My son is looking for schools where he will be assured the opportunity to major in ME- either through direct admit to the major or non-competitive major election. He has a 35 ACT and 3.8 GPA with a rigorous set at math/science classes and outstanding ECs. Cost not a major factor. Would prefer a school
With a more balanced gender ratio. Suggestions?
Hi,
You can use the ASEE engineering program online profiles to get more details on most engineering programs, including gender mix.
Several schools have “non-competitive” major election, but as schools become more selective, they tend to have “first year” engineering programs (you apply to your major after your first or second year) or your choice of major is a consideration during admissions. Less selective schools (which is MOST schools) tend to be much more flexible. Examples of a few “selective schools” (say 50% or less admission rates) that do allow direct admits (without considering major during admissions) would include all of the Florida public universities (including UF, UCF, USF, FSU, etc.).
He may want to take major election into account when reviewing engineering programs (I know we did), but far too many excellent programs have these type of programs, for them to be not considered. On the other hand, where these programs are competitive, ME tends to be one of the most competitive.
With gender mix, about 21% of all BS engineering degrees are awarded to women. This % can change significantly by major.
This report does a good job of breaking down the numbers:
ME has one of the worse % at 14.8%, while environmental has the highest at 50%. Outside of a few smaller private colleges (like Harvey Mudd), the ratio will be horrible in ME. He’s best bet is a large comprehensive university, which offers programs like Environmental, Biomedical and Chemical Engineering, but also has plenty of non-engineering programs.
Thanks for this info. He expects engineering to be heavily male, so is leaning towards more comprehensive schools and not RPI, RIT etc. where there will be more girls in the dorms.
What’s your home state? Does he have a geographical preference? Size?
Usually this is found at less selective schools (where engineering departments are under-capacity because fewer students can handle the rigor of an ABET-accredited engineering program, without any intentional weeding), or at the wealthiest super-selective private schools which have enough money to ensure that every engineering department has sufficient capacity to take all interested students (and where their prestige for Wall Street and consulting employers may mean that there are stronger non-engineering pre-professional paths available).
The more selective state flagship or flagship-level universities are those where he would be most likely to encounter:
A. First year engineering (FYE) programs, with competitive major declaration. E.g. Purdue, Texas A&M, Virginia Tech, Penn State, Ohio State, Minnesota, North Carolina State, Washington.
B. Direct admission to engineering majors, but has progression requirements with GPA or grades significantly higher than 2.0 or C needed to continue in the major. E.g. Wisconsin.
C. Direct admission to engineering majors, but they are full, so admission is more competitive than to the school overall, and it is difficult / competitive to change to a different engineering major. However, staying in the major requires nothing higher than 2.0 GPA and/or C grades. E.g. many California public universities, UT Austin, UIUC.
Of the above, it looks like he would prefer C over A and B, although it is not ideal if he may want to change to a different engineering major.
Some state flagship or flagship-level universities where declaring or changing engineering majors is non-competitive include the following (but students may have to be admitted into the engineering division as frosh – changing into the engineering division after enrolling in a non-engineering division may be competitive):
Georgia Tech (first change of major freely granted, subsequent changes not guaranteed)
Maryland (FYE)
Michigan (FYE)
Pittsburgh (FYE)
Virginia (FYE)
@BrianBoiler just posted today on another thread that UMD doesn’t have enough space, lecturers, equipment for their more popular engineering majors. I wonder if that’s true at some of the other schools that allow non competitive admissions to majors?
That was in reference to UMD CS, which will be limited by a GPA minimum to change into the major starting fall 2019. It may be that UMD CS was taken by surprise by rapid growth in interest in the major.
The other way yet mentioned and much rarer, is to compete prior to admission by major. For example, prospective MEs compete for acceptance only against others who desire ME. It can result in some engineering majors being easy acceptances while others can be hyper competitive within the same school. Cal Poly does it this way. They prevent backdooring into a major through change by making eligibility for the destination major at the time of acceptance part of the change algorithm. It’s worth a look. His GPA is well below the median engineering GPA, but they do weight, so he’d bump up some. His ACT is a bit above their median of 33.
I did mention it in reference to only CS. Of course, some of the issue with labs and space will be alleviated greatly when the new CS building is open, hopefully for the Spring Semester. That only leaves a shortage of teachers.
