Early admissions went out Friday. Did you submit regular decision instead of early decision?
I emailed admissions. She applied for a specialized major that required an interview, so they said we wonât find out until the end of February. ug.
My son was admitted and intends to study CS but I have serious concerns about the process of CODA into the CS major. I feel like being admitted to NCSU really hasnât put him closer to majoring in CS. He spent HS building a strong record to get into a good program, but being admitted to NCSU simply âpre-qualifiesâ a FYE student to build a second transcript and resume during their first 3- 4 semesters, hoping to be accepted to their selected major when they apply to CODA.
While the pathway to get into a desired major is outlined by COE, the specifics that really matter are not mentioned. There is no listed threshold GPA that guarantees a student is accepted to their requested major. In fact there is no guarantee at all as the GPA seems to be a moving target. Posts on various websites over the last several years, for particularly competitive majors such as CS, indicate a minimum GPA of 3.5 -3.8 to give one a âgood chanceâ of successfully CODAing into CS. But from what I have read and considering NCSU doesnât publish a threshold GPA for guaranteed admission, and although they indicate students are ranked according to GPA, it appears admission to CS (and other FYE majors) is done holistically, just like admission from HS to the NCSU COE. Students write that they were turned down with a GPA as high as 3.5- 3.7. Thereâs just no guarantee even with high performance.
My son is concerned about having to stress about making high grades in the Success Courses. He realizes that, to be accepted, he will have to compete with a particularly smart cohort of students.
NCSUâs pressure-cooker selection process seems beneficial to the school but not so much to the students. NCSU draws a very large group of high stats students (making their admission numbers look better) knowing that many of them will be forced by their selection process to choose another major or leave the school. NCSU wins ($) either way but the student loses.
Why doesnât NCSU COE just have a minimum GPA for guaranteed admission, like most programs, and publish it? I think the answer is because they are knowingly admitting far more prospective CS students than they have space for. All schools that I have reviewed have a threshold GPA of 3.0 to 3.2. If they told prospective students that the threshold GPA was 3.7 or 3.8, many would probably not accept the risk and would pass over their program.
Again, it seems my sonâs hs record doesnât really advance him much at NCSU. And if he doesnât make the holistic âcutâ to be admitted into CS (failing to be admitted potentially with a GPA as high as 3.5-3.7) then he will either have to settle for a different major or transfer to another school- not great choices. An acceptance rate in one post on another site indicates the acceptance rate to CODA into CS in a recent year was approx 70%. To me, a 30% chance of failure doesnât sound very encouraging at all, with stiff competition from a pre-selected cohort of classmates who, like him, will be generally gifted in math and science.
My son was initially excited to receive his acceptance as it was a top choice, but, as you may be able to tell, he is now leaning away from this program because of this onerous selection process. Iâm hoping some of you can tell me my analysis is wrong or there are some facts Iâve overlooked.
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Totally agree what you have mentioned. I went through this process with my older daughter few years ago.CODA process is very stressful and definitely need high GPA
Having CS in the engineering dept is a complaint I often see. It is odd, considering other schools keep them separate. That being said, the most significant limitation on acceptance has been the number of classroom seats available. They have been increasing seats yearly with new buildings and renovations, so the 70% you saw a few years ago went up to 82% this past fall. 5 years ago, they only had 159 seats; last fall, they admitted 293.
Hereâs a link to last yearâs CODA stats for CS. Focus on the 25th percentile GPAs (rows 24 and 26) and not the averages. CODA GPA was 3.35; overall GPA was 3.39. 25% of admitted students were even lower than that:
Most students will CODA in at the end of their freshman year. Is your son coming in with any Math, Physics or Chem AP credits? Good scores there translate to CODA Aâs and Bâs.
Despite saying it is holistic, everyone will confirm that it is all GPA. Biomedical Eng is the only holistic review with an essay. If your son was successful in HS, he should be fine his freshman year at State.
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Thanks for sharing that data. Very interesting.
For the APs, I saw that you had to get â5â (in certain classes) to get âAâ transfer. If you get â4â then it is a âBâ, which actually hurts your GPA.
It is like you need to be aware of this soon before telling NCSU if you want to place out or repeat those classes.
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Youâre welcome. You can find it for every other engineering major too. Acceptance is 100% for most engineering majors, with Biomed being the toughest. They have a fixed 70-person limit with the joint UNC program. It all comes down to class/lab space, which has thankfully been growing on the Centennial campus.
