Hey everyone,
I am currently a rising senior who needs help putting together her college list. I am looking for universities with strong programs in both engineering and the liberal arts (specifically public policy or psychology) and, if those majors are housed in different colleges, where it would be fairly easy to transfer internally to the liberal arts (my current plan is to apply to engineering schools and, if needed, switch to the lib arts, since doing the opposite would be harder).
Any suggestions?
Thank you!
Currently my list includes the following colleges:
Duke
Northwestern
Vanderbilt
Carnegie Mellon (not sure if it is fairly easy to transfer internally, would apreciate it if someone knew)
You would have to go to each college’s web site to see whether such internal transfer (including to the new major) is restricted (typically due to capacity limitations).
I’m not sure the University of Rochester, for example, would require an internal transfer of any type. You would simply begin to choose a greater concentration of courses in your developing area(s) of interest.
Concerned about a desire to leave engineering, D14 attended Swarthmore. Really liked the engineering faculty and never considered changing after starting.
@momofsenior1
My stats are the following:
ACT: 34
SAT II: 780 on Math 2, 770 on Spanish, I am still going to do the Physics one.
Rank: Top 10%
My school doesn’t calculate GPA
ECs: President of tutoring club, leader at a house building project, coding teacher for low-income kids, for credit summer programs at Brown and Stanford, two-month internship coding at a startup where I responded directly to the CEO, counselor at an organization that aims to teach kids about peace and to connect them with people from other countries and backgrounds, language immersion student in France, courses outside of school in advanced Physics and Chemistry.
I am international and still need to take the TOEFL.
@EyeVeee I have looked into Swarthmore, but I got a little concerned with the fact that their only engineering major is in General Engineering. Does your D fee like that became a disadvantage for her at any point (like when getting an internship or job that people from places with more specific majors were also being considered)? What would she say were the main advantages of doing engineering at a liberal arts college?
There are a good number of public universities with extremely strong engineering and liberal arts programs. Depending on your state, one of these would be a lot cheaper, and their engineering programs are as good or better than your choices (except CMU).
Many engineering students at Duke pick up second majors in the arts & sciences. Econ, public policy, and CS are particularly popular choices for engineering majors, in more or less that order. You can only double major in engineering and A&S at Duke as a Pratt student, so definitely apply to Pratt rather than Trinity. That said, transferring between the two schools is fairly common and largely a matter of filling out the appropriate paperwork.
Cornell and USC come to mind for your interests, though USC is not great with financial aid for international students. If financial aid is not an issue, then public universities like Berkeley and Michigan are possibilities too.
Trinity (CT) has more students majoring in public policy than any other liberal arts college, and it’s one of the few to offer an engineering program. The latter may not be to your liking if you’re uncomfortable with a general engineering major, though.
Check out Case Western Reserve University. It was formed from the union of a Tech school and a liberal arts school.
Case also has a Single Door Admission Policy…once you are admitted, you are admitted to the entire university and can major in what you want or switch or take classes in what you want (you have to meet the requirements of a major of course).
No, because she (like I assume you) wasn’t sure what she wanted to do. In high school she liked robotics, she was good at math, she loved design…so engineering felt like as good a choice for major as any.
So come the engineering questions: Do you want to be…
So what kind of engineer do you want to be…don’t know.
Then why engineering…why not?
At Swat…thoughts of psychology and art history majors were (very briefly) entertained. Art history minor in the end.
I am nearly sure she would have switched at any other school…but she stayed with it because of the opportunities provided in the non-engineering classes.
She had multiple offers to do lots of different things upon graduation, and many of her friends have gone on to graduate programs where they then specialized. Their general engineering program isn’t for everyone…but it was perfect for her.
@merc81 is right about the ease of changing (and adding) majors at Rochester. First-year students are accepted into “The College of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering.” Decisions re. majors are made sophomore year. Lots of double majors, even for engineers. And many students who come into the school planning on one major who change their minds—sometimes several times—along the way. One student I know came in as a chemistry major on the premed track, changed to economics and physics, then dropped economics and added optical engineering.
Rochester is also a good school to consider for international students. IIRC, international students make up approximately one-fourth of the total student body.
It seems like it might be a good “match” school for you to add to a list that seems pretty “reach heavy” at present.