Now that final decisions have come out. I’m asking the CC forum here for some schools that do direct admission to your desired engineering major as opposed to being accepted to general engineering and having to reapply after 1st or 2nd year for desired ME,CivE,ChemE, etc.
We’re in California, so I know that all UCs are impacted for all engineering majors, thus students have to apply to desired engineering major (depending on GPA) after some core classes are finished. While CSUs have higher EI indexes/MCA points (for Cal Poly) to gain admissions for desired engineering major, but no need to re-apply once admitted . DS is a 2013 grad at CP SLO.
DD is currently a HS sophomore, interested in ChemE or structural engineering (took Arch rendering classes). Strong in sciences with AP Chem, honors physics planned (no AP offered). Good (not great) in math, took honor ALG 2, but possibly will drop down to regular pre-calc due to B minus grade, therefore could finish with AP Calc AB istead of BC as highest math. GPA at end of this year is expected to be 3.82uw, 4.0w. PSAT (10th grade) 171. No SAT/ACT taken yet. Will study for ACT during summer, targeting 9/15 ACT test date. Sat 2 bio: 740 (after only regular bio). Plan for sat 2 chem in june, with retake if needed next year after AP chem.
Looking for possible college list though I know it maybe a little early. Know about U of Alabama, ASU after lurking on CC. Will be full pay, but any OOS college suggestions would be appreciated.
Some places may not be direct admit because all students need to take those preengineering courses and do well enough in them first. UW-Madison (ie Wisconsin) does this. Some engineering majors have size limits due to facilities- a check of the UW website will indicate those. The UW Chemistry department offers excellent courses, as does Chem E and other STEM areas. A campus atmosphere one could compare favorably with UC- Berkeley- liberal. Currently there is a learning community for women in science and engineering in the dorms.
Do not dismiss those schools where admission is to the university as a whole, not a specific school/college. Check on the probability of getting into specific engineering programs. If a student can’t qualify s/he likely shouldn’t be in a major.
Your assumptions about UCs are incorrect. For example, Berkeley admits directly to engineering majors. It also has engineering undeclared, which allows choice of engineering major later. But changing from a non engineering major, or non engineering undeclared, is difficult.
@ucbalumnus I see that UCB requires freshman general engineering admits to take core classes before choosing a desired major with at least a GPA of 2.0. I guess it’s a good thing that if you can’t pull off a 2.0GPA, you have no business majoring in engineering. However, lurking the UC forum, it seems kids are being turned down for say ChemE as their 1st choice, and offered admission as general engineering, or worst admitted as a chemistry major (not in school of engineering). I’m assuming one could obtain direct admit to their desired engineering major if they are extremely qualified.
Just that the UC engineering admissions are pretty scary this year, more so than when DS was applying in 2009. In part due to the state budget funding for the UCs. And the fact that a whole mess of kids applied to Cal Poly SLO as a backup, causing CP engineering admission to be harder than most UCs due to limited spots.
I was under the impression that most students are admitted to undeclared engineering and then stipulate you need a certain GPA goal after taking all the core classes, to get into a certain engineering major.
Whoops, I was trying to say a GPA cut off of just not only 2.0, but say a 3.5 for CS, 3.4 for EE,3.2 for ChemE , etc.
It would be a downer if a student was just under the cutoff GPA, but really wanted that particular area of study.
For Berkeley, if by “general engineering” you mean engineering undeclared, that is actually a specific engineering “major” that frosh applicants need to choose to apply to. Most frosh applicants apply to specific engineering majors (and are admitted or rejected as such); engineering undeclared is actually considered one of the more selective majors to apply to (compared to other engineering majors). A student who has trouble maintaining a 2.0 GPA has worse problems than getting into a major, since falling below a 2.0 GPA for more than a semester means academic dismissal.
Note that engineering undeclared students are not subject to the usual change of major GPA and other criteria within the Berkeley College of Engineering.
At Berkeley, chemical engineering and chemistry are in the College of Chemistry (not College of Engineering). So changing between chemical engineering and another engineering major requires changing division.
As far as I know, Berkeley does not admit students to second choice majors, although it is possible that some other UCs may admit students to second choice majors or as undeclared students if they are not directly admitted to their first choice majors.