First, if this is in the wrong section, my bad.
I’m a senior in high school and I am planning on majoring in mechanical engineering at whatever college I attend. My second choice is computer science. I’m taking ap physics 1 and ap calc ab right now. But, if at the end of the year, physics absolutely kills me and there’s no way that I can survive/handle engineering, can I switch to cs before I even start college? Or will I have to wait until second semester?
At some colleges, switching majors is easy, others not so much.
You will have until the May 1 deadline to decide where to go from among the schools that accepted you. By then you should have a better idea about physics and can research what each school’s policy is for changing majors. All colleges should have an add/drop period during the first week or two of classes where you can change your schedule (space permitting).
If you are really concerned, apply to some colleges with one major and some with the other.
Thanks. I’m not too concerned. I don’t see physics being too difficult, but we’re only on Newton’s laws and I’ve heard bad things from good students about the rest of the class
Some colleges accept you by major, others don’t care, others don’t even want you to declare until your sophomore year. Some it’s easy to change, others require many hoops to be jumped. Just know the policies of the schools you are applying to and keep that in mind.
Right. Unless you’re admitted to some specific program or a college of engineering, most don’t require you to declare a major until later in soph year. Yes, for engineering or CS, you need to get a jump on the course requirements, but that’s once there.
You should have an idea how you’re doing soon, certainly as mid-year grades come in. It may be too soon to assume. There are a few recent posts from adults whose careers are in engineering, despite some high school struggles with math or physics. They had the basic strengths, kept at it, and picked up in college.
When selecting college to apply to, or which college to matriculate to, pay attention to how difficult or competitive it is to change major. At some schools (particularly popular state flagship universities), the engineering and CS majors are enrolled to full capacity, so there is a GPA requirement or competitive admission process to change into them.
You may want to try web searching “[college] change major [new major]” to see if there any barriers in front the desired majors at each school.
Here is a list of criteria to change major to CS at many colleges: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19854939/#Comment_19854939