Hi all,
I am looking at majoring in some type of engineering or computer science. I am currently a junior in high school. I am indecisive as to what I really want to major in but I like the way A&M admits to engineering majors. They admit everyone as pre-engineering and then everyone takes classes like computer science and other various classes based around engineering in order to figure out what to major in. Are there other schools that do this too? I want to have options just in case I’m not admitted to Texas A&M.
Actually, what Texas A&M does is the opposite of admitting to major, since it admits to pre-engineering.
Other well known schools which admit to pre-engineering include Minnesota, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Purdue. Washington admits a few students directly to majors, but most prospective engineering or CS majors are admitted to pre-engineering.
However, this method has its disadvantages. When a major has fewer spaces available than interested students, the pre-engineering process becomes a “weed-out” process, usually based on college GPA, but may also include essay applications. How competitive a given major is at a given school is varies – investigate carefully. Some schools using this method have automatic-admission-to-major GPAs (e.g. 3.5 at Texas A&M, 3.2 at Minnesota, 3.0 at Virginia Tech), but not all do.