A bit below 3.0.
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If the senior year GPA or graduation GPA is much higher, they might be āweeding outā in the freshman year.
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Very good information! Thanks Bucket22!
Have you noticed that the GPA has trended down every semester for pre-engineering?
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@Bucket22 your public.tableau.com LINK is pure GOLD.
I am browsing different configurations. Notice the major of interest (I just picked Computer Sci) and hover over the number of freshman students by term. Fall has about 1.8x more than does Spring. Eye opening.
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I think the most useful metric for us, Bucket22, is PRE-ENGINEERING.
. Also, it seems likely that the science/math GPA would be lower than the overall 2.70 as those tend to be harder classes (ie- the 2.70 includes a bunch of easier non-science/math classes).
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- You can also see by college and ES has the lowest GPA among all colleges.
- Senior GPA is higher than freshman by 0.2-0.4. Not sure if it proves anything.
Donāt you need a minimum of 3.0 for graduate school?
You need a 3.0 IN graduate school. Whether you get into grad school with less is up to the school.
If you have a direct to engineering admit anywhere else comparable, it makes no sense to take the ES route. Itās not obvious to me what CUās strategy is. They could have just denied or waitlisted these applicants. What would be the rationale for sending them to ES. Most of these admits wont come to Boulder. May be that helps CU in some way but I just canāt see it.
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If you have a change major button on the portal and an alternate major interests you then apply for the alt major.
I did for my D22 and got the alt major.
Original applied CS (BS) - admitted to ES. Applied change major to CS (BA) and was approved.
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Looks like a good option, but S22 is pretty set on doing CS within a college of engineering because he wants to minor in CompE/EE and pursue other engineering topics of interest. Heās got 3 other direct CS options and the CSUs/UCs to come, so he gave up on CU.
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I thought Exploratory Studies has supplanted Pre-Engineeringās role and Pre-Engineering no longer exists at Boulder, though I donāt have a source handy, so Iām not sure.
BA is in the college of engineering but this is no match for direct CS admits. Plus UCās are great schools and most are ranked higher than CU
Got it. I just assumed that with the BA, engineering courses might be off limits or not easily accessible. Letās hope UCSC comes through for all of us this week 
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Please use caution; Last year my child applied to CU Leeds School of Business and was offered admission to the Pre-Business Program in the Program in Exploratory Studies. She did not accept the admission to CU for several reasons. Pre-Business students are required to participate in the Pre-Business Residential Academic Program at Williams Village North residence hall for all business classes and all general education classes would be on main campus a 15-minute bus ride. Additionally, we know people whose child applied for engineering was accepted to the Program in Exploratory Studies (PES) in the past. At the end of his first year, he missed the required grades by .03 (I think) and was not able to transfer into his engineering program. Therefore, he either had to transfer to another college to get into an engineering program or change his major. For some kids, admittance to Program in Exploratory Studies with a GPA requirement to be accepted into their chosen major adds a lot of pressure on a first-year college student trying to adapt to the college life.
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Pre-Engineering is a major within the Exploratory Studies college. A few years ago UC moved the Pre-Engineering and Pre-Business majors from where they were (I think it was in the liberal arts college) to their own separate college. I have spoken to admissions personnel and they said that they did this because the kids were getting lost and were not getting the best advising when they were among the other liberal arts students. They werenāt successfully transferring to their intended majors and UC was concerned about that. UC wants the kids to be successful in transferring to their intended majors.
I know that hitting the GPA thresholds adds pressure to the kids their first year-- and that is a negative in chosing UC if you are in the ES program-- but I do NOT agree with the other poster that said that it āmakes no senseā to take the ES route if you are a direct admit at a comparable college elsewhereā¦Keep in mind that the GPA thresholds are fairly low. And all classes are eligible for grade replacement (you can take a class twice and only count the second attempt in your GPA). With that kind of leeway, itās kind of hard to see how a motivated, reasonably talented student couldnāt find their way to the 3.00/2.70 benchmarks. CU wants these kids to transfer to their intended majors, they donāt want to take them in and watch them flounder.
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Weāre taking our daughter on March 18th also. Her brother is a junior there and we didnāt do it with him, but our daughter is still slightly undecided so we thought it would be helpful for her.
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Wow, 20-25%. Could be because kids that actually enroll into PES donāt have other direct admit options at other schools so their incoming HS GPA isnāt high? Or kids who get admitted into PES donāt show deterministic preference for the major in their applications (ASE, CS or whatever in terms of classes that they took or extracurricular activities that they pursued) so the PES group is 75% undecided to start with? I mentioned the other girl who applied from our HS to ME at Boulder and got PESā¦ Good grates etc but no STEM classes in school like Intro in engineering, Coding, Aerospace engineering that my daughter took. So I think the girl - my daughters varsity swim friend - may actually be one of those who would chose something other than ME after the first year as there is no real engagement into the major yet?
We rejected Penn State from same point of view - 2+2 requires a min GPA to get into a major she wants, and admission into 2+2 feels like a rejection in a way and I f CU Boulder had responded with PES admission we would be going to either ASU or Iowa State where we did get direct admissionā¦
I honestly donāt like these games colleges are playing - elaborate admissions into wrong majors with min requirements to get back where you wanted to go in the beginningā¦ I am an engineer and I donāt understand concepts like FYE at Purdue and General engineering at many others. Unnecessary stress and an unrealistic hope that is way too much for these freshmen kids
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Katie15
I see you live in Florida and that you have a son at CU. We are Floridians and our daughter was accepted at CU in Aerospace. She applied to Engineering colleges for either Mechanical or Aerospace depending on the strength of the program at that particular college. We are heading out to Colorado for the weekend of March 12th to see CU and MINES a second time but most importantly because school will be in session (First visit was during summer so no sense of the student life). Why did your son pick CU? Why would your daughter consider it. I see from past posts she plays Tennis. My daughter plays as well. Actually, was being recruited at smaller schools but has no interest. She wants Engineering and a bigger school, plus she figures she can play Club in a more relaxed setting.
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Would love to hear your thoughts on CU vs Mines after your visit. My son has been admitted to both as well and we visited during the summer. Cannot make a trip back out due to spring sport commitment. Going to be very challenging for him to make an informed decision with so little first-hand information - only visited 3 of the 10 schools he applied to!
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