Hi! is it easier to get accepted as an engineering major if you’re female? because i recently realised i want to do engineering. im currently in the tenth grade. and all my current ec’s are english-focused(published author, debate, etc). i’m an asian international applicant, and english is my third language, so i’m guessing i count as urm for english majors too? i was planning an english major until very recently. and my SAT score is 800V 750M. so in these circumstances, should i apply for english and continue my current ec’s, or should i start doing STEM activities and apply for cs? since i’ll probably change to engineering later anyway. what would be easier to get admission into? Thanks!
It depends on the school you apply to but I wouldn’t have this mind set. Take classes that interest you in high school. If looking at stem then you need to take the highest math classes and physics etc you can. If there are stem classes /clubs /activities then join those also. There are many different types of engineering besides cs. Look them up and see what interests you.
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“since i’ll probably change to engineering later anyway. what would be easier to get admission into?” - Please don’t use that strategy.
Engineering course work is very well defined / sequential. It is much easier to switch out of engineering than to switch in. (Just watch out for any GPA requirements for department transfer. Unhappy engineering majors often have a low gpa).
Tell us more about why you like engineering, and then we can advise more.
I agree with post #2. It’s much easier to switch out of engineering than into engineering.
As to the bump for females in engineering - it totally depends on the school. If you are looking at CS, often times that major isn’t in the college of engineering. Again, it depends on the school.
If you are an international applicant, URM does not apply to you. You will be assessed in relation to other students from your country.
Curious as to why you are thinking of CS or engineering if you haven’t had any exposure to ECs? It might be a good idea to do some STEM ECs to make sure you actually like them.
You might want to look at Smith College. It’s a women’s college with strong STEM including a general engineering major. (In addition, it’s part of a consortium, so you could also take classes at UMass Amherst and the other three liberal arts colleges in the consortium.) Like most liberal arts colleges, Smith doesn’t admit by major, so you wouldn’t have to make a decision about English vs. Engineering until you had taken some classes in both. It’s quite friendly to international applicants - international students comprise almost 15% of the student population. https://www.smith.edu/engineering/bs.php
STEM ECs are dramatically overemphasized on these boards. If your school has them, great. Many schools don’t. At schools that do, many students don’t realize their interest them until it’s too late. Further, the actual, subjects within engineering are much more dependent on your math and physics skills than they are on whether or not you shot off a model rocket or built a basic robot in high school. STEM ECs can be useful and entertaining, but not doing STEM ECs should in no way discourage a student from studying a STEM field later.
I had zero STEM ECs in high school and zero actual STEM-related experience. Most of my non-school time involved sports or working at a grocery store. I am pretty sure my school didn’t even offer such ECs. Despite that, I went into a STEM field, went to graduate school in said field, and am now a tenure-track faculty member in said field. Lack of STEM ECs in high school has had zero effect on my life or career.
I agree that applied math and physics are the crux of engineering but IMO, the STEM ECs really helped my DD know that she was on the right track.
Science olympiad, robotics, STEM camps, SWE days all helped her immensely. Also helped her with her self esteem to know she could actually be successful.
Many of the students in my daughter’s friend group that have already thrown in the towel for engineering just went for it because they were good in math. That isn’t enough.
Ha - I don’t think there were many STEM ECs in my day. They generally would not give much advantage in college admissions (except for things like FIRST robotics award). But I do see how they could have some value in helping a student refine his/her ideas about college major.
I have to say that engineering weeks at colleges help my son also. Some of these were 2-3 weeks on campuses like Berkeley. Being with like minded kids working on projects seeing he could succeed also helped.
He also did a year of Java in high school and discovered, he doesn’t care for coding.
He did Ace Mentoring :http://acementorchicago.org
Was paired with an engineer and worked with team’s that worked with different engineering disciplines to build a shopping center as the real project. But learned to work with the idea of working with different types of engineers all working together. When the architects /designers didn’t like the blueprints the structural team had to refigure out what they needed to redo the build type of thing. Had to use Cad programs and use math skills. Etc.
