<p>I'm currently a pre bio major. If i wanted to change my major and do engineering is it possible? how would i do that?</p>
<p>yes. go to the engineering undergraduate office and talk to them. no appointment needed. be aware that all engineering majors are impacted in some way or another…ME, ChemE, EE are fairly easy to get into. CE and CS are not.</p>
<p>Yes you can, but it will not happen right away. You will first have to prove yourself by taking the lower division courses (like all engineers) but you must maintain a 3.0 according to the engineering website (however I’ve heard it is actually somewhere along the lines of a 3.3). Somewhat of a difficult task for the 1/2 of wannabe engineers that drop out:</p>
<p>[Changing</a> Your Major | UCSB College of Engineering](<a href=“http://engineering.ucsb.edu/prospective_undergraduates/changing_your_major]Changing”>http://engineering.ucsb.edu/prospective_undergraduates/changing_your_major)</p>
<p>Since you will not be an engineering major until you complete the prerequisites and are approved you will have to petition for the classes that are only opened to engineers as they will not be automatically opened to you.</p>
<p>DONT DO IT!! do bio as a major as planned, it will be easier and more fun, while still being a prestigious major… THEN! you can get some internships in a related field (biophysics, bio-medical engineering, biochem, biobio?), you basically can become an engineer thru experience without the pain of getting the degree… & let me tell you, its not about what major you choose EVER, its about the experience you get that you can offer to future employers. resume building n stuff. </p>
<p>if you truly just are passionate about engnrng then go for it tho, I have a headache just thinking about taking going back and taking Physics 1,2,3,4 + Math 3ABC,5ABC. Those classes alone will guarantee many sleepless nights… Good luck</p>
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<p>stop telling people not to major in engineering. it is only as hard as you make it. many many people struggle with EEMB/MCDB as much as they would in engineering. it annoys me to no bounds when people just assume it is super duper hard</p>
<p>also, the “pain” of an engineering degree comes way more from lack of studying than actual difficulty of the subject; you can’t get away with it in engineering due to the heavy abstraction. imo bio is much much harder, it’s just that it’s less abstract, so there is less studying required. i know firsthand as a lazy CS major haha. when i study for my STEM, my test scores literally go up 10 points, compared to non-STEM classes, where studying might yield nothing sometimes…</p>
<p>OP should not be discouraged from doing engineering. the idea that engineering is “harder” is one of the great myths of college. think of it this way; most people’s GPAs are lowering in engineering, but it is more due to procrastination, laziness, and abstract concepts than any actual difficulty. a student who studies hard in engineering will do just as well as a student who studies hard in any other subject.</p>
<p>In response to all that’s been said,</p>
<p>No I believe Engineering is indeed tougher than other majors and undoubtedly more time consuming. You need to have a solid math base to manage to stay in engineering. CS is no walk in the park but it is less math demanding.</p>
<p>Do what you feel like doing but beware, a Bio major is NOT the same as engineering. You’ll be surprised how many engineering professors will trash other majors and make cheap humor by saying something among the lines of “Those of you that chose to do something useful in life…” or “If you don’t pass this class do not go running to the _____ major, they love engineers”. Usually no bashing at all on the sciences (joke is usually on majors not related to math or science) but engineering is still put on a higher pedestal. </p>
<p>But what I am getting to, no you can’t major in bio and become an engineer. Engineering courses are a lot more complex than that. But there is a reason for it. Engineers have a lot more intuition and very advanced skills in problem solving. Few people are born with that raw talent, most of us have to practice to get there, and these tough courses are the way to go… </p>
<p>Just to give you an idea, engineers take the tougher courses offered, first is math for math/science/ engineering majors (the 3 series and the 5 series), most majors are not required to take this class and take math 34 series instead (which is a very watered down version of the 3). Then it is physics, engineers are required to take from physics 1 to 4 or 5. This physics is only required for people in the Engineering department, not even physics majors are obliged. Other majors take the 6 series, again a very watered down, way less math intensive version of what engineers take. If you ever see any math 34 and physics 6 series problem, you’ll be blow away by how basic they are compared to anything in engineering. And the big one. All these courses mentioned that you take your first 2 years are nothing compared to true engineering courses especially upper division. They require both math and logic, so if you are not great at math or lack common sense you are heading for a bad ride. I feel siglio21 is oversimplifying it bit, sure expect to fail if you do not study properly, but you can try very hard and still get a C in a class. Oh and no engineering company is going to offer internships, much less a job to someone with a non-engineering degree.</p>
