I received a likely letter to Cornell A&S in the form of a nomination to the Tanner Dean Scholar’s program.
However, I would much rather study at the school of Engineering. At the time when I submitted my app, I put a lot more work into my A&S essay and submitted it as my primary school of choice (My hindsight is 20/20).
From doing a bit of research, an internal transfer seems the way to go if I choose to attend Cornell.
Have there been instances of students being accepted to both schools they applied to? I have more than competitive stats for Engineering as well as lots of extracurriculars that demonstrate my interest in chemistry and computer science.
Is there another way I can try to switch from A&S to Engineering before the fall?
You may have to wait. I think you can’t officially request an internal transfer from CAS to COE until end of sophomore year…after taking several required courses. You may need to call and ask.
DS and I went to a COE information seminar for accepted students, where someone asked the COE representative this very question. She said to talk to the COE and your faculty adviser as soon as you can and sign up for courses that are required for COE freshmen, which you can do even if you’re technically A&S. (In fact, DD (linguistics major) took physics for engineers b/c she wanted physics and that was the only one open .)
She made it sound like it wouldn’t be too difficult to do. But then, she was trying to get people to commit to Cornell, so maybe YMMV.
Thanks mdcmom! So if I sign up for a course that it required for COE freshman, do you know if I’ll be in the COE building with COE students, or are we generally separated?
Even from within the Arts and Sciences school I plan to take lots of math, computer science, chemistry, and economics courses. I think its the general engineering requirements I’ll have to try and make up.
You won’t be separated. But you won’t be allowed to take chem 2080 if you’re technically an A and S student; you’ll have to take chem 2070 and they’ll give you credit. Also, there’s an intro engineering course you won’t be able to sign up for …but you can take the physics, CS, and math courses required.
I don’t know how much has changed, but in the dark ages, the first year engineering program of studies consisted entirely of courses taught out of CAS, save for only one intro engineering course a semester. The specific math & science courses were intended for, and overwhelmingly populated by, engineering students, but CAS students could take them if they wanted to. After all they were CAS courses.
So somebody intending to transfer could take those identical courses, or, failing that, the exactly analogous courses that CAS also taught that were intended for CAS science majors, and hardly lose a step.
Transfer should be no problem IMO, IF you do reasonably well in those courses, and provide a reasonable reason for transfer.
There are typically more engineering students transferring out than the other way around, so they would probably welcome some talented people transferring in.
Thanks for the help! It’s sort of a difficult decision because the Tanner Dean program has some perks I may not want to give up when transferring to engineering.
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