Hi. My D is interested in CU Boulder’s Engineering school. She wants to major in Computer Science and minor in Biomedical Engineering. She is especially interested in the Engineering Honors Program. Just wondering if anyone can speak to both how hard it is to get accepted into their College of Engineering and Applied Science (noticed some posters tried to get in but were wait-listed or put in pre-engineering or something else), and also if she has a good chance of being accepted into Engineering Honors Program? I believe I read that only about 20% of applicants to Eng. Honors Program get in. She is a Junior with 4.4 GPA (4.0 unweighted), strong math and science including AP Physics & Calc/Trig, 4 honors and 4 AP classes so far, and 33 ACT. Also, any info or opinions to share on the Engineering Honors Program and/or the Computer Science Dept or Biomedical Engineering Minor?
There are often waitlists and students who get into CU and Honors turn down CU for out of state offers, so then, there is room in Honors Engineering at the last minute. Global Engineering is very similar type of dorm and has more room, as the student must answer an essay in Russian, French or Spanish, but its no longer a dorm for speaking languages, its just a well located dorm for engineers who want to study.
Regarding Engineering Honors (my son was admitted, so this is a parent perspective)-- there is a separate application for this program/LLC. The application essay is important, so make sure your daughter researches the program and can give compelling answers about why she is interested and how she sees herself fitting in.
Good luck!
Also be aware that the Engineering Honors curriculum at CU and many public schools is no different than the regular engineering curriculum. In fact, regular students can take honors math typically. Honors is just a living group at CU. That may end up being important, but there are three honors oriented engineering dorms, so don’t over fixate on “Honors Engineering”. If one does get into Honors, they claim the student will get better research projects but in reality, research work is dependent on the student making connections with professors and graduate students, and not dependent so much on living in the “honors engineering” dorm. I don’t really see an advantage to being in the Engineering Honors program, and its administered by a biologist who now works as a literature/writing professor, which always seemed odd to me. Honors Students must take a humanities class from Professor Scot Douglass.
http://www.cuhonorsengineering.com
Global Engineering has just as smart students as the Honors dorm–
http://globalengineeringrap.org
And another option
https://www.colorado.edu/engineering-advising/EngineeringLLC
Brackett Hall is another living group for smarter engineering students-
https://living.colorado.edu/content/brackett-hall
So don’t over fixate on Andrews Hall/Honors Engineering, unless you want to take a class with Professor Scot Douglass. You will have to take that class if you live at Andrews Hall.