Purdue, UIUC, many of the UC schools OP named, etc…"
And at many schools it’s easy to switch out of CS or engineering but not the other way around.
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And BTW, my daughter is deciding between UMich COE and UF. Not exactly mediocre choices, I say sarcastically. But her stats, EC’s, organization she started, money she raised, Latina, varsity athlete, 11 AP classes (and I don’t mean AP art history) shoukd have made her a slam dunk at many schools she was waitlisted or rejected from - if she had applied as a different major. Just my two cents, but I would do research before dismissing this as a “stunt”.
Changing into AE or ME at UCLA requires a minimum college GPA of 3.500 to enter a competitive admission process: https://www.seasoasa.ucla.edu/change-of-major/
Changing majors at CPSLO requires a look back to your frosh admission score to see if it exceeded the frosh admission threshold for the major you are trying to change into: Other Academic Policies | Cal Poly Academic Catalog . I.e. if you would not have been admitted as frosh to the new major, you cannot change into it.
Changing into the engineering division at Michigan after entering in LSA or some other division requires a competitive admission process: Cross-Campus Transfer – Bulletin
Did you read what you posted? UMich requirements are a C or better in these courses. The OP is a high-achieving student who will have no issue getting those grades.
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That is very different than switching into an over-subscribed / capacity-limited major like CS or engineering. We’re discussing the latter here, and it’s not at all easy to switch in.
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UMich requires a 2.5GPA and a C or better. Again, I’m looking at the OP’s stats and abilities. Not hard for them to do.
Michigan’s policy is not the same as UIUC, Purdue, or the UCs .
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They didn’t apply to a balanced list. Back doors are typically closed in the major.
If one tried this, they shouldn’t expect to be an engineer.
Most every student we see entirely disappointed did not apply to a balanced list. Some may show empathy but the truth is most of these rejections are not surprises. Many strong apps can go either way.
Kids need a balanced list, to stop being pedigree hungry, and to stop applying to schools they aren’t interested in attending.
Nothing dumber (imho) - I got into UCR, UCSC and UCD. But that’s it. I need to appeal. Then why did you apply to them to begin with.
Wholly disagree with your strategy!!
Knowing where to apply is a skill. But some don’t want to learn it.
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We are discussing the OP, who has a 1580 SAT and a 4.8GPA. I don’t know every school’s major requirements, but I’m thinking statistically they can get a C or 3.5 in their freshman year regardless of the program they are in.
These are minimum requirements “to be considered” for transfer. I’m not a umich expert but @Knowsstuff and @sushiritto are, so I’m tagging them to get their input on how hard (or not) it actually is to transfer into engineering.
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You can disagree. My daughter only applied to schools she wanted to go to, but many do not. The “architect” student I discussed has no intention to going to 90% of the schools she applied to. Only wanted to see if she could get in - and she did, despite having statistics below average.
This is just my two cents from what I’ve seen this year. By all means,the oOP should do what they think is best but prepare for disappointment.
They don’t need to prepare for disappointment. They just need to create a balanced list as everyone is saying.
Admissions to the highly-rejective schools OP has listed is indeed unpredictable and as you said, could potentially result in a complete shut-out. So applying to strong schools with more predictable admissions will help.
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Define qualified. Does having average stats of those schools mean more should get in ? Does going to a ‘top’ school whatever that means entitle them over other schools? In my state I’ve read about 8 top schools. Sorry there is no top school or top 30 school.
It’s not just a stat world but with grade infjation everyone has top stats. There’s more. Some is a controllable, some isn’t. I laugh every time someone writes the essay was a 9. How do you know what the reader thought ?
How do you know what was in the letter of rec or how it was interpreted?
Can you pay ? Ask Tufts and Colgate if that matters.
Are you the same profile as 90% of who has applied?
If this was the entirety of these kids’ lists - well shame on them. Frankly the decisions this year are not unlike last and could be seen a mile away Imho.
It may be a tad tougher today but it’s still easy to build a balanced list.
See if she can change into CS. Communications - from an academic POV is an easy major - like a liberal art. That’s not a fair example.
Btw getting into architecture will typically be much harder than communication. So this is an odd example. Normally it would be reversed. Architecture not an easy admit.
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When you’re a top student who has spent 4 years of high school taking the toughest classes, working your b*Tt off to get into the top schools, it doesn’t matter if you have a “balanced” list or not. You expect that you have put in the hard work and that it will pay off. But it doesn’t. My friend’s son is the valedictorian at his school. He has been rejected and waitlisted from all but 3 schools he’s applied to. Sure, Maryland is a nice school but you didn’t have to take the toughest classes and be number one in your class to get into Maryland. That’s just a fact.
What people are trying to say, including me, is that some schools, like Purdue, close out their popular majors. AE is extremely popular. No matter what GPA students get, they will NOT be able to transfer if there is no space available. Purdue is not unique in this.
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Actually architecture is an easy admit these days. Architecture programs are dying.
That is part of the minimum requirements to apply to change into the engineering division. The page also says the following:
“Note: A Cross-Campus applicant that completes the required courses and is above a 2.5 is not guaranteed admission into the College of Engineering.”
It is like if a college does not specify any minimum grades or HS GPA for frosh admission, that does not necessarily mean that an applicant with a 2.0 HS GPA has a realistic chance of frosh admission.
Perhaps it’s where you are from. My area is very focused on the top schools. For example, we have a large Korean population that only thinks NJ has one “good” school (Princeton). Our kids push for Ivy League, and secondary is T20/30.
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That perception among NJ residents does not appear to be ethnicity-specific – it seems that NJ high school students who have the means (i.e. enough parent money) want to go anywhere other than Rutgers or other NJ public universities.