I have noticed for engineering that the average acceptance rate is around 50%. What is the reason for this? Does SDSU have lots of spots for engineering? Do they just receive more qualified applicants for engineering?
I think that many very qualified applicants apply to SDSU as a “safety school” so if they are accepted into their Match or Reach schools, they decline the acceptance. To make sure that SDSU meets the enrollment targets, they may accept more applicants than other majors. Also in general, applicant stats for Engineering programs are usually higher than average so that may also be an explanation. It would be nice to have the GPA/test score data broken by major to confirm this.
On average, most schools will admit 3 times as many applicants than spots just to maintain yield.
@redsox44 - Exactly what @Gumbymom wrote, plus, SDSU Engineering has a compact with local San Diego high schools with Engineering academies/Project Lead the Way curriculum. Graduating seniors who, in addition to regular CSU requirements, have completed a particular engineering course schedule in high school while earning specific grades/test scores, and who submit an engineering portfolio to SDSU are basically automatically admitted into SDSU Engineering as per the compact. These students are also eligible for specific scholarships, too. This is a very popular program for local engineering high school students. The students participate in it beginning in the 9th grade (some start as early as 7th grade since several middle schools have Project Lead the Way courses). Many of these students have already had four+ years of engineering courses and have attended summer engineering programs/camps at SDSU and other colleges, and most have participated in various engineering extracurricular activities, like competitive robotics before they even step on the SDSU campus as students there. Once admitted, these students cannot change their major. So, a good percentage of the students they accept have a significant background in engineering than say applicants who don’t have this same type of background.
@Fish125 does this make engineering more competitive for students and btw I am out of state?
I think it means that they expect a certain amount of spots to be filled with local students from within the high school/SDSU engineering compact, and all other applicants have to compete for the remaining spots open. How many that is, I don’t know. But it is more competitive than that acceptance rate (50%) shows.