<p>I'm a senior in high school, and I haven't been sure whether or not I should apply to engineering school. I want to be an engineer, but I'm not 100% sure and I don't really want to risk getting rejected just because I applied for engineering. I'm fine with applying to arts and science schools, then transferring to engineering schools, but is it worth it? How much harder is it to be accepted to an engineering school? Do officers look at your application any differently?</p>
<p>At schools where it is harder to get accepted to engineering divisions or majors, it is also harder to transfer from the arts and sciences division to the engineering division.</p>
<p>Whether it actually is harder depends on the specific school and major.</p>
<p>If you want to be an engineer apply for it. Applying something else and then attempting to transfer later is possible but you can face barriers including the need for high freshman year grades and, if you are going to transfer, to qualify you have to take the same math, science and writing courses that freshman engineering students take so why apply for something else if you still have to follow the curriculum. </p>
<p>Difficulty for admission varies among colleges. What you will often find is that the engineering college of a university probably has a higher middle 50% range, high school rank/test score, for freshman admitted than the Liberal Arts & Sciences (LAS) college of the university and thus you often need higher stats for engineering than others applying. However, what you will also find is that if you have those stats your probability of admission to the particular university is higher than those applying LAS because the admission rate for engineering is often higher than LAS.</p>
<p>Engineering colleges often consider math and science grades to be the more important for admission (although all are important) and the math section of the SAT or ACT to be the more important. Essays can be important and ECs can be virtually anything.</p>
<p>If you’re a female, it’s probably much easier to get into E school.</p>
<p>Regardless – Engineering is a rigorous program. Applying to LAS then transferring may make it difficult to graduate in 4 years.</p>
<p>Note that at some schools, it may not be harder to get into engineering.</p>
<p>For example, in fall 2011 at San Jose State, it was easier for an in-state freshman applicant to get into chemical engineering than chemistry, and easier to get into bioengineering than biological science. Rather strange, since the engineering degrees have better job and career prospects than the similar science degrees.</p>
<p>Oddly, for a school in the middle of Silicon Valley, computer engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, and software engineering were not among the most impacted majors; chemistry, health science, nutritional science, art design studies, art studio practice, aerospace engineering, communicative disorders and sciences, biological science, economics, and interior design were.</p>
<p>[SJSU</a> Admission](<a href=“http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/admission/rec-1212.html]SJSU”>http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/admission/rec-1212.html)</p>
<p>There is no answer that applies to all schools. At some they don’t care about your major, engineering or not. Some admit by college or by major within the college. And it can be easy to change into engineering or difficult. </p>
<p>You’ll really need to pick a strategy that’s best for each school you are considering.</p>
<p>Some schools do not have harder admissions for those who are applying to engineering. </p>
<p>edit to add…</p>
<p>*Asian male in a competitive public high school</p>
<p>GPA: 3.73 UW (school doesn’t weight or rank)
SAT: Super 2230 (680 CR, 780 M, 770 W)
ACT: 34 Comp: 36 Math, 31 English (after essay), 31 Reading, 36 Science, 8 Essay</p>
<p>Applying to:
Cornell
Columbia (Should I apply to college or engineering school?)
Duke
Princeton
Other safeties</p>
<p>* </p>
<p>Your stats are probably fine to apply to any engineering. Others may disagree, but JMO. :)</p>
<p>Engineering school admissions will look more heavily at math/science scores, grades, and activities. So, if for example, you had an 800 CR and 600 Math score, it might well be harder to get accepted to an engineering school than to a College of Arts & Sciences. </p>
<p>However, according to post #7, your SAT Math score is high, and is higher than your CR score. So, definitely apply for engineering, if you are interested in it.</p>
<p>It is very difficult to finish engineering school in 4 years if you don’t start out in engineering, because of the strings of pre-requisites. It is also very common to transfer out of engineering into other majors. So, if you are interested in engineering, but uncertain, I would suggest to start out in engineering and then decide based on how well you like it.</p>
<p>For Columbia specifically, I’ve heard that it is EASIER to get accepted into engineering than into the College of Arts and Sciences. ( 13.4% vs. 8.3%)
[Campus</a> Overload - College acceptance rates down](<a href=“http://voices.washingtonpost.com/campus-overload/2010/04/college_acceptance_rates_down.html]Campus”>http://voices.washingtonpost.com/campus-overload/2010/04/college_acceptance_rates_down.html)</p>
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<p>Acceptance rates may be misleading, as it is possible that the engineering division received stronger applications, even though it received fewer of them.</p>
<p>According to [Top</a> 100 - Lowest Acceptance Rates | Rankings | US News](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/lowest-acceptance-rate/page+2]Top”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/lowest-acceptance-rate/page+2) , for fall 2010, CSU San Bernardino had an lower acceptance rate (19%) than UC Berkeley (22%), UCLA (23%), USC (24%), Harvey Mudd (25%), Cal Poly SLO (33%), and CMU (33%). But no one is likely to say that CSU San Bernardino is as hard to get into as any of these other schools.</p>
<p>I agree with all of the Posts. Some schools allow you apply to 2 schools (A&S and engineering) at once, and make a separate decision for each. For example, Rutgers does this.</p>
<p>My main schools of concern are Cornell and Illinois Urbana-Champaign. While Cornell allows you to apply to two schools at once, I’ve heard that people rarely get accepted into their secondary choice, maybe 5-6 a year.
As mom2collegekids pointed out, my math/science scores are (significantly) higher than english and writing, so would this actually make it easier to get into the engineering schools?</p>