He should read Who Gets in and Why - it will be very eye opening for him.
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Last day of Junior year done for S24. Unfortunately he did not finish as strong as he wanted to and will end up with a few Bâs. This year was hard. Glad itâs over now and we know where his GPA will end up now so we plan forward with what we have.
His summer is a packed. He is going to be away for a Research program for 4 weeks from end of June and he is also trying to finish a online course by August so these two activities will keep him busy along with the essay writing/college research he plans to do. He also wants to go back to teaching tennis which he did not do during school year if time permits.
The other thing is he is still not 100% sure on the major. He was saying Mech engineering for most of 11th grade and now again he says he is not sure. Sigh
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So two more days of real school and then finals week. I just had the realization that he will have no finals next year and since there was an issue last year and finals were cancelled, this kid will only have a single experience with finals in HS. I guess AP tests count as a similar experience. Next year he is taking 4 and may take two extra tests without the classes. The good thing is that I can plan our summer vacation while school is still in session next year!
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Heâs in good company. Better realizing that heâs not fully committed to a field yet, and choose colleges with broad options, than to admitting to the same by sophomore year.
Most students are either undecided, or will change their originally intended major.
And thatâs normal and âgoodâ, because a high schooler hasnât been exposed to the wide variety of fields and possibly, combination of studies, that surprisingly might suit them - and their eyes wonât really open until they take courses based on distribution requirements, and hear what courses peers are taking, or hear faculty talk about specialties, niches etc.
Not being stuck with an immature choice is essential to a good outcome!
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I agreeâI had 3 different majors in college and realized too late my junior year that what I really liked was yet a fourth major.
But it is so hard to identify possible schools when you are unsure about the major, especially if one of the possibilities is something specialized like engineering.
Schools that have a wide variety of majors and arenât super selective often have restrictions on changing majors. And many schools donât have engineering at all or only have a couple of engineering disciplines. 
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Thanks needed to hear this though I am aware of it sometimes you forget that he is still a 17 years old. I did not study in the US and there you were fixed on the major you choose before you join college as there is no concept of changing after you join university/College.
Based on the range of majors he is saying we will need to make sure he chooses a college where changing a major is relatively easy. Especially changing from college of engineering to letters and sciences or vice versa.
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Yes we can not choose many LAC because engineering is not an option in them and that is one of the main options he interested in. I also hear that in some public universities it is hard to change into impacted majors if not directly admitted. Especially if it involves moving from letters and sciences to engineering for example.
From what I read private colleges are more flexible with this. Not sure if this is 100% accurate and need to do more research on this.
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That path is typically easier - than the reverse.
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S24 has no idea what he wants to major in and is choosing schools based on the most available options and if there are requirements that they are distributing among many disciplines. He knows he does not want to be a professional musician (will have a music second major or minor) but that is about it. His brag sheet to the counselor said economics, math or computer science, but he also loves english, writing and history, ha!
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you can major in physics or math and go on to engineering though (or that was my understanding). There are also schools that have the 3 and 2 programs that allow you to finish an LAC education at somewhere that have engineering. My understanding is that very few actually do this but it is certainly an option.
Ok good to know. I guess it would make sense to apply to college of engineering at places its harder to change into engineering and then if needed we move to another college if needed.
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Yes I have seen Emroy have this option with a tie with Georgia Tech. I donât know anyone who has done this so need to do more research on this and see if the moving to Georgia tech in this case would require a secondary admission kind of process or if it is a GPA requirement.
Generally speaking I would agree. At many universities, youâll have to go through an âInternal Transferâ application process - because the courses you might have to take at your target college might not have been part of your original curriculum.
But the devil lies in the detail, and how selective the âArts & Sciencesâ college is! At Columbia University, for example, being able to transfer from SEAS (engineering) to Columbia College is not a âgivenâ. Your original application (transcripts, scores, ECâs, essayâŠ) out of high-school might have been a good fit for the Engineering College - but might not have gotten you into CC, and that might still be a factor a year later.
So one should be mentally prepared that it might require an external transfer (to a different university).
Good idea on looking at the GE requirements. My s24 was saying mech engineering but now says may be economics, Astro physics or CS+ Political science ( CS being added my husband as he is feels that may have better prospects in terms of jobs with our requiring a masters if does not want)
Ok good to know and more things to consider as we research colleges. I need to really make S24 start a spreadsheet and make sure he is checking all these as he narrows down the list.
This is the pre-engineering page from Williams. I have seen similar at many LACs where you can finish at Dartmouth or Columbia
Generally, you ought to be fully committed to Engineering before going this route. Although, to be fair, completing an Engineering degree comes with knowledge that can lead to many other professions outside Engineering.
Given that he has already expressed much broader interests typically better served by a LAC, I would counsel him that itâs okay for him to have an open mind, and that youâll support him if he doesnât feel certain about locking into an Engineering school.
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Changing your mind about your major is pretty common. Our schoolâs senior counselor said that the average student in college changes their mind a couple of times.
With some schools, it can be hard to switch from 1 âcollegeâ to another. For example, itâs usually easier to switch from a College of Engineering to College of Business or Letters & Science. Easier than switching from non-engineering to Engineering.
Also, there can be occasional situations in which it would be downright impossible to switch into engineering or CS. I was listening to a podcast awhile ago where an admissions expert from UIUC was being interviewedâŠthat person stated that with a major like CS (computer science), if youâre applying as an OOS (out of state) student, the ONLY way youâll get into CS is if you apply to that major with your initial applicationâŠthey do NOT allow OOS students to switch majors AFTER admission from another major to CS.
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Not sure if this would help, but in order to help direct my D24 in comparing majors between different colleges, I gave her an Excel spreadsheet to fill out. Data that sheâs had to fill out on it include the following. This list is a little science-skewed since sheâs going to be a bio major:
- name of college
- major
- website (URL for the department at that college where you can find the major requirements)
- is a pre-major required?
- if pre-major is required, what are the pre-major classes you need to take?
- Amt of math required (list out class #s/names)
- Amt of physics required
- other science classes required
- other requirements
- notes
Sheâs found this to be pretty helpful. Sheâd look up 1 or 2 each week. And after a few weeks, had a pretty good list going on. Plus, you can easily scan the spreadsheet page to compare the programs to each other all at the same time.
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For anyone waiting for schools on their list that have been slow to post the latest (2022-23) CDS, this morning College Navigator rolled over to this admission data, where it will remain for the next twelve months.
I donât know if I just missed it before (possible!) but the admission tab now includes a section called âAdmission Considerations,â which is similar to section C7 of the CDS, though it doesnât include an entry for demonstrated interest. Interestingly, it does include an entry for legacy status.
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