this practice btw.</p>

3

<p>Have you looked into the 3/2 engineering programs offered at many LAC’s? Three years at a LAC taking mostly math, physics, etc then guaranteed admission (if your GPA is good enough) to engineering program at certain schools. The most frequent engineering schools I have seen listed are Dartmouth, WUSL, Columbia, RPI and occasionally Caltech.</p>

4

<p>I’d recommend starting off as engineering and switching out if you find you don’t like it. Most engineering programs have sequential classes which require four years to get through, so if you don’t take the intro class freshman year you’ll wind up being either a year behind in all of your engineering classes.</p>

<p>If you later switch to a non-engineering major you’d likely need the math/science you already took, and your intro engineering course will likely count as a technical elective.</p>

5

<p>It depends. Some schools (such as packed public schools) may not let you switch into popular majors.</p>