Yes, please ensure you know how your Calc, Physics, and Chem AP scores translate to engineering CODA GPA.
Other APs donât become grades (e.g. history, psych, etc.). Class credit but no impact on GPA. A 3 is a nice win to earn GenEd credits.
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This is very true. CODA is quite stressful based on what I have been told and heard from students. Most kids come in with AP Calc AB/Calc 1 credit and some with AP Calc BC. But most have to go through two Physics and 1 general chemistry plus the other two courses. While CODA stats suggest 70% of applicants make it, in truth that number reflects those that applied. I was told during the engineering open house that ~20% of students drop out of chem and ~30-40% after the two Physics courses.
Now to be fair, these are average numbers for most engineering programs, including ones that admit students directly but if you consider the quality of students on paper that come int NCSU, that tells me that the school actively looks to cull students.
Another thing that I am hearing but have not verified myself is that there are many more students on campus due to COVID years, which is putting a lot of pressure on classroom/course resources. Hence, so many deferrals. That cannot bode well for CODA.
Texas A&M is another notorious school that has a similar process. Many kids retake Calc 1/2 so that they can keep up their GPA after getting 5 on the AP tests! One of the reasons my son did not apply.
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So schools in these situations (NSCU and UNC come to mind) can âgenerouslyâ offer acceptances to students who are interested in compsci (or UNC business, NCSU engineering, etc), knowing that they are not guaranteeing anything. Iâm not saying these schools are disingenuous⊠but they are guessing as much as the students/families who will succeed or not knowing that there are not enough spots for everyone.
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UNC used to have an open Comp Sci program but not anymore. I think starting last fall, it is application only as are many majors. Business school at UNC has very few direct admits and getting into KF is quite a task. Most do not get accepted when they apply as sophomore/junior. I think Globe accepts 18 students each year!! They get hundreds of applicants. However, UNC is very open about these policies and they are clearly stated if one cares to look them up. The school of public health is another notorious one for rejections.
Same with NCSU engineering. They publish all the stats one might need before making up their mind. However, bear is mind that things are harder for impacted majors mostly like CS, CSE, EE and ME. For most other ones, almost 100% can CODA in, assuming they can get through the 6 pre-reqs.
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Thank you for your response. I look at the 70% acceptance jumping to 82% but how many students donât bother trying to CODA as they realize they likely are not going to make it with a 3.0? Is the 82% more like 50% after some students self-decline to attempt CODA? How many freshman bail out of CS as a freshman if they get a B- in one or two classes their first semester? Because if you get a B- even in just one of the early Success classes you are likely going to have a difficult time with getting a satisfactory GPA to CODA into CS. Thatâs real stress on a student. It would be useful to know what percent of admitted FYE students with intention to major in CS successfully went on to CODA into CS.
Per the stats you provided, if the 25th percentile GPA for successful CODA was 3.35, which means that 75% of students who successfully CODAâd into CS had a GPA higher than that. Thatâs a potentially difficult hurdle to clear. If most other programs can provide a guarantee for entry into CS at a specified GPA threshold, why doesnât NCSU do the same? That would be a more honest and open presentation to prospective students that could inform their decision to accept an offer of admission to NCSU COE. Instead, it appears they purposely admit an excess of students while using a holistic process that gives the COE the power to sift through students to keep admitted numbers where they want. I can only speculate they do this because they want the COE overfilled with high stats kids, knowing they will go on to fill the remaining COE majors when they fail to CODA into CS. Itâs good for $ and university admission stats.
I understand you say it is all GPA and maybe that really is the case. But I look at the selection process not having a threshold GPA and it says to me that there may be a holistic process at play, with a sliding scale GPA depending on the student, or an unknown threshold GPA which the department determines once they see how many FYEâs ultimately apply to CODA into CS.
