<p>Hello,</p>
<p>I'm a rising senior in highschool and I'm looking for colleges in which I can take both science and engineering courses, and possibly do a double major (one engineering like computer science and one science like biology). I know that it's usually easier for engineering students to take science (or liberal arts) courses, but I'm looking at colleges where there is no distinction between a school of engineering and a school of liberal arts, or at least a school that allows liberal arts students to take engineering courses. Although I have competitive scores (2380 SAT and above a 4.0 weighted GPA), I know that I look much more like a liberal arts student than an engineering student on paper. Does anybody have any suggestions of top-tier schools that fit this specification?</p>
<p>Thank you in advance!</p>
<p>Top-tier schools generally don’t have separate admission into engineering or restrictions on changing majors, so those with engineering programs should fit the bill: places like MIT, Stanford, Harvard, etc. MIT has a major in computer science and molecular biology that you might be interested in instead of double majoring. Of course, those places are all extremely hard to get into. Top LACs with engineering also fit what you’re looking for; places like Swarthmore, Smith (if female), etc.</p>
<p>If you’re specifically looking at computer science (as opposed to other engineering majors), many schools without engineering programs have computer science, so you would have more options in that case.</p>
<p>Look at Brown. It used to be just as you described–no distinction. And they don’t admit by major, they just admit to the college but science majors do have a supplemental essay. But since my daughter graduated they have formed the engineering into the School of Engineering. I need to check out what these changes mean but I doubt they radically are different then it was. Most students don’t formally declare major until sophomore year, and I don’t think engineers pick a subfield until then although they do need to start freshman year.</p>
<p>However, at Brown, CE is in the engineering dept, but CS in not. So CS is just part of the Liberal Arts. There are also joint degrees, math-cs (my daughter dd that one) , econ-cs, and computational biology. Also Brown doesn’t have distribution requirements so you can take more of your own choosing.</p>
<p>So if you are interested in CS there are a lot of colleges where CS is in Arts and Sciences. At Cornell it is in both. If you want you can take it in CAS instead of COE and it leaves you more courses for Sciences etc.</p>
<p>Ordinarily, double majoring while getting an engineering degree is very difficult - but if anyone is going to do it, it’s someone with a 2380 SAT. Even then, it’ll be a challenge, so to ease the load, I’d definitely look for a school that will grant you AP credit for some of your distribution requirements or a school with minimal/no distribution requirements.</p>
<p>Cornell Engineering admissions is separate from the other undergraduate colleges at Cornell.</p>
<p>Many schools, with or without engineering, offer computer science as an “arts and sciences” type of major, so double majoring with another such major is likely simpler administratively and with fewer supplemental requirements that engineering-based computer science majors have (e.g. physics, additional math).</p>
<p>Some schools offer computer science as both an engineering-based major and as an “arts and sciences” type of major (e.g. Berkeley, Cornell). Admission selectivity may differ between the divisions, and switching between the divisions may not be automatic.</p>
<p>Some schools do not have different undergraduate administrative divisions with different breadth requirements (e.g. MIT, Harvard, Stanford, Brown, as mentioned above – although MIT has extensive breadth requirements).</p>
<p>Since there are so many sequenced engineering courses, you may not have room in your schedule for many other classes…however, usually an eng’g major already requires a number of math/science courses…Calc I, II, III, DifEq and other math courses…plus Physics w/ Calc I, II, Gen Chem, etc. </p>
<p>If you want to double major or come close to having a double major, then look at schools where you will get lots of AP credits. Those credits can open up your schedule to make room for elective courses or a second major.</p>
<p>My engineering son’s school gave him 45 credits for his AP classes. That allowed him space to get minors in Math, Bio, Chem and almost completed a minor in Spanish. He also took a couple of Italian classes for fun.</p>
<p>Thank you to all of the replies! I am definitely considering taking computer science as a liberal arts degree, but I’m not positive that I want to do CS. Although I’ve had much more experience with science courses, I think coupling a science degree with an engineering degree–however difficult the course load may be–will help me tremendously in the long run.
Are there any other good schools where I can keep my options open and pick from a variety of science and engineering majors and do a double major? I’m looking at the ivies and colleges like MIT and Stanford, but I’m open to applying to schools that aren’t quite as prestigious, as long as they’ll give me a quality education.</p>