And yes it helps for colleges. They see the interest and that it’s not just because they are good in math.
So as stated you don’t need any of this but I think having it gives some direction.
I am not claiming that STEM ECs aren’t useful. They may help a student decide to pursue (or not to pursue) a related career in a STEM field. However, I am also strongly advocating that not doing STEM ECs is not a valid reason to rule it out.
Totally agree with that also. There just seems to be more opportunities for these kids to do something these days
Other programs for women engineers, beyond Smith, include –
Sweet Briar (ABET accredited program) – https://sbc.edu/stem/engineering/
Bryn Mawr (4+1 program at UPenn for a BA and MA degree) – https://www.brynmawr.edu/academics/41-master-engineering-penn
https://www.brynmawr.edu/news/program-gives-bryn-mawr-students-opportunity-earn-engineering-degrees
Haverford has the same program as Bryn Mawr (as they share many programs) and Haverford is coed.
Note: women can attend engineering programs at co-ed institutions, too. There’s no reason to restrict the scope to female-only schools.
Engineering Bachelor’s Degrees Awarded
to Women by School
- Georgia Institute of Technology 912
- University of California, San Diego 440
- University of Michigan 430
- Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign 395
- Purdue University 392
- Texas A&M University 390
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology 387
- Virginia Tech 374
- The Ohio State University 354
- University of California, Berkeley 346
- The Pennsylvania State University 341
- The University of Texas at Austin 336
- Cornell University 330
- University of Florida 299
- North Carolina State University 289
- Clemson University 286
- University of Washington 285
- Arizona State University 282
- Colorado School of Mines 277
- California Poly. State U., SLO 268
Percentage of Engineering Bachelor’s
Degrees Awarded to Women
by School*
- Olin College of Engineering 53.7%
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology 46.9%
- Harvey Mudd College 46.8%
- Tulane University 45.5%
- Brown University 43.1%
- Dartmouth College 42.2%
- Southern Methodist University 39.3%
- Cornell University 38.4%
- Princeton University 37.9%
- University of Miami 37.8%
- Columbia University 37.6%
- Howard University 37.4%
- William Marsh Rice University 37.0%
- U.S. Coast Guard Academy 36.2%
- The George Washington University 35.1%
- Carnegie Mellon University 34.7%
- Worcester Polytechnic Institute 34.7%
- The Johns Hopkins University 34.7%
- Stanford University 34.6%
- Lafayette College 34.5
Engineering Women Tenured/Tenure-Track
Faculty by School
- Georgia Institute of Technology 83
- University of Michigan 82
- Univ. of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign 75
- Purdue University 73
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology 71
- Arizona State University 69
- University of Washington 64
- Virginia Tech 64
- Texas A&M University 59
- The Pennsylvania State University 59
- North Carolina State University 56
- The Ohio State University 55
- University of Florida 54
- The University of Texas at Austin 49
- University of California Davis 49
- Clemson University 45
- Cornell University 45
- Stanford University 45
- Iowa State University 44
- University of California Berkeley 44
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I wouldn’t compromise your engineering education to go to a small female-only institution.Those programs, although ABET accredited are seriously lacking when compared to full fledged programs. One only need to visit to see what compromises one would be making. I’m not picking on women’s colleges. There are small coed institutions that I feel the same way about.
There are other advantages to attending women’s colleges. Graduates from women’s colleges are disproportionately successful in their careers, regardless of the sector. They make up a higher percentage of CEOs, politicians, academics, scientists, etc.
The comment about the programs lacking because they are small LACs is myopic for at least Bryn Mawr and Smith, as both of these schools are parts of consortia with access to a wide range of courses at the partnering schools. Smith has access to courses at UMass Amherst, for example. Bryn Mawr has access to courses at Swarthmore (which has an engineering program) and at University of Pennsylvania.
An advantage of being in a small program, such as at Smith and Bryn Mawr, is that the nurturing nature of the programs basically eliminates the weeder classes. The teaching is personal for the individual, there’s a warm supportive community, and pressure is greatly reduced.
