I’m currently a 3rd year student, declared CS major at the University of Chicago, which famously does not have an engineering program. After a lot of long and hard thought, I’ve realized that I want to switch to computer engineering as it fits much, much, much better with my desired career path. My parents, after doing their own research, are fully behind me on this. (I hadn’t realized my desired career path during the college application process)
There are big 2 issues here:
The vast majority of transfer applications are during freshman and sophomore years, not junior year. Most schools’ transfer programs therefore aren’t really suited for people in my situation.
At least for the schools where I’ve looked at the requirements in detail, it’s almost impossible for someone in my situation to transfer directly into computer engineering because I am missing a fair amount of the coursework required for transfer.
My only requirement for a school to transfer into is that it’s in the Western US. Some that I’m looking at so far are the UC’s, Cal Poly, University of Washington, Stanford, USC, and UT Austin; I’m very willing to also consider others that aren’t on this list. I’m happy to take suggestions. The UC and Cal Poly deadlines are coming up in just a few weeks so I need to start moving fast on those.
I’m willing to take an extra year or two to finish college, and I am very lucky to be able to say that money is not a concern. But I really don’t want to continue on with my computer science degree, as it’s a total dead end for the things I want to pursue. Do I have any chance of pulling this off? If I were to transfer into a CS program, are there any schools where I would have a very strong shot at being able to switch majors after enrolling? Alternatively, are there any schools with sufficiently lenient computer engineering transfer requirements that I would be able to transfer directly into that program?
GPA: 3.36, should be 3.4 after this quarter. Maybe this will be less of a negative coming from UChicago than from a different school?
AP credit:
4 on Calc BC (5 subscore on AB)
5 on Physics C: Mechanics
4 on Chem
4 on Stats
Relevant courses taken:
Intro to CS 1
Intro to CS 2 (this doubles as Data Structures)
Intro to Computer Systems
Computer Architecture
Computer Networks
Operating Systems (this quarter)
Machine Learning (next quarter)
Calculus II
Calculus III
Discrete Math (this quarter)
Algorithms (next quarter)
Linear Algebra (next quarter)
General Physics II (non-calculus)
and a TON of Core classes that should fulfill all the gen ed requirements at most any college.
The only thing I can tell you that’s relevant is that an admissions counselor from UC Santa Cruz told my daughter that one cannot be admitted as a senior transfer student. I.e. if you’re applying now and you’re a junior, you’d be entering the new school in your senior year presumably. And at least UC Santa Cruz (and maybe the other UCs but I don’t have direct knowledge) don’t take students who have what they call senior status. That is determined by how many of what they consider upper division courses.
She told my daughter that anything at UCSC that is a course numbered 100-199 is considered upper division, so I am guessing that anything you’ve taken that would correspond to their courses that are numbered that way would also be considered upper division. She said “if you reach 30 quarter units or more of upper-division work you could become a senior and UCSC does not allow senior transfers. For UCSC when we are counting units towards senior standing, we do NOT count AP credits.” Again, I don’t know if this is true for all the UCs. @Gumbymom knows a lot about the UCs and might be able to help more with them. Good luck!
You need to check this link and having a large amount of upper division units could be an issue for most of the UC”s. I would contact each UC directly and ask about transferring. Only up to 70 lower division units will transfer but the upper division units may make most of the UC’s out of reach.
You might want to look for school that already participates in a 3+2 programs with liberal arts colleges. They would be more accustomed to accommodating the engineering-heavy final 2 years. This is a sample of the courses taken at Occidental to be able to do a 3+2 at CalTech (who knew?).
Wash U may not be western enough for you but I would give it a look if you can flex on location. Great program, private U means fewer rules about transferring and they have a 3+2 arangement with a group of schools.
Rather than completing your full junior year at U Chicago, it might make sense for you to take a leave of absence at the end of this term. That way you would be transfering with 2 1/2 years of credits and your family would save a semester of college costs. Transfer applications are generally due in February or March, and you would be able to concentrate on them without worrying about schoolwork.
Another option would be to investigate masters programs in Comp Eng that take students with CS undergrad degrees.
Most competitive schools require you to be there two years so you’d be losing at least this semester. If you were my child, I’d advise you finish out your undergrad degree where you are and look at specializing for your masters.
