Is engineering or computer science usually the tougher admit (yes, sometimes CS is in engineering..)

[1NJParent]

For colleges that take into consideration your intended major in admission, CS is almost universally harder to get into than any discipline in engineering, due to the explosive (and still growing) popularity of CS and severely constrained CS resources (particularly qualified CS faculty) everywhere.

[AlmostThere2018]

Thanks to everyone for all this input; it’s very helpful.

[ucbalumnus]

@1NJParent

For colleges that take into consideration your intended major in admission, CS is almost universally harder to get into than any discipline in engineering, due to the explosive (and still growing) popularity of CS and severely constrained CS resources (particularly qualified CS faculty) everywhere.

And the corollary is that, after enrolling at such a college, changing into CS tends to require more than just a formality of major declaration or change – often requiring a high college GPA or competitive admission process.

But note that this type of departmental overloading may not be present at less selective colleges, where the rigor level of CS and engineering curricula deters (or results in “natural weeding out” of) less strong students.