How easy is it to change engineering majors?

<p>I've been accepted to UT-Austin for biomedical engineering. I've also been accepted into the engineering honors program. I'm just wondering how easy it is to change your major once admitted. I'm definitely going to stay within the engineering discipline, but I'm not entirely sure if I plan to stick with biomedical engineering since Austin offers so many engineering majors. Is changing from say biomedical to mechanical (just an example) a difficult transition? Or is it basically just a slight shift of the classes you take the following year?</p>

<p>thanks</p>

<p>First off, congratulations on getting accepted to BME. It’s one of the most selective majors on campus.</p>

<p>Engineering courses are restricted to their respective major. Because of this, a student in BME cannot take an ME course, and double majoring is not allowed either. Unfortunately, if you change your mind you’ll have to apply for an [internal</a> transfer](<a href=“Undergraduate Education”>Undergraduate Education). At that point, you would be reviewed for admission into that specific major. Decisions are strongly, if not wholly, based on in-residence GPA. Past cut-offs can be found under the “Admissions Decision Criteria” section of the above link. </p>

<p>What you’ll also have to watch out for are the essential requirements. They essentially delay transfer until your Sophomore year, and this can quite easily put off graduation by a year as well. The hardest one to meet will probably be the 2 semesters of Physics. Most freshmen don’t take physics until their second semester. If you do not have prior credit, you’ll have to take physics straight from the start (assuming you want to transfer as soon as you’ve satisfied the other requirements). </p>

<p>If you come in with a lot of credits, then you’ll launch yourself right into a full-fledged engineering curriculum specific to BME. Transferring a year after this would require you to come back and restart down another path unique to that major. However, if you still have to work through your core credits, a delayed transfer may not be so damaging. </p>

<p>Overall, transferring between engineering majors is definitely doable but it’ll likely set you back a semester or two. And you definitely don’t want to transfer twice.</p>

<p>Would it be easier to switch from engineering to something like economics?</p>

<p>@4khaos: Yeah, you can switch to a COLA major any time</p>

<p>OP: I had a friend get into honors last year, and he said that during orientation the head of the engineering honors department gave everybody one shot to change majors no questions asked. Thats how he changed from Aerospace to BME</p>

<p>edit: take this with a little grain of salt since I don’t know if it happens every time.</p>

<p>jg: when did you find out you got accepted into bme?</p>

<p>i just applied for the fall…and like everyone else im waiting to hear back</p>

<p>3.83 gpa 1st:BME
2nd: Biology (CNS)</p>

<p>@locness. on the my status ut page it stated admitted to ut austin as biomedical engineering. this was in february. i just recently got my acceptance to the honors program about 2 weeks ago.</p>

<p>thanks for the replies. are some engineering majors more intertwined than the rest? i would assume switchings between biomedical to mechanical would be harder than biomecial to chem. would this be true for many engineering majors or are they all difficult to switch between?</p>

<p>Well just switching from bme to chem from a credits pov, would be easier because some of those biology and chemistry classes overlap</p>

<p>whereas other majors you might be set back a few classes</p>