Is CS at SMU harder to get into than other SMU departments?

Hi Folks - I’ve read that at some schools, esp. top public schools like Purdue & UIUC, the Computer Science programs are much more competitive than the school’s overall acceptance and student profile data would suggest. Does anyone know if that is the case for SMU’s Computer Science program, or at least the Lyle Engineering School?

Thanks!

I transferred out of SMU. Please, do not go here for CS if you value education 98% of professors are part-timer or don’t even own a PHD in CS degree. The best guy in the apartment has a PHD in applied science with 3 publish research paper unrelated to CS. My public school is providing me better quality than SMU and it not even top school.

From an engineering advisor on another string:
"ALL majors at SMU Lyle have restrictive admissions, meaning that when you are accepted to Lyle, you are only accepted as an engineering “pre-major,” with a dedicated pre-major advisor. You still have to complete the subset requirements (varies by major and department) in order to declare the major. If you fail to meet the subset requirements, then you can’t declare said Lyle major and you will be forced to choose a different major outside of Lyle (often students who don’t meet subset requirements in Lyle choose an alternate major like math, statistics, or economics in Dedman College). Not meeting the subset requirements is less likely to happen in Computer Engineering because the department’s subset requirements aren’t nearly as rigorous as Management Science or Computer Science or Mechanical Engineering in Lyle.

Right now SMU and Lyle specifically are focused on the “Road to R1,” which means our new Provost is actively trying to make SMU a Research Level 1 institution like Brown and BC and Cornell and Dartmouth, etc, so our focus is on bringing in high level/funded research grants and recruiting both high performing UG and grad students to aid in that effort, both in terms of academic quality but research/PhD opportunities."

My experience is that it’s harder to get into Cox Business than Engineering/CS but it takes more work to stay in Engr/CS due to the rigor. SMU is also building up its engineering school with rather new buildings and lots of scholarships.

1 Like