<p>My S was accepted into CIT. He was undeclared major. Can he choose any major including ECE? Does he have to choose one upon enrollment? Any help is appreciated. Thx.</p>
<p>ps- he was also accepted into U of Mich, UCLA, PSU, and waitlist in Northwestern and JHU. Any ideas which shool is best if he majors in engineering (ECE or Chem E.), and minors in Economics?</p>
<p>He can declare any CIT major but has to apply for ECE. He does not have to "choose" one upon enrollment, I believe most freshmen are in General CIT for their year.</p>
<p>For engineering, I'd limit it between Umich and CMU. It depends on money factors but an elite private research university such as Carnegie Mellon does provide better opportunities (in my opinion) and more help in all aspects of college life and job opps than a public school (for undergrad of course). </p>
<p>For ECE, I'd definitely pick Carnegie Mellon. The job network is amazing no matter what engineering you pick and the news and recruiters frequently focus on the great career choices CMU's degree provides. Lots of huge companies look to CMU as a feeder including Microsoft, which gave a hefty sum to build a new Gates Center.</p>
<p>Is the new Gates Center for CIT-ECE or is it housing SCS? Do you know? UCLA is a wonderful school, great neighborhood. My son was wait listed for CIT-ECE but accepted into other areas of CIT. I suggest you check and be very careful-what does your son want to study and does CMU have a spot for that particular area?</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. How do we know if there is a spot in the major, espicially ECE? Does he have to re-apply? Is it possible to switch major after enrollment? Thx.</p>
<p>Read the acceptance letter in the fat package. It will tell you exactly where your son was accepted, wait listed and/or denied. If he was not accepted or wait listed to ECE, then that is your answer. Call CMU if you are confused or need further clarification. If you only want ECE and are not accepted to that area, explain this to CMU admissions and see what they have to say.</p>
<p>Your son, if he chooses ECE, will have to apply to transfer. There is usually more spots for ECE than for CS every semester (transferring is a once-per transfer kind of thing) and he can switch majors while being enrolled. He does not reapply to Carnegie Mellon, no.</p>
<p>Why does ECE have greater availability than SCS?</p>
<p>The Gates Center is for CS, not ECE. ECE already has an entire building - Hammerschlag Hall. I have never heard of anyone failing to transfer between CIT departments. It's really a non-issue. Finally, CS is smaller than ECE (130 to 160 in my year), and they are not part of CIT. Rather, they are their own college, so transferring is a bit trickier, but 2 of my friends did it with ease.</p>
<p>I ready the admission letter and found that he can choose any majors but ECE "due to a large number of qualified applicants". If transfer major isn't hard within cit, he may enroll into ChemE (that is his first choice anyway), and then transfer to ECE if he does feel that is the field he wants to pursue for his career.</p>
<p>Do you have any suggestions if he does need to transfer to ECE? Such as course selections, research projects, etc..</p>
<p>CMU is a great school. We will visit UMich and CMU this week and next week. He will choose one from the two.</p>
<p>By the way, we live in philly area. That may be another plus for CMU.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the information. It is very helpful.</p>
<p>Yes, CS is generally harder and its "own school" rather than being a sub/interdisciplinary part of CIT. It is also smaller.</p>
<p>Suggestions for transferring isn't that hard and anyone who isn't basically failing should have no problem transferring. I would talk to the advisor but mostly its based on space and decent grades. Course selection should be modeled so you are not set behind when you transfer as CMU wants its students to graduate in 4 years but that shouldn't be so hard. </p>
<p>I just mentioned the Gates center because though it is for CS, it does generally help ECE and CMU's tech job networking and reputation overall as there is a big overlap for companies recruiting from both majors.</p>
<p>A note on ECE:</p>
<p>There has always been a cap on ECE because it was the most popular major within CIT. However, with the burst of the tech bubble 5 or so years ago, ECE is thinking of dropping its competitive status. Other majors within CIT are growing faster than usual, especially MechE and MatSci. MechE is considering going competitive in the next few years (MatSci is such a small major that a huge increase is only 5 people...).</p>
<p>As it stands now, any CIT freshman can declare any CIT major except ECE and is guaranteed acceptance. With the current popularity of ECE, even students who struggled during their freshman year aren't having trouble getting into ECE.</p>
<p>Yeah, MSE is actually debating going competitive as well. I graduated in 2007. The year prior to me there were ~10 graduates (where it had been stable for a while), my year there were 17 of us, the next year there were 28, and I think the current year has around 35. The department's just not big enough to handle the huge influx of students, and CIT hasn't been willing to keep up with the increased demand by helping us increase our lab space for classes (the small, individual labs that were very free form was one of my favorite aspects of MSE at CMU versus what most other majors have for their lab classes).</p>