<p>About being fun, you will have a lot less free time than other majors: sure homeworks
could take a full day and labs can sure be tedious, BUT it’s hard to match up the feeling of accomplishment of actually completing a circuit, running a program without errors, etc…, for more simple that they could be. You will actually be doing something. </p>
<p>So chose wisely and be sure that is what you want, in either bio or engineering it is very hard to just do a 180 and then go the other direction, courses in engineering a and sciences are not exactly made for people that want to switch in ½ way through college.</p>
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let’s not be so hard on CS here. we have to take every single lower division math class offered regularly except math 5c; we even have to take cs 40, which is certified by the math department as equivalent to math 8, which is for math majors. we also have to take the pstat 120 series and math courses are in the list of required upper division electives that all CS majors have to take. how’s that for demanding math? :P</p>
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this comes from fact that engineers get paid more and that people want to feel superior to their peers. this is not an actual reflection of the academic value of any one major over another.</p>
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a student who studies for 34b will do just as well as a student who studies for 3b. people can get away with not studying in 34b, but they have to study for 3b. is the 34 series “watered down”? yes. but motivated students should not have problems whether they take the 3 series or the 34 series.</p>
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students of the 6 series have to do all of university physics in 3 quarters, whereas student of phys 1-2-3-… get 5 quarters; there is more math (calculus and linear algebra) in the phys 1-2-3-… series, but if you extract a non-motivated student from phys 1 and put him in 6a, he will probably do the same or worse. conversely, if you take a motivated student from 6a and put him in phys 1, he would probably do the same or better. both courses are difficult enough that studying is required for both in order to do well.</p>
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this is quite true from what ive heard, but every studious motivated student ive met has gotten A’s and B’s EXCLUSIVELY. those that fail out or get C’s are generally either not motivated for whatever reason (bad background in LD courses, personal issues, or disinterest) or dont study very well (this is more common).</p>
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if one studies throughout the quarter, he/she will probably get exclusively A’s and B’s. some people think cramming before exams or only completing hw assignments (without self-study) is an effective strategy. it’s not, and will lead to not-optimal grades.</p>
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yes! this is what is so rewarding about STEM :)</p>
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i suppose that’s true, but i know a student who switched from film studies to engineering and is doing well, so keep that in mind…</p>
<p>Sorry about that I did not mean to put down CS majors at all. In fact when I refer to engineers I mean anyone under the engineering department including CS majors. What I wanted to say is that CS is less math involved but I think it requires the most logic in the department. So if you manage to pass the lower division math and physics you won’t have to face more math, while let’s say an EE will do a lot of it, and messing up math on a test is very easy and possibly costly to your grade. Again on the downside, CS requires more logic, so tests and programs are not so straightforward, you have to reason through it, but I feel less people tend to fail out of CS as opposed to EE on the the first 1 an ½ years.</p>
<p>On the physics and math courses, you are right switch courses and the same might happen, it still doesn’t change the fact it is a tougher course, the material is a lot denser and it prepares students for tougher math problems early on. I disagree on the A’s and B’s too, if that was true most engineers would have a GPA close to a 3.5, that is just crazy talk on the engineering department. I think it level’s off close to a 3.0ish, and that is the ½ of engineer’s that made it through. Ask 1st and 2nd years (when many have not been filtered out yet), a very good number of them will be below a 3.0.</p>
<p>And the last thing is the switching majors, well technically you can switch majors, but if you are on your 2nd or 3rd year, then you basically have to start from zero ($40,000-$60,000 just turned into dust). There are majors that overlap, but going from Bio to CS or vise versa , well I hope you are still on your first year when you make that decision</p>