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| Percentage of Cohort Matriculating into an Engineering Program | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cohort Year | End of Fall of First Year | End of Spring of First Year | End of Fall of Second Year | End of Spring of Second Year |
| 2012 | 4.3% | 54.7% | 65.6% | 72.9% |
| 2013 | 5.4% | 62.4% | 71.7% | 77.0% |
| 2014 | 8.9% | 62.4% | 70.0% | 75.6% |
| 2015 | 10.1% | 69.3% | 77.2% | 81.5% |
| 2016 | 12.0% | 72.7% | 77.9% | 81.0% |
| 2017 | 10.3% | 66.9% | 74.6% | 78.7% |
| 2018 | 12.1% | 71.3% | 78.3% | 82.3% |
| 2019 | 13.7% | 75.8% | 81.4% | 84.3% |
| 2020 | 12.7% | 72.1% | 79.0% | 83.4% |
| 2021 | 10.1% | 67.4% |
Thanks for these stats.
I will point out that it reports those students matriculating into any one of the many programs in the COE, not specifically CS. So at the end of spring semester second year, 83% have entered into an engineering program. Assuming the cohort is all admitted FYE of the COE for a given year, this appears to indicate that 83% stayed in the COE by entering one of the COE majors. But that means about 17% of the admitted FYEâs did not matriculate into ANY COE major by end of second year. They did not successfully CODA by the end of their second year or left the COE for another major at NCSU, or transferred out of NCSU.
From this limited information, I donât think itâs possible to tell what percent of enrolled students successfully CODA into CS at the COE. One cannot conclude itâs 83%. Considering that many of those students who fail to CODA into the more competitive majors, like CS, likely end up entering other less competitive majors in the COE, I would conclude that FYE matriculation into CS is probably somewhat less than 83%.
Good point, I shouldâve been clearer. NC State really only accepts OOS rock stars during EA (as evidence, take a look at some of those on this message board who got deferred); however, Iâd agree that what you say is true, in general, for regular admissions. However, like Georgia (especially relevant at Georgia Tech), most state legislatures expect their universities to accept a very high percentage of in-state residents.* Not great if you are OOS, but sensible politics. NC taxpayers are funding a good chunk (30%, according to the NC State FY2022-23 Budget Book) of the universityâs operations, so they naturally expect a return, for their constituents, on that investment. They simply cannot accept large nos. of OOS students EA, as this could potentially âlock outâ high-performing in-state residents who apply regular decision.
What I was trying to convey was that, if you are OOS and got deferred for EA, this is not unusual (in fact, Iâd argue, itâs the norm). Hang in there as you will have a better chance of getting in during the regular decision cycle. And as you say, admissions is both a science and an art, with many getting acceptances at slightly lower metrics (SAT/ACT, GPA, class rank, etc.) than others. As the saying goes, you never know if you donât apply.
*The three biggest exceptions that I know to this rule are Iowa, Mississippi, and Utah where the flagship engineering schools (Iowa State, Mississippi State, and Utah State) aggressively court OOS students (no doubt because the population of those states is small). Iowa State in particular is an incredible hidden gem âsafe schoolâ for engineering as itâs programs pretty much match NC Stateâs in terms of reputation (on the other hand, Ames is not Raleigh, especially this time of year).
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It wasnât meant to be specific to CS. I was curious to know how many dropped out of COE over time when you asked. Good question. I looked up the university overall, which is 94% first-year retention. 83% sounds right for an engineering curriculum. Itâs a tougher major than many kids think.
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Hi - Does anyone know if the Goodnight Scholars program is going to send Finalist notifications today? I think I saw a date of 2/2 at one point, but I donât know if thatâs accurate.
so the website says:
Early March
- Finalist Interview Day
- In early February, the review committee and the Goodnight Scholars Program professional staff will select the top 100 candidates to join us for a Finalist Interview Day taking place in early March 4th 2023. Participation in this event is required for all finalists who wish to be considered for the Goodnight Scholars Program.
- Scholarship Recipients Notified
- In early March 2022, the Goodnight Scholars Program selection committee will meet and select the recipients and alternates for the class of 2026. Recipients will have until April 15, 2022, to accept the scholarship offer.
Hey guys, I got deferred at NC State and I submitted my mid year grades. Do you guys think I could get back a final decision earlier than March 30th just like I heard back early(Jan 27th instead of Jan 30th)? And also, do you guys have any tips for me to help get accepted in this second round because I already had all As for my fall semester of my senior year, so I am not sure what else I could do to potentially raise my chances more. Please provide some suggestions. Thank you so much in advance!
My child got into NCSU COE with CS-Intent. Does this mean that CS is not guaranteed and will be earned via the CODA process? I am unclear. Could someone please shed some light.