Is it difficult to get into majors or to change majors or to get into classes for double majors in the college of science & engineering? Also are the classes competitive? Are the lower level weed out classes? I am trying to understand if this is a good school if you are not sure what you want to major in & may change your mind.
My dad graduated from CSE with a masters and actually taught a course there a couple of years ago. From what I’ve heard, get good grades your first year so that you can get into a good major your second year. The first year are the weeder courses and the classes that will determine your major. That doesn’t mean the other 3 years are easy, but the first year is critical. I wouldn’t advise a double major as just one major is a lot to take on and I would also say it’s not a good school if you’re undecided on your major unless you’re sure you want something to do with engineering.
Thanks University Geek. My ds is interested in bioinformatics. He has been advised to double major CS & bio with plenty of applied math & stats thrown in. His second interest is aerospace engineering. It sounds like U of Minn might not be a good place for him if he wants flexibility.
I don’t understand - your son isn’t required to declare a major until his sophomore year. Regardless of what he chooses he should strive to do well his freshman year. Most of those courses will be college-specific requirements that apply to ALL of the majors. Yes, they are going to be challenging - the U of MN isn’t unique there.
Most realistically, double majors with a minor in a third “interest” tend to happen more in a liberal arts environment than a technical college (there may be some exceptions with a school like Harvey Mudd or Olin - not sure). That’s due more to the nature of a degree requiring technical proficiency such as the BS than it is to lack of flexibility at the U per se. Most likely your son will have a good idea of what to major in by the time he finishes his first year. It’s really hard to know before you even begin college. It’s natural to have several interests at this point. It doesn’t mean he will want to be pursuing all of them in a year’s time.
Having said all this - yes, it definitely is possible to double major in CSE and your son will find some kids doing just that or choosing an interdisciplinary program like his constructed double major of CS/Bio for Bioinformatics. That’s a creative, innovative way to get the most out of your college years. I’d be shocked if the U didn’t support that kind of innovative thinking.
The big, practical question will be: can he double major and still get out of there in 4 years? Getting some sound academic advice or at a minimum perusing the online course catalog will assist you both greatly in answering that question. The U has a 4 year graduation guarantee so you’ll need to see how that applies to double majors.
Good luck to him!
@turnbuckle I should clarify better. If you want to do something related to engineering, then you can remain undecided for freshman year. You should decide by sophomore year like Mamelot stated. If you want to get into one of the harder majors, you should try to get good grades freshman year since there is some competition for those. Based on his interests, I think it would actually be a good choice to go to CSE.
How hard is it to take upper division classes that are not in your major? That is what I mean by flexibility. For example, taking applied math & statistics & bio as a cs major. In universities in our area, there may be 2 or 3 intro courses available to non-majors, but there are not enough upper division sections in cs or statistics or applied math, so non-majors can’t get in ever, even majors have trouble getting in often.
@turnbuckle, UMN has a 4 year guarantee. They do reimburse if you can’t get your classes in time to graduate. Not sure of the fine print but from what I’ve heard this guarantee translates into hiring enough instructors to teach the needed courses. I’m sure there are “issues” - for instance, do they get enough genuine faculty or TA’s? Not sure - it probably depends on the college. Also, I’m sure there must be shortages in some departments - it’s a large public university, after all. But at least there is a motivating factor in place to at least mitigate the all-too-familiar scenario of not being able to get your classes needed for graduation.
You may wish to shoot this concern over to Admissions and have them put you in contact with someone from those departments so they can answer your questions directly.
What’s great about playing the rankings game (and the U seems to be an active player) is that the good people over at USNews factor in stuff like 4 and 6 year grad rates. 