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I have read in many admission books that putting engineering as a major, a back door entry to enter into elite university such as Princeton, Yale, Stanford, (Columbia, Cornell, and UPenn do not allow inner transfer between humanities and engineering program).
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<p>I agree with the rest of the posters that it is going to be harder to back door your way into an elite school by applying as an engineering major. Schools that have engineering schools (Columbia/Penn, Cornell, etc) have a different admissions committes and a group of self selected students applying to these schools. Many of these schools do not make it easy to transfer from the engineering school to the school of Arts & Sciences.</p>
<p>In the case of using engineering as a back door into Princeton, Yale Stanford because schools know that student do change majors so applying as an engineering major while having nothing else in your application that remotely demonstrates interest in becoming an engineer is probably not going to give you a leg up.</p>
<p>Not a real backdoor. Generally speaking the 25-75 SAT scores are better at engineering schools than the associated liberal arts school within the same university. Columbia is one of those schools.</p>
<p>The difference is that fewer students apply to the engineering school but those that do have higher standardized test scores.</p>
<p>If a student has a certain academic profile, engineering may be a "backdoor" to get into a highly selective school, where the admissions stats are more favorable for the school of engineering than for the arts and sciences. That certain profile is not simply a "lower" version of the school's general profile. Engineering schools look for different things. A book written by a former Duke admissions employee gave an example of how the admissions would differ at that school at one time. The kids I know who got into top engineering programs but did not get into selective colleges as non engineers, had phenomonal math/science scores, were extremely advanced in those courses, often past sophome college level, and were very much involved in engineering geared ECs that I cannot imagine someone who is not interested in engineering spending the time doing. It's like saying that debate kids get a boost into the selective colleges overmany other ECs so your kid should focus on that activity. (I am hearing this a lot lately). It is true, that EXCELLENT debaters are sought by a number of top schools, but the levels of achievement have to be waaaay up there to attract such colleges. The same with sports. You have to have the capability to be a contributing athlete for a school to get extra consideration. Just playing foot ball for X years doesn't make much difference. THe same goes for Classical Studies majors, that some selective schools want. If the student does not have the interest in the area, and demonstrate some high level of achievement, it isn't going to cut much ice in the selective college pools. </p>
<p>There are some schools who are looking for certain types of students, and the admissions standards are not as stringent for those kids as for the most of the applicants. A science school trying to broaden its reputation in other subjects falls into that category. A male in the application pool at a school that is lop sided in M/F ratio has an edge. Being from a far away, rare geographic area has an edge. I know that aspiring female engineers are looked upon favorably. But for the most part, the even the rare majors that can get a student a special "flag" for admissions, are looking for a level of commitment and achievement that is not easy to do casually. A true interest in the field along with time and work at a high level is necessary.</p>
<p>The reason I asked this question we know few kids who did not make to Wharton but got into UPenn engineering program. Simlarly there are few kids who got into engineering at columbia but the same student did not get into columbia college.</p>
<p>"The reason I asked this question we know few kids who did not make to Wharton but got into UPenn engineering program. Simlarly there are few kids who got into engineering at columbia but the same student did not get into columbia college."</p>
<p>Though someone may have told you the above, it cannot be true. The same student cannot be accepted engineering at Penn and rejected by Wharton because the student can only apply for one or the other, not both. The only exception is a student who applies to one of the "joint programs" that is administered by both colleges and admission is evaluated on a different level for them (and few are admitted to any joint program); they sometimes offer a joint program applicant admission to only one or the other (Wharton or engineering) but that does not reflect rejection from the one not offered but instead rejection of the student's doing the combined program. Columbia does not allow you to apply to both the school of engineering and Columbia College.</p>
<p>The Fisher Program in Management & Technology is a highly competitive program, with annual admission limited to 55 students. </p>
<p>M&T students pursue a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School and either a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) or a Bachelor of Applied Science in Engineering (BAS) from Penn Engineering.</p>
<p>M&T is one of the "joint programs" I was referring to in the above and again if a student who so applies is offerred admission instead to engineering or business (Wharton) but not both, that simply reflects rejection from pursuing the joint program not that the other particular college would have rejected the student if he had applied only to it.</p>
<p>I guess you could say that you may be able to "back door" your way into a school through engineering, but it going to be one heck of a gauntlet to get through that door.</p>
<p>I recall that some schools had separate colleges and some had one overall admissions pool. CMU, for example, had one application but you ranked which colege you wanted. CS, engineering, and science were separate schools, and admission criteria seemed ranked with CS as toughest. Several kids were accepted into engineering school but preferred the CS school, and asked many questions about ease of transfer and taking classes within that school.
Being unsure of future major, better that S chose an inclusive school. For many of his friends, going to engineering programs was by far a better option.</p>
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But, there is absolutely no way that acceptance to top engineering programs (MIT, Cal Tech, Berekely, Stanford to name just a few) is easier than those school's Liberal Arts programs.
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<p>Can't speak for the others, but MIT has only one undergrad admissions pool - and admissions are prospective-major-blind.</p>