Hello, I have some questions regarding the steps to transferring schools.
Firstly, I am a freshman in my second semester in WashU business school. Business school here is great, but I realized that business wasn’t my calling and I decided to switch to computer science (for lack of a better option, unfortunately. I’m pretty much desperate to choose a major by now).
The problem is, I want to transfer to a school with a stronger Comp Sci program, but when I look at schools’ websites they require me to have already taken certain courses, like Gen Chem and English. Not only that, even if I take those classes at WashU, I’m not sure the schools I will apply to transfer will accept them as credit. How do people transfer schools? It seems almost impossible.
The schools I’m looking to transfer into are UIUC, UMich, CMU.
Any responses are greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Have you even taken CS courses yetvto confirm you really want to do that? I actually don’t think you should transfer. You can get a perfectly fine CS undergrad degree at WashU.
Why exactly do you want to transfer?
Are you at Washington University in St Louis? Many years ago I got to sit in on a seminar in the computer science department there. I was very impressed with the professor, the research work that he was doing, the students who were taking the seminar, and the general level of discussion. It was a great experience.
I would definitely take some CS classes where you are to confirm that you really want to do it. If you do decide that CS is the path for you, then you can do very well with a degree from WUSTL, and the three schools that you mentioned also have great programs in CS. However, make sure that you want to do CS before you transfer, and be aware that you don’t need to transfer to find a great CS program.
Thanks for all your replies. A few high school classes on Java and CS 1 during college is all I have to go by, but one thing I’m sure of is transferring out of Business school. I guess i wanted to go to a school that’s really known for their comp sci programs…I’ll rethink transferring, but just in case I do, does anyone know how people do it? If Transferology says my credits here don’t transfer, do I just take it and give up applying to that school?
“If Transferology says my credits here don’t transfer, do I just take it and give up applying to that school?”
I would ask the admissions staff at the schools that you are thinking of transferring to. We have pretty much universally found admissions staff to be very helpful at a wide range of universities. However, I don’t think that you need to bother asking until after you have taken at least one and preferably two or three CS classes and know that you want to major in it.
Where you are is a very good university in a very wide range of subjects. Thus as long as you are not quite sure what you want to end up majoring in, you are in a very good place. Once you are sure what you want to major in, you are still in a very good place .
@Mapler: If you want to major in CS, you have certainly targeted the right schools.