It’s hardly a “compromise” to attend one of these elite women’s programs.
There’s simply no replacement for facilities…none. Now, there are certainly advantages to attending smaller schools. I can tell you though that my son has done multiple lab projects for classes that are as or more robust than the capstone projects at the small schools named above. Engineering programs, regardless of ABET are not created equally. Applicants must decide what they are willing to forgo. There absolutely is a compromise, just as there is in choosing a big state school like Illinois or Purdue. ALL schools have compromises.
As a female engineer, I would never recommend attending a female-only school for engineering.
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@colorado_mom Well I guess because lately I’ve been influenced by people in my locality, seeing how they’re able to do so much with their technical knowledge. I’ve wanted to be writer since forever, but lately I’ve been feeling like engineering has so much of a creative side as well, and through it, i would be able to directly impact society in a much deeper way-- creative writing is fun, but at the end of the day, it can only do so much.
And the math and science part isn’t much of a problem, i go to the best school in my country and am near the top of my class, i guess top 5. all my classes are math, physics, chemistry, english and economics. I’ve always been interested in science subjects, but I’ve never really thought about pursuing a career in them till very recently.
@boneh3ad , of course. (I was a woman at MIT back when the ratio was like 4:1 - I’m hardly averse to the idea of women at co-ed institutions for engineering.) I suggested Smith specifically, for this specific student, because:
- She has been planning on an English major up 'til now and should definitely choose a school that would be a strong choice if she were to return to that plan
- She is in the early stages of interest in engineering, and would likely do better at a school that does not admit by major and that isn’t dominated by students who have been immersed in STEM pursuits for many years
- The tendency for guys, in particular, to have that kind of head start in terms of interest and EC’s is one of the drivers of gender disparities in engineering and CS
- She’s still thinking of engineering in very general terms, so her needs would probably be met by a high-quality general engineering program like Smith’s, as opposed to a school where many sub-specialities are offered and students must “hit the ground running” in a specialty.
- The availability of the consortium helps to mitigate any limitations of the small LAC, as well as ensuring that there are plenty of male students around to balance the pros and cons of a women’s college.
- International admissions are difficult - and a student with a new-ish interest in engineering would be at a disadvantage in applying to specialty programs, whereas this student sounds like a terrific candidate for a top-tier LAC that also has an engineering option
- Women’s colleges tend to be easier admits than coed institutions of similar reputation/rigor (especially for women who are over-represented in the applicant pool for most LAC’s), plus Smith takes a relatively large number of international students. So while it’s true that a somewhat similar coed institution like Swarthmore - also top-notch liberal arts and a small but high-quality engineering program - would be equally appropriate, it would be a much tougher admit (11% acceptance rate overall - even lower for women - and 11% international students, vs. Smith’s 38% acceptance rate and 15% international students). Swat could be a great reach school for OP, but for “proof of concept” I thought it better to suggest an excellent school that would be more of a match. Smith is the only top-tier women’s college with an in-house engineering program, so it seemed like an important option to point out.
However, I’m obviously just running one suggestion up the flagpole; OP may well clarify and say that this doesn’t fit her vision for what’s she’s looking for. Fair enough! Other good options would be mid-sized universities that have strength in both STEM and humanities and offer an “open door policy” to explore/change majors. Case Western Reserve U could be a particularly good choice in this vein. OP might want to look at their Engineering Physics major, within which students choose a sub-specialty that gives them sufficient preparation to apply to more specialized grad programs in engineering if they choose. Rice is another “open door policy” school, although it’s a steeper admit than CWRU and somewhat less amenable to double-majors and such. University of Rochester could be another good choice. All of these accept substantial numbers of international students. There are also quite a few more coed LAC’s with engineering programs - both established ones like Lafayette and Union, and ones with newly-added engineering like Boston College and Wake Forest.
OP also hasn’t told us what her financial aid needs and budget are - and for an international student, this is a huge factor in determining where to apply.