Are you looking specifically for more hardware design and EE type of courses?
Note that if you do transfer, you will have to retake physics with calculus. Many schools expect junior or higher level transfers for computer engineering to have that completed already.
It may be simplest to finish CS at Chicago, then do a course work MS in computer engineering somewhere, or take the additional hardware design and EE courses at a local state university as a non matriculated student.
I doubt that Chicago has introductory physics that is not calculus based, and he may have gotten credit for AP physics.
However, that is a reasonable approach to take engineering classes and then get admitted to a graduate CE program. There are programs to get a BSCE with a related degree. Taking off the 2nd semester and transferring in as a junior might be the best approach though.
However, the sequence for biology majors and pre-meds uses less calculus than the other sequences, so it may not be accepted to fulfill a physics requirement if the OP transfers to an engineering major elsewhere.
What you end up majoring in may not be your ultimate career path: I work in a large F500 company and know dozens of people who majored in something completely different than their jobs entail now. A pharmacist who know works in project management. A physical therapist who works in marketing. An english major who works as a field based sales employee. The list goes on and on. Just because you don’t major in computer engineering doesn’t mean you can’t end up getting a job in that field.
A degree from an elite university will open doors. There is something about having a degree from one of those ivory tower schools that will catch attention. Doesn’t mean that you are better than the grads from a state U, but this is what happens in real life. The UChicago degree is something you will have for the rest of your life, and it will be recognized widely.
If I were you, I’d simply finish up at UChicago and take some courses on the side. IIT and UIC are close enough that you could probably take several classes between now and graduation time. You could probably even get these credits to transfer and count towards a UChicago degree. The rest can be learned on the job, or online.
It would be silly to take an extra year or two to finish your undergraduate work. Finish up where you are and get graduate credit if you really want spend that extra time in school
Transferring to an engineering program will take a minimum of 2 extra years. This is simply because many engineering programs have required course sequences that take up to 4 semesters. If the schools you are transferring to count credits only and not your effective progress toward your desired degree that could be an issue but effectively you would be a Junior transfer to any engineering program.
Taking a few courses here or there will probably not be sufficient to get into a graduate program without additional remedial coursework but it might reduce the amount somewhat.
It sounds like you are really not keen on CS any longer. In that case, you should look into transferring. Just find the ABET accredited program that gives you the shortest time to degree and the best financial deal and then look at all your options before taking the plunge.
Not sure if you want to do hardware design. Computer science can also be more academic theory and computer engineering more solid and real.
Anyway, yeh the smoothest approach seems to be to take off the second semester and transfer. An extra semester isn’t that bad for changing to an engineering major. You have a good reason to present to them to transfer and you should be able to get into somewhere pretty good.There might be an issue if you can’t get into a similar level of school, and won’t have as prestigious a name on your degree.
Computer engineering does not differ sufficiently with computer science that you should leave your current program. If you switched majors you would be required to take a bunch of courses that you don’t need. If you finished your CS degree at Chicago, and perhaps added a graduate systems course or two, you could probably finish a MS in Computer Engineering in one year. This is surely the best way to go. I would definitely finish the UChicago CS degree though.
CE probably requires 60 more credits. There is overlap with the CS, general requirements, and basic math and science. The right way to do it would be to transfer to somewhere for CE.
Most engineering majors require close to 120 credits. When I was at Hopkins, some required 140 credits. People generally switch out of engineering, not into it. You will need general engineering classes, EE classes, and CE classes.
I wouldn’t recommend trying to go into an MSCE program without most of the BSCE work. It depends on what you want to do and why you want to switch. You can certainly complete a BSCS and then take CE classes.
I disagree 100%. You can certainly go into an MSCE program with a CS degree. There is at least a 50% overlap between CS and CE. If you want to do CE work, you need to take the hardware classes, but compared to the CS classes you’ve already taken, they would be quite easy. The challenging stuff would probably be the signals classes, but you can get the requisite background as a graduate student, and surely there are math classes at UChicago that can help get you there. No reason to give up the UChicago pedigree.
It’s very difficult to impossible to transfer into an Engineering program. Contact the CSE Dept at all universities you could transfer to and as whether it’s even possible. Do indicate which classes you’ve already taken.