Are there any current students at Ohio state’s College of engineering who can tell me what their stats were when they were accepted such the classes they took in high school ? I want to study computer science or mechanical engineering.
Engineering, College of
engineering.osu.edu
Admission to the college of engineering is competitive and requirements are designed to identify students who are prepared for the rigors of engineering study. Admitted students enroll as pre-majors.
There are no stated cut-offs for test scores or grades. Factors considered include:
ACT/SAT scores with emphasis on math
Strong college prep curriculum with emphasis on rigorous course work in math and science
Class rank or GPA
For the autumn 2017 incoming class, the middle 50% of directly enrolled pre-majors had an ACT Composite range of 29-33 and 98% were in the top 25% of their high school classes.
above from http://undergrad.osu.edu/apply/freshmen-columbus/who-gets-in/enrollment-criteria
If your best ACT is still 28 you are a little below the middle 50%, but so were 25% of the other students directly admitted. My D wasn’t a strong standardized test taker either, but she was directly admitted (2014) and did well.
It looks like everybody who gets admitted to the School of Engineering are admitted as “pre-majors”? Is this correct as far as you know?
If this is correct, any idea how competitive it is to gain entry to your major of choice? My son is interested in Computer Engineering. I gather this is the most competitive engineering major. It would not be ideal to be admitted to the School of Engineering only to find that you must be exceptionally competitive to get into the major of your choice once there.
Judd
Here’s the engineering major application summary sheet: https://advising.engineering.osu.edu/sites/advising.engineering.osu.edu/files/uploads/Admission_To_Major/engineering_major_application_information_su2019-sp2020.pdf
Almost all have a guaranteed admission with a certain gpa. The exception is BME which is a relatively new and small program that they are still working on building capacity. Computer Engineering gpa for guaranteed admission is 3.0 (for the pre-major classes) Students with less than the stated gpa may still be able to major, just not guaranteed for some majors. Most make it into their first choice major and most programs allow students to reapply. Computer Engineering and CSE don’t admit students below the gpa minimum, but allow students to reattempt classes to increase gpa.
The FYE is not a weed out program. They are picky about who they directly admit. They do the look to your left, look to your right at orientation but say get to know these folks, we expect you all to graduate and be alumni. They do a lot of pre-tests to assess student skills to identify and build up any missing skills like spatial reasoning. Lots of free tutoring, math centers, and group projects.
Thank you for that - that is VERY informative and sets my mind at ease with regard to admission criteria to your major. I didn’t see that document when I went over the website.
Just one unclear point - when you say “they are picky about who they directly admit”, you mean they are picky about who gets into the “pre-major” program in the school of Engineering . . . ie., nobody gets into their selected major directly from high school, right?
Judd
Right - they won’t directly admit anyone to the CoE that hasn’t already demonstrated that they can handle the rigor, everybody comes in as a pre-major.
Part of FYE is taking the intro. engineering classes so students have a chance to identify their strengths and interests. It’s hard to know if the core interest is CE, or EE or CSE or maybe something else the student hadn’t even considered like Engineering Physics. FYE gives students a broad introduction to expose them to a lot of different areas so they can make a better decision.
Thanks. Perfect!!
The calc series and some of the hard sciences such as physics are week out classes at OSU. That doesn’t mean that the school doesn’t offer tutoring and other support services, but it does mean that the grading is harsh. If you look at the OSU reddit page, you’ll see that many engineers end up taking their requisite math classes at Columbus State to keep their gpa up high enough to get into their majors of choice. Don’t want to dissuade you. Just want to give you a realistic portrayal.
The suggested curriculum sheets usually have Calc I (Math 1151) and Calculus based Physics (Physics 1250) for the first semester. Although the concurrent enrollment of these two classes is allowed - it’s probably to the student’s advantage to delay the application of Calculus until they have actually completed a Calculus course. Both Physics 1250 and 1251 are offered every semester. Students can still graduate on time with Physics 1250 Spring of Freshman year and Physics 1251 Au Sophomore year (which is where many suggested curriculum sheets place 1251 anyway). Read course descriptions to understand the skills they will expect you to be bringing into class.
Rate my professor is another good tool for choosing sections wisely. Even so, there is a reason “W” can be called a ‘win’. For whatever reason, if a student is in trouble and isn’t meeting their goals they should withdraw. Sometimes it’s not clicking with the professor, sometimes it’s the class loads, sometimes it’s being in a concurrently allowed class but the student needs to build prerequisite skills. It’s seldom a good idea to try to plow through a road block, look for an alternate route.
An alternative to taking an EPHR class at community college is to take a similar prerequisite series to prepare. For example, a non calculus based college level Physics series is great prep for 1250/1251. Or use equivalencies like taking the Chem 1210/1220 series rather than Chemistry 1250 for Engineers. It can also be easier for students to learn the material in the smaller class settings offered at regional campuses.
For high school students that don’t have strong AP or dual enrollment programs they should understand that most of the students that seem to ‘get it’ or find it easy are ‘performing the class’ rather than starting from scratch like they may be (ie many students have seen the majority of the material before). To ‘catch up’ - slow down and take prerequisites to build your skill set. The gpa is important not just for major application, but for job prospects. Take your time, don’t feel like taking time to build your skill set puts you behind. Build a strong foundation.
For high school students planning their curriculum to prepare them for engineering this page provides guidance, information on course equivalencies and links to helpful websites to determine transfer credits.
https://engineering.osu.edu/academics/college-coursework-high-school
pittsburghscribe makes a great point that just because engineering students have been selected because they can do it, doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. Grading is harsh. A- is a 3.6667 on the OSU scale. For students with 90% and above being 4.0 in hs or even higher through weighted gpas, that new grading scale is jarring. Protect your gpa, know what classes you need to prioritize, build your network of help, build your skill set and you can make it through.