<p>Is it common that UA students who starts with engineering change their majors in the future? </p>
<p>Happens all the time. Some (smart-alecks) even call a freshman engineering major “pre-business.”</p>
<p>Why? </p>
<p>Because so many freshman engineering students change to business majors!</p>
<p>That’s funny lol. Are there many engineering students who choose engineers(but changes major later) solely because of extra money?</p>
<p>Mostly it’s because they do poorly on the into engineering courses and know they won’t make it through 4 years of engineering school.</p>
<p>Ouch…is it common that people who did well in high school(like 1440 math+CR, GPA 3.81 UW/4.11 W) do poor in eng. classes in college? Or do they tend to do well? </p>
<p>Because I am considering Chem E largely for money issue-I know it’s not really a good reason-but it would be pointless if I suck at it</p>
<p>There’s no way to know. In my engineering school we had many smart kids who switched majors in Freshman or Sophomore year because they had difficulty in the basic physics or math courses. Chem E is as hard as they come. Organic Chem is the killer course.</p>
<p>I know many industrial engineers or technical writers who started out as EE/AE/ME/ChemE/CS majors.</p>
<p>Thanks for the information. God I m really torn between extra money and chem major</p>
<p>I don’t see the dilemma. If you choose (and stick with) Chemical Engineering OR with Chemistry as your major, BOTH of these require you to take difficult classes, so difficulty (or ease) should not be the deciding factor.
People are happiest doing what interests them.
How students performed in HS is not a definite predictor of how they will perform in college. Some do better; some do worse; some do about the same.
I’m glad you got your visa sorted. Full steam ahead!</p>
<p>Thanks @aeromom
I was afraid that I might do less well than I would do in Chem because I wasn’t really into engineering in HS(partly because of the teacher, who was disliked for his awfully bad teaching skills)</p>
<p>If the person isn’t opposed to engineering and is strong in math and sciences, then there’s really no reason why he//she wouldn’t do well.</p>
<p>The problem is that too many students start out in eng’g because they think, “it will lead to a good paying job”…BUT…these students either are too weak in math/sciences or they just have little/no interest.</p>
<p>Bama does not make students qualify for engineering, so there are kids with modest GPAs and modest test scores who start as engineering majors…they quickly are overwhelmed and drop out.</p>
<p>I remember being at at SITE luncheon and there was a kid at our table who had an ACT 21 (math 20) and he was going to be enrolling at Bama as an eng’g major. Do I think he’s still an eng’g major? Likely not. </p>
<p>the rule of thumb is that those with a 700+ math SAT or equivalent ACT do have the math skills to succeed in eng’g. But, some won’t have the interest. Certainly, some with a sub700 score may “work hard and make it thru,” but someone with a really modest score probably won’t. </p>
<p>It’s not like I have little interest in Chem E.in fact I think it’s quite interesting and many of the courses are also required for first two years of Chem majors. However I was just wondering if engineering students need to have had some engineer experience in high school(which I don’t). Since i have good memorization skills and good SAT scores, I think it won’t be really hard.</p>
<p>I think I finally made up my mind as a Chem E. 
My family was opposed to it because they didn’t think it would be too hard for me but I persuaded them I could do well and also complete pre med requirements. </p>
<p>Engineering students do NOT need high school experience. Most eng’g students do NOT have high school experience.</p>
<p>@paul2752 You need to stop jumping every time your family complains about something. You had ChemE selected before. Since you’re starting in the Spring (delayed from Fall as you’ve been awaiting visa), if your “preserved” scholarship from fall didn’t have the eng’g award included, then you may not get that now. </p>
<p>delete duplicate</p>
<p>delete duplicate</p>
<p>@paul2752, my advice is to start with CE and switch out later if you find it isn’t your cup of tea. It’s MUCH easier in general (everywhere) to switch out of engineering (happens all the time) than to try to switch in (happens pretty much NEVER, unless the student is willing to reset the four-year clock).</p>
<p>As far as having never had any engineering in HS, I really don’t think it matters. Most kids won’t have had engineering courses unless they went to some type of STEM magnet school or took dual-enrollment classes. The most important thing is that you are a strong MATH student and that you’re willing to work hard when other students might not be, something I think will be no problem for you. And FWIW, my son, who not only never had any engineering classes in HS, he never had any AP classes either (his private HS did away with them years ago), did VERY well his first semester at UA. He came in a strong math student and had learned to work hard (and teach himself when necessary) in high school. I think you’ll do just fine as a premed, CE major, based on what you’ve shared about yourself. </p>
<p>@LucieTheLakie Thanks for the personal account That gives me more confidence.</p>
<p>Btw, why did you son’s school away with APs? Was it because of funding issue?</p>
<p>@paul2752, no, no, just the opposite. They were tired of teaching to the tests. This is a school where most of the upperclassman courses are on par with freshman-level classes in a good LAC. Some kids will still prepare for and take the APs, but they don’t teach to them. We weren’t sure how well prepared my son would be, given how many kids at UA come in with a slew of AP credits (and believe me it hurts when you’re a first semester freshman and half your friends have sophomore or junior status), but it seems my son was VERY well prepared. He not only did well in all his STEM classes, he aced English 103 (the honors section of the Freshman Writing Seminar). Instructor told him he had “mad skills.” He will graduate with only one major unlike a lot of lucky UA kids, but we feel he will have been very well educated, regardless, because of the strong academic foundation he came in with.</p>