Risk and Reward of the 3:2 Engineering Program

Hello, this is my first time on this site, and I was wondering if I could get a little insight on the 3:2 engineering program with Columbia University. I plan on going into Computer Science. I consider myself a fairly normal person in terms of intelligence, but I’ve outworked everyone else up to this point. So I’m wondering how difficult it would be to get a 3.3 GPA at William & Mary through three years and if the program would be worth it over the long haul. Thanks in advance for any responses.

Outworking everyone is a good plan for getting a 3.3 gpa. Is the program worth it? You get a liberal arts experience for three years and an engineering degree after another two. That sounds good to me. However, if you really want an engineering degree above all else, go to an engineering school rather than W&M.

I agree with @fiddlecanoe‌ if you want to study engineering, go to a school that offers engineering.

“I plan on going into Computer Science. I consider myself a fairly normal person in terms of intelligence, but I’ve outworked everyone else up to this point.”

W&M is an exceptionally good college. It is full of exceptionally good students. Admission is quite competitive. Basically, everyone there has outworked everyone else in high school. The vast majority go from being academic stars in HS to being just another student in college, because they are completely surrounded in every class with people just as good as they are.

If you go to W&M (or any other top college), you are unlikely to outwork everyone else.

Go to a school that offers what you want to study, that you can afford, that will get you the undergraduate experience you are most comfortable with, that will open doors for grad school or job interviews when you have earned your degree.

Do not go to a school hoping if provides an alternate path to Ivy admission.

Yeah that’s why I put that in there, mr. dad. I’m already going to W&M but was asking only about the 3:2 program. thanks for the condescending advice

Hey! I go to W&M as well and I’m also considering the program. Going into my 2nd year I have all the engineering reqs fulfilled so I just have to get my Finance degree (starting in mason this fall) within two years. Miraculously my freshman year I got a 4.0, my strategy was to take a bunch of grade booster classes and make sure I have easy/good teachers for my engineering prereqs. (eg. prof rice for chem 103, and kuzmenko for econ 101/102). I think one thing that put me ahead was that I took some of the harder classes in high school (namely lin alg, multi var, diffeq), and after emailing mikhaelov (however you spell it) he confirmed that college courses taken at dual enrollment or ccs during high school would count. The only reason I would not attend Columbia would be the aid (i’m poor). A piece of advice about majoring in computer science, knowing past WM people who matriculated to Columbia, I hear CS is that hardest at Columbia. It is obviously the easiest at WM (only needing 2 compsci courses and not needing diffeq), but at Columbia the learning curve to catch up to other CS students may be steep. Just my 0.02.

Its a great idea if you are on the fence about Eng. My son was and had gotten in to Columbia and applied to but we did not want him to go ( and the cost was way hi. When he got into W&M he decided it was the place for him and then ENG became an option. He then found econ which is a math centric major and he got a dual degree in Math and econ.