I am currently a senior in high school. I’m looking at a back up school Incase I get off the waitlist at UCSC. My choice is between ASU where I was accepted directly into the mechanical engineering program and CU Boulder where I was accepted to the exploratory studies program. Which school has a better engineering program and how would I transfer to boulder engineering.
Net price and debt at each?
Looks like CU Boulder thinks that you are at the lower end of the range of students aspiring for engineering, so they gave you exploratory studies / pre-engineering instead of an engineering major.
https://www.colorado.edu/pre-engineering/welcome-pre-engineering describes pre-engineering, where you need to take the needed prerequisite courses and earn at least a 2.7 overall and technical college GPA to be admitted to an engineering major.
If net price and debt do not override, ASU with direct admission to your major is the safer choice.