College of Engineering: Questions on Declaring a CS-Eng Major and the Engineering Honors Program

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Michigan
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First of all, I’m not sure if this post belongs here since this is quite distant from undergraduate admissions. Please let me know if there’s a better site/discussion where this would belong. This is my first time posting on College Confidential, so I’d greatly appreciate any tips.

I plan to attend UMich in the fall as a first year student, and my program is indicated as Engineering: First Year. Upon further research, I found that major declaration can happen as early as 2nd semester, but most undergraduates do so their sophomore year. While I could find plenty of data on admissions to CoE as a whole, the exact opposite happened to me with declaring a major inside CoE.

I’d like to declare my major (afterwards) as Computer Science in CoE. After reading a summary of the CoE website’s FAQs on major declaration, I learned that I should request an appointment after fulfilling all prerequisites, and then the director would accept or deny my declaration.

To make a long story short, those were the questions I had:

  • What qualities does CoE look for in CS-Eng applicants? (i.e. are freshman year grades in the prerequisite classes the sole factor, or do they factor in CS-related extracurricular activities as well?) I doubt this is the case, but just to clarify: are high school grades or extracurricular involvement also factors?
  • How competitive (in terms of acceptance rate, average CS-Eng qualifications) is the CS-Eng program? How many seats are there for the major?
  • If I don’t make it, would my chances in CS-LSA be higher? Also, how difficult would a CoE to LSA transfer be in this case?
  • For the Honors Program: What qualities do they look for in applicants (as in the first question, such as freshman year grades, ECs, credentials from high school)? Also, are activities of the Honors Program identical to all degrees in CoE, or do they differ from major to major?

Thank you for reading my long question, and in advance, for sharing any knowledge about CS-Eng and/or the Honors Program!

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CoE does not have any seat limitations per major. If you meet the GPA requirements and complete the prerequisite classes, you can declare your major. They do not care about high school grades or ECs.

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Thank you very much!

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The honors program requires a 3.6 GPA, and a minor and has a number of different options including a masters. The activities are based on your individual needs and wants but are somewhat limited because of the high credit hour requirement of your major (60+ for CoE majors, plus required classes and prerequisites). You don’t have to apply for honors until late in freshman year for the 1st term of your sophomore year, by that time you should have narrowed down your CoE major somewhat (many students change their minds during freshman year) .

One caveat is that if you plan to study abroad, you should make a plan freshman year because of the limited windows you will have due to progression of your classes.

FYI you just need to have a 2.0 for any engineering major (including CS) and be in good academic standing (and passed the prerequisites) . The average engineering GPA is around 3.3 so that is rarely a problem. Michigan does not have major cut offs like many other schools. Expect to study a lot while your LS&A friends are partying, no engineering discipline is easy. Engineers and nurses are the busiest students on campus. CS is particularly time consuming.