Primary/Alternate Admission vs. Internal Transfer?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Cornell University
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<p>Hey, I'm applying to the college of engineering. I'm "pretty freakin sure" I'm going to stick with engineering if I'm accepted, but I know that college underclassmen tend to go through major idealogical changes, so I'm open to the possibility that I may want to change to a different science freshman year. </p>

<p>Theres not a doubt in my mind that I'll want to be in either engineering or the college or arts and sciences, but I don't think I fit the "exceptionally qualified" stipulation (<a href="http://admissions.cornell.edu/apply/firstyear/Primary_Alternate_Admission.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://admissions.cornell.edu/apply/firstyear/Primary_Alternate_Admission.pdf&lt;/a&gt;) for being considered for an alternate school. (2240 SAT, 4.0, decent extracurriculars, but nothing spectacular)</p>

<p>Do you think I should bother writing an essay for why I want to be considered for the CAS, or should I just stick with engineering and do an Internal Transfer to CAS later on if I attend cornell and change my mind? I've heard internal transfers to CAS are pretty easy compared to the other majors (since engineers and hotel managers are kind of distinctive sorts of people, while CAS is a little broad).</p>

<p>Thoughts? Thanks,
-Michael</p>

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<p>Internal transfer is a fairly painless process as long as your grades aren’t poor. That said, I’ve known a couple people who really struggled in engineering, had poor grades, wanted to transfer, and it really took some effort to get their internal transfer approved. However, I would never suggest pre-planning for failure at college.</p>

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<p>Cool, thanks. I’m not toooo worried about finding that Engineering will be too hard for me, I just think I might sway toward majoring in mathematics after a year.</p>

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<p>they dont accept fat nerds…</p>