I know a lot of kids who want to apply EE since they think it is easier or something then transfer to CS. But with the vast majority of school accepting by department rather than major, and given EE and CS are often under the school of engineering, wouldn’t admissions for EE and CS be equally competitive, regardless of the major?
Depends on the school. Here is the data from UCLA. You can see that EE had a 14.5% admit rate, which is almost three times higher than the 5.4% admits rate for CS. Other schools may admit by department, or not even consider major when admitting students.
It depends on the school and how departments and majors are organized.
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I was under the impression that UCLA doesn’t consider major when applying though, meaning that the lower acceptance rate would be purely due to more people who want to do CS though.
I think THE question you need to answer is….how easy or hard is it to transfer into computer science from any other major.
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From https://admission.ucla.edu/apply/freshman/freshman-requirements/application-review-process :
"Selection
UCLA is among the most selective universities in the country. Admission is highly competitive for freshman applicants. Each year UCLA receives more than 100,000 applications.
Major selection does not play a role in the admission process for freshman applicants applying to the College and Luskin School of Public Affairs. Our other schools at UCLA consider the following (which includes the holistic review conducted by Undergraduate Admission):
- The Samueli School of Engineering considers students by declared major. “Engineering, undecided” is also an option. Engineering does closely consider performance in the areas of math and science.
- The School of Nursing likewise emphasizes science and math preparation. You must submit a supplemental application directly to the School of Nursing.
- The School of the Arts and Architecture, Herb Alpert School of Music and the School of Theater, Film and Television consider students by declared major. These schools also closely consider the talent presented by the student through a portfolio, audition or supplemental information collected through a school-specific application. This talent plays a critical role in the selection process."
I see, so a school might not admit by major, but they can consider majors during admissions? Is this pretty common across a lot of schools for engineering?
Varies wildly.
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UCLA Admits by major into the College of Engineering where EE and CS are housed. Each UC campus may admit differently but in general at least for the UC’s, if the major is in the College of Engineering for the UC’s, it will admit by major.
UCLA has a CS + Linguistics major housed in the College of Letters and Sciences which is does not admit by major.
CS can be found in the College of Letters and Sciences at UC Berkeley which now is a high demand major and has plans for more of a direct admit so applicants not selecting CS as their 1st choice major, will have issues switching into the CS major later.
CS can also be found in the College of Letters and Sciences at UC Davis. UCD’s CS program is an joint major with the College of Engineering (Computer Science and Engineering) which admits by major so again difficult to change into later after being accepted.
That’s pretty common, implicitly or explicitly, for competitive majors. All schools have finite resources.
Again, agreeing with the other poster, every school is different. Best way to know if school X has admit policy Y is by digging deep into their admissions page.
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That is Georgia Tech. They definitely consider major in application review, and look at your application thru the lens of your selected major.