We asked at VT about the first year grace distribution but couldn’t get an answer. If you need a 3.0 for first choice major, what % have this grade?
Does anyone understand the process at Stevens or Rutgers?
I think people need to realize some real world facts about Engineers. While many believe that they will do ME with an ME degree, just as many do IE work or AeroE work or MaterialsE work. The major in an engineering school will have an impact on what they will do for a living, but it will not limit them.
I also would be cautious about fearing for the worst once you are in an engineering program. If you have a passion to learn the material, the grades will happen. College is so much different than high school. In many ways it is more about persistence than intelligence. More about discipline than intelligence. More about maturity than intelligence. If you are fortunate enough to get into a public university that is known for engineering, you are intelligent enough to get a 4.0. It is the other factors that will determine what you get. If PU has a great ME program and you are passionate about it (and definitely if you live in Indiana), and PU accepts you. You would be foolish to pick another option because you are worried you won’t make it into the ME program after your freshman year. You can pick it for other reasons, but fear of not succeeding is not one of them.
With a 35 ACT and a 3.8 gpa with rigorous coursework he is prepared to do well anywhere.
Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland has a single door admission (you can major in anything once accepted). Known for good merit aid and has a maker/start up space called thinkbox. 2,796 men/2,300 women undergraduates
Miami University in Oxford, OH, good merit, gorgeous campus. 8,281 men/8,338 women undergraduates
Rutgers: https://soe.rutgers.edu/oas/first-year-declaration says “Although the university reserves the right to limit enrollment in particular disciplines, all majors in the School of Engineering are currently open to you without restriction.”
Stevens: https://www.stevens.edu/academics/undergraduate-studies/undergraduate-majors says that students may enter either as direct admits or as “undecided engineering” and does not say if there are any grade or GPA criteria to declare or change major. Contact the school directly on the latter.
As of our last ‘engineering school tour’ in 2017 Stevens, Lehigh, Tuffts, WPI, Penn, Hopkins, MIT, Northeastern, CMU, UVA all had non restrictive options to choose major. Only exception was an over enrolled major. ME was not mentioned, only BE was mentioned (for a direct applying to Hopkins and a potential low GPA cutoff).
DS is an ME and he was looking for a collaborative environment to add CS and EE courses mechatronics. He found that schools with small engineering programs, < 300/graduating class, and strong liberal arts program tended to be less engineering research focused. That knocked off Tuffts, Lehigh and its PA similar schools like Villanova and Bucknell.
At Michigan once your in you can change majors pretty easily. He would be a good candidate. Their avg for engineering is 3.9 with 33/34 Act.
UIUC is direct admit into engineering majors and a top ten undergraduate ME program. UIUC also has a liberal AP credit table, which is nice for graduating in 3 to 4 years with lighter schedules.
https://admissions.illinois.edu/apply/freshman/college-credit-ap
There is also an ME building renovation just started that will be completed in in 2021 (which is about the time frame that most 300/400 level ME classes will be taken when entering Fall 2019). ME building is on Green Street (near the Illini Union) which is a nice location on campus.
https://transformmeb.mechse.illinois.edu/
UIUC Mechanical Engineering Building Renovation (Daily Illini video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7Ai8Xc2hgU
@countertenormom from your posts you seem concerned if you son can handle it. If he has the stats you posted… He will be fine. It will be hard even for the best students. But even with his stats he will be accepted, regected and wait listed to many fine schools. He should decide what type of environment suits him best. Does he want A Big Ten atmosphere vs a small liberal arts college vibe? Somewhere in between? Also we looked at how easy /hard is it to change majors within engineering. At schools like UIUC and Purdue… Not so easy but at Michigan it’s much easier. What if mechanical engineering is not really what he expected it to be? As far as a more female climate… A lot of schools you take the basic math, science classes together with the lsa population. At Michigan my son doesn’t see it as male dominate but he’s only a sophomore in engineering. He helped start a tech club and they brought on 2 talented women on their board. They are part of the women’s engineering association on campus. That’s one way to associate with more women engineers…
I wouldn’t assume that a kid’s high school stats are his destiny. I’ve seen plenty of smart kids fail over issues such as motivation or work ethic.
Exactly… And why I said it will be hard even for the best students.
And the opposite can happen as well . One son was a mediocre high school student but excelled in college. Surprised the heck out of me!