Question about ECE

<p>I am aware that if a student is admitted to the CIT, he or she may receive a restriction specifying that they can not offer him or her a spot in Electrical and Computer Engineering. What chance, if any, would a student have of still majoring in ECE? I really want to do ECE (having done some research in this area, I feel rather strongly) and so if I receive this restriction, would it thus be idea to attend CMU?</p>

<p>I was told by some people in CIT that for the last 2-3 years, no one has been deinied a spot in ECE. The restriction was put in place during the dot-com boom, when way too many people wanted to enroll in ECE.</p>

<p>One of the ECE professors I spoke to this summer told me something rather the opposite...that many many students are not acccepted into ECE in CIT when they are accepted to CMU, even if they applied for ECE specifically. And then when declaring their majorlater on they are able to major in ECE?</p>

<p>I'm not sure. I would call someone in the department and ask them some questions should that happen to you.</p>

<p>Students are often officially restricted to non ECE majors, but when they officially declare their majors in spring of freshman year, they are typically not denied an ECE major.</p>

<p>Please, does anyone else have any more opinions or insights? I'm almost positive I want to major in ECE, and I'm certainly attracted to CMU because of the strength of their ECE department. However, at the same time I don't want to run the risk of going there, not being able to major in ECE, and having to transfer to another university after freshman year. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.</p>

<p>Please, anyone?</p>

<p>If they limit their enrollment it would be because of the size of the class and the numbers and it is hard to predict if this will be the case in the future. You should call the department and get info basically on if they would limit it, what would the restrictions be based on - hopefully GPA.
Also please know that this is not limited to CMU - my son goes to Penn State and they have enrollment restrictions for several of their engineering majors as well - you must get a certain GPA to get into the major and it fluctuates each year depending on the demand.
So transferring is not necessarily going to guarantee you a spot somewhere else.</p>

<p>I've heard several different things: is it true that the people who do not specify ECE as their intended major on their application will be restricted no matter what? Or could space be reserved for some of the students with more impressive resumes who do not select ECE initially?</p>

<p>In the past few years, any 'restricted' student who wanted to major in ECE has not been denied when they declared their major (at the end of freshman year). </p>

<p>However, if a lot of people wanted to be ECE, the spots would fill up and they would take the top 'n' GPAs. </p>

<p>n = max # of ppl in ECE program</p>

<p>If you want to transfer into ECE, you should have a good GPA. I think you need at least a 3.0 to transfer into any department, but I would say about a 3.5 for ECE. You should also take Intro to ECE 18-100 to see if ECE is appealing to you. It's not exactly an easy class, but ECE isn't exactly an easy major.</p>

<p>So if you keep a high GPA freshman year, you shouldn't have trouble transfering into ECE from another CIT department.</p>

<p>Thanks for your input. So then overall GPA, not performance in the Intro to ECE class, would determine which restricted students get off the waitlist? Would this include just fall semester grades then or also mid semester grades for the spring?</p>

<p>Yes, it's overall GPA. But I'm not sure what factors into it. Mid-semester grades are sort of a joke, so I hope that they don't put much weight in them. Of course, you want to be sure to at least pass Intro to ECE...</p>