My S21 is prolly going to apply to computer engineering or CS.
I keep reading on this site that CS has become a really tough admit. Curious if anyone knows for Top50 type schools whether engineering or CS is the tougher admit? I
I realize CS is sometimes in engineering schools so it’s moot point in those places. And some places have CS but no engineering. But for places where there’s both and CS is outside of engineering?
Is there data on this anywhere?
Thanks in advance!
Yes, CS has become a popular major in recent years, and many colleges are struggling to fit in all these students. We have noticed this across a wide spectrum - Ivies, private and flagship state universities. There is a shortage of CS professors too, and most of the 1st year classes are quite big.
It varies by school whether admissions is unitary, by division, or by major. It also varies by school how much division or major matters in selectivity. Also, it can vary as to whether computer engineering is a separate major or combined with computer science is some way (e.g. “computer science and engineering” or “electrical engineering and computer science”).
But most of the “top 50 type schools” are not very transparent about selectivity differences. CMU is one of the few that has some by division admission stats (see https://admission.enrollment.cmu.edu/pages/undergraduate-admission-statistics ) which shows that SCS (School of Computer Science) is more selective than Engineering.
Purdue is another that CS in the College of Science is more competitive for admission than ECE in College of Engineering but then there is a competitive transition to major for ECE for students in CoE, so it probably evens out there.
Agree that the data is difficult to come by. Purdue shares during college specific admissions presentations but not so much in printed material. You can see the data by college on Purdue’s data digest link but for College of Science, that includes a ton of other majors and it doesn’t separate out CS.
@momofsenior1 – Interesting. My S is under impression that if he’s in computer engineering (which is sometimes part of electrical engineering) that he could transfer out to CS if he wanted. Computer engineering has a lot of CS classes embedded so he’d be part way there. His thinking is it’s harder to transfer INTO engineering and less hard to transfer out – so that if he’s still on fence it’s best to start with engineering and then switch out if he decides to go more for CS (or possibly some sort of tech/entrepreneurship business major with a CS minor which is also on his radar)
It all depends on the school. At Purdue, it’s extremely difficult to transfer to CS. That said, it’s also very difficult to transfer into engineering from other colleges as well. Definitely something your son needs to ask when researching schools.
At UMich, you can major in Comp Sci either thru the CoE or via LSA. Pretty similar, but not exact, in terms of class work.
Acceptance to the CoE at UMich will be more difficult, since there’s roughly 1,200 ish spots for freshman in the CoE and about 4,200-ish freshman spots in LSA.
Each student needs to read the particulars of the schools’ rules in transferring from one major to another. V-E-R-Y carefully. You cannot assume a thing. It’s important to get the full picture of these majors at the schools. CMu has (or had) CS tucked into HSS and Engineering as well as an outright CS school. The one in HSS had to be separately addressed- not like the majors in that school where you could switch around. It was not easy getting a handle on how that all worked.
This varies by school. At some schools, switching from computer engineering to computer science will require the same competitive admission that any other switch to computer science will require.
…and at some schools if you what to change your major you just…change your major. No fuss, no muss. ?
@Rivet2000 – I know, right? This is where social sciences and humanities rule. . . which is my home turf, btw. Sigh.
Some social sciences and humanities may be at capacity at some colleges. Even Harvard has a limited access major (visual environmental studies).
At Michigan they spell it out pretty clearly
http://www.eecs.umich.edu/eecs/undergraduate/cs_lsa_vs_engr.html
Not always. Some places for engineering you have to apply or meet progression requirements to get into the major. For example, at Wisconsin, you have to meet different progression requirements depending upon what major in engineering you pursue. So, you could get into the College of Engineering as a freshman, but not make it into computer engineering. To fully understand all of the difference can be a lot of work.
Transferring majors or within engineering etc seems to be pretty easy at Michigan. They seem to want you where you want to be.
Was wondering what the CS degree was at Carnegie Mellon in HSS - it looks like it might be Information Science. I don’t know exactly what the overlap in courses would be. In general CS is going to be a more difficult direct admit and it is not uncommon for transfer into CS to look possible on paper, but to be very difficult in real life. You’ll need to do your homework for each college you are considering.
I know for Ga Tech that transferring between majors is very easy. This past year they allowed the incoming class to transfer to any major they wanted even before orientation. Not sure if getting admitted to CS or Engineering is really harder than other majors there or not. They do have you pick a specific engineering major on the application.
Or they admit few enough students to the engineering division so that each department has enough reserve capacity to accommodate all who want to change major.
Don’t know. I talked to the engineering admission head a few years ago about this. Maybe your right but his attitude was, we want the kids to do what their interests lie. As a parent it’s nice to know your student can explore certain areas and not feel stuck. I think that’s a huge asset. Of course it might add on your time there due to other courses etc you might need to fulfill.
“Was wondering what the CS degree was at Carnegie Mellon in HSS - it looks like it might be Information Science.”
A quick perusal indicates that HSS are masters programs, not undergrad, but you should probably dig deeper if those are of interest. As for CS, definitely easier to get into the engineering school (11% acceptance, 1480/1560 SAT 25-75), than SCS (5%, 1530/1580).