I’m looking down the road for a student who is just a freshman in high school. He’s bright and has taken honors courses since sixth grade, but I don’t really expect him to have the highest GPA or the highest test scores coming out of high school. Evidently CU Engineering keeps getting more competitive, so I am looking at alternatives routes as backups.
Colorado seems to be making it relatively easy to transfer from a community college to a four year state school. Assuming he takes the right courses in CC and gets the right grades, will the CU engineering school accept him?
Currently, a “B” average in CC should get you in, as a transfer student.
However, as you stated it’s getting more competitive. The Dean of Engineering expects 8,000 applicants
by 2020 for Freshman year. So any student desiring CU Boulder Engineering should be applying themselves
starting in H.S. Freshman year. Study hard and take the AP Calculus, Chemistry, and Physics courses
being prepared is the best possible advice!
As any current CU Engineering student will tell you…Engineering is the toughest major!
@coloradobased CU Engineering offers Pre engineering, so its much better, (if you can afford it) to start your son at CU pre engineering
than a community college in Colorado, the math will be much better here :
https://www.colorado.edu/pre-engineering/how-pre-engineering-works/admission-engineering
Its also plausible he can get directly into engineering, as a 9th grader its way too early to tell.
Also tour Colorado School of Mines and Colorado State in Fort Collins.
A ninth grader its way too soon to know if he is going to be interested in engineering.
What math is he taking as a 9th grader? He will need four years of math. Did he take algebra in 8th grade?
What grade did he get in algebra?
CU Engineering is getting harder, but its not impossible to get in. Also he can look at CU Arts and Sciences
and major in computer science, they offer a BA degree that is less math and science than the Bachelors of Science degree in the college of engineering. CU Arts and Sciences has a much lower test score and grade requirement.
https://www.colorado.edu/cs/current-students/undergraduate-students/ba-degree
You can PM me if you have more questions.
I keep reading about how to get a CU engineering degree if you aren’t initially accepted into CU engineering or even pre-engineering. It looks like the local community colleges are set up as feeder schools. Colorado Mountain College in Steamboat seems to be very successful placing their two-year engineering students into four-year programs.
Both Western Colorado University and Colorado Mesa University offer four year, on campus programs that result in CU Engineering degrees.
I just looking at possible options. This freshman has taken all honors courses in middle school and now as a freshman, but his first semester looks like it will be a mix of As, Bs, and Cs. He knows he has to do better from now on, but just in case he doesn’t make the CU cut, I want to know plan B and Plan C.
It’s possible he won’t want to go into engineering when the time comes, or he may decide a computer science degree from the A&S school is sufficient. He has taught himself coding in a variety of languages and will continue to do so. He’s smart, but not necessarily a motivated student.
I should add. He likes to figure stuff out for himself. He’s creative. It’s possible that a traditional engineering program is too structured for him, but we’ll have to see as he takes more high school math and science courses.
I was going to suggest the Mesa-CU engineering degree but you already know about it. It is a really good option and less expensive than Boulder. It gives the student the ability to stay at one campus for 4 years too.
I don’t think there are a ton of transfer from CC to CU students. The path is there, but not common. I think more end up at CU-Denver (also a good option) or Colorado Springs. My nephew is at CU boulder and while he’s had some friends transfer to CU, I don’t think any are in engineering.
Western Colorado University is setting up a CU engineering program like Mesa. It will offer mechanical and computer science. He has ties to Crested Butte so Gunnison would be the better fit than Grand Junction.
Because Western is so much smaller than CU, it will like be better for him, but CU is nearby.
I’ll toss this out. This is Colorado Mountain College, which has itsore-engineering program at its Steamboat campus.
“From the program at CMC in Steamboat Springs, 100 percent of students who have completed year two have transferred and earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering.
Colorado Mountain College engineering students have transferred to and completed engineering degrees at the University of Colorado (Boulder and Denver), Colorado State University, Colorado School of Mines and the University of Wyoming.”
Sorry about the typo. That should have read: “This is Colorado Mountain College, which has its pre-engineering program at its Steamboat campus.”
100% might be 5 or 10 students over several years. You need to ask how many student started the engineering program and finished, and then successfully transferred.
The Mesa program is proven.
Mesa has a seamless program and Western will have (Western currently works with UCCS, but you have to transfer to the UCCS campus to finish). So each has a four year program.
Steamboat caught my eye in that it is an example of a successful CC transfer program.
Presumably CC pre-engineering is as hard as it is at CU, so there will be dropouts before students amass enough credits to transfer. But it looks like it is one avenue for students who want to end up at CU engineering even if they don’t get accepted initially.
What might be good about CC classes is the smaller size, for students who can use more attention.
My understanding is that if you take the right CC courses and get the grades, CU engineering will take you.