<p>Whoa, my bad. They said it was possible to still get in even if you didn’t send them* and yeah I agree, it really is best to do so after the class or in may during AP testing, maybe even June.</p>
<p>livn487: “She would enjoy and adapt at any of these schools” – this is definitely the point to keep in mind! College is really what you make of it. As for Princeton engineering, I haven’t minded the size of the department at all, though I can only speak about COS. We have tons of professors who are leaders in their fields, and I’ve gotten to take classes with them and they’re really engaged. Also we’re definitely a leader in COS…Princeton is heavily recruited by a lot of companies (Google, Facebook, etc). I feel like our program is very well-thought out, and it shows in that a lot of people switch to COS having never programmed before! /rant Unfortunately I can’t talk about the other engineering depts, having no experiences really…</p>
<p>I think SCEA is a good thing (much better than the old ED at least), and I don’t see it having a huge impact either way. I’m interested to see if it has ramifications for the socioeconomic makeup of the student body (this was a concern people had raised), but I doubt it’ll have a big effect. And I really doubt it’ll have a direct impact on engineering specifically.</p>
<p>@tiger14: great to hear so many good things about Princeton’s Engineering. How did you choose your major? Did you change majors through the years? There is not a 1st year class in the curriculum that gives the students a taste of all the different engineering choices. Perhaps, faculty advisors and upperclassman play a role in guiding students?</p>
<p>It will be interesting to see the data on how many SCEA accepted students makeup the overall incoming freshman class. Princeton remains very high on my d’s potential college list so looking at the data and assessing when and where to apply etc. is looming ahead. She is still “collecting data” so to speak and while she is very interested, she is far too busy with high school classes and activities to devote much time on her college search. Luckily, she is done with her standardized testing and she was offered a paid summer position through an organization she’s volunteered with.</p>
<p>@livn487, it’s easier with computer science because you /do/ get exposed to it freshman year. The freshman engineering curriculum is basically math, chemistry, physics, and one semester of computer science. You choose your major at the end of freshman year. I’m not entirely sure how other students pick their engineering major…there /is/ an optional “integrated” engineering track which theoretically exposes you to the different options, but I’m not sure about that. Otherwise, I guess it’s a mixture of talking to upperclassmen (always the best resource, IMO), trying to get involved in related activities, etc. Electrical engineers can choose to take an introductory course freshman year…chemical engineers are already taking chemistry, obviously…but again, I’m really no expert on this. I think that a lot of engineers come in knowing what they want to do, more or less.</p>
<p>tiger, was there a particular reason why you chose to do CS with a BSE rather than AB?</p>
<p>I actually had a very lame reason. I got a (renewable) outside scholarship for being an engineer, so I wanted to stick in the BSE department just to play it safe. 
The curriculums aren’t too different, though, and I came in not entirely sure that I was doing COS, so I was taking the engineering requirements to begin with. Most people choose AB or BSE COS depending on what they were considering before settling on COS, it seems (i.e. my friend who was an English major but switched to COS is still an AB, etc…)</p>