I was admitted EA-LSA intending a CS major. I contacted the UMich Undergraduate Advising Office Staff today to make sure I completely understand the process for getting into the LSA-Computer Science major. The advisor confirmed what I already knew about the only requirements to meet for declaring the CS major which are to take the four pre-declaration courses with a minimum gpa of 2.5 in those courses, and at least a C in each course. Then, after that, meet with a LSA-CS advisor to declare the major.
But, she also qualified her answer. She told me that sometime in the future—she didn’t say when—UMich may change the way pre-declaration CS students are admitted to CS-LSA by using a Berkeley-type system that requires a competitive application process once the pre-dec classes are taken. She said, “for now” it’s staying the way it is, and then said there is no guarantee that it will stay that way.
If that were a certainty before my arrival, I would not attend the school. I will not put myself through another competitive application process to earn a spot in my major.
I sure hope that change doesn’t occur before I’m eligible to declare it.
You might want to go one step further. Email /call the admission person or director of the program directly. There is misinformation on their websites and sometimes the advisors don’t have current facts. I would rather go to the people in charge and get correct information. The contact information can be found on the website for your program.
Thanks, @Knowsstuff. I’ll check it out.
It is not likely to affect you unless you cannot declare major next year. If they change the policy, it will be announced ahead of time. With the CS major class size getting bigger and bigger, I can understand why they want to set a quota. In the past, there was high GPA requirement for certain major in CoE. But the Berkeley system would even have a tighter control on the numbers.
@billcsho why does Michigan have CS in LSA and then in Engineering school. It seems getting in the Engineering school is very hard, so why wouldn’t most kids just apply to CS in LSA? This seems very similar to Berkeley, cornell, uva etc…To me, from the research I’ve done, why wouldn’t kids just apply to the less competitive CS major - in the LSA (or arts and sciences??)
Not sure why as they are highly similar except for the LSA requirement. Unlike UIUC that they have multiple CS majors with different focuses. We would see if that will be part of the change in the near future.
Did you manage to find out if the requirement will change?
@Kant33 just call the department and find out. Don’t trust other people’s speculations. If there is something new then report it back here.