I’m a female looking to major in a STEM subject (leaning towards computer science). My counselor had advised me to apply for the engineering department in colleges rather than the “arts and science” ones, claiming that the engineering departments heavily favor female applicants while the normal sciences departments do not do so.
I eventually applied for the “Arts and Sciences” for all of my colleges (wasn’t sure whether I wanted to commit myself to engineering), but now I’m wondering if I really should have applied for engineering anyways. Is there really any difference between engineering departments and normal science departments on how they view girls?
(I have a 2300+ SAT, am in robotics, and about 3/4 of my classes are sciences).
Better be in Arts & Sciences if you’re not 100% committed to engineering. If you had applied engineering and gotten into a better school, you might’ve been stuck with something you were unsure of.
Regardless, too late now.
Depends on whether CS is offered in engineering or science, if the school is divided into divisions. If the school allows applying to the major, doing so is preferred, since it can be difficult to change into it later.
@Anonymoose3 Yeah, that was also my concern. With decisions coming soon, I’ve recently been having flashbacks of my application process, lol, but yes, it’s definitely too late for me to do anything now. Just wondering for all future STEM girls.
When comparing acceptance, be sure to check whether you are:
a. Directly admitted to your desired major, or
b. Admitted to general admission, pre-engineering, or some other status besides your desired major.
If (b) above, check how difficult it will be to enter your desired major.
For CS, here is a list comparing different schools’ admission to the major, if you enter the school not in the major:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19262574/#Comment_19262574
Women like you could apply to Harvey Mudd – all STEM, and they do accept a higher percentage of female applicants. Very strong CS, and you don’t have to decide about engineering right away.
Note that it is often easier to transfer out of engineering school than transferring into. Nevertheless, whether it is easier for OP to be accepted into engineering than LSA would depend on the differential competitiveness and gender bias of a particularly school. There is no generalization for it.
There’s really no blanket, general answer to this question - it’s going to be different at each school. At some schools the engineering department(s) may be open and welcoming utopias while the computer science department is a snake pit, others vice versa, and at some schools both may be different kinds of snake pits. I’m exaggerating, of course, but it really is just going to vary.
This
Also isn’t universally true. What are the “normal” science departments? Biology and chemistry are also sciences alongside computer science and physics. The representation of women in each department is going to be different. And some universities simply don’t admit by major. At some you are admitted to the school and at some you just are admitted to the whole university and can pick your major later.