My son is considering either CS or business as a major. Is it difficult to apply undecided and switch to CS or business? Is he better off applying as CS or business instead?
Boston College, UMich, Northwestern, Notre Dame
At most schools, it is very difficult to transfer into CS. Some schools do not even allow it.
In addition, the admission rates for CS are much lower at many schools. So your son would have a tougher time being admitted to CS. There are a handful of schools where business would be a tougher admit. UPenn Wharton comes to mind.
It’s probably best to figure out what he really wants before making a school list and applying.
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BC, ND and UMich have separate undergrad business schools which have direct admit. NW doesn’t have a business school. For the direct admit business schools you should review how they handle transfers in after freshman year since transfers are often difficult/competitive. If business is of interest it would be better to apply directly rather than planning/hoping for a transfer after freshman year.
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Maybe add a few schools that you could realistically do either? Something like Penn State. Enter DUS and then choose after sophomore year.
If son is math friendly maybe consider Industrial Engineering. Look at Georgia Tech’s ISyE. Mix of business classes and CS classes. The business school also offers an lT concentration.
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Like others have said above, it really depends on the school to which you’re son is applying. He should look closely at that. There seem to be fewer barriers switching majors including to CS or Bus/Econ at many liberal arts schools. For example, I don’t think Bowdoin or Williams had restrictions when we looked at them. MIT also does not pin you down. Obviously Penn, CMU, and UMich are a different story. Internal transfers there, while possible, are difficult.
If direct admission to a major is more competitive than general undeclared admission, then changing into the major later will be difficult in terms of college GPA requirements and/or competitive admission.
Changing from general undeclared to CS at UIUC, Washington, Texas, UCB, UCLA, CMU will be difficult. But doing so at CSU Dominguez Hills will not be.
For your specific schools, search “[college name] change major [major]” to see how difficult it is.
Dumb question (wondering as a soph in hs) but if this were ever to happen to me (deciding between CS and bio/chem) and I don’t get tranferred in, would the alternative be to just apply as a transfer student to another college? Or do those colleges not accept CS transfer students?
So, your question @cooliocats is "IF i get accepted to a CS or Bio/Chem program AND then I decide that I have changed my mind AND apply to transfer within my current uni AND I don’t get accepted COULD I then apply as a transfer student into the other program at a different school?
Transfer students are accepted to CS programs- but for competitive programs transferring in is typically harder than first year admissions, if only b/c there are fewer places availble.
You have 18 months to choose one- OR to choose to apply to universities where those parts of the school are more fluid. If you don’t have a strong feeling towards one or the other by a year from now, start looking into LACs.
In the meantime, spend time learning more about what each pathway is like- and follow your instincts as to which is most interesting to you.
Thank you for being real with me. This seems ridiculous though, if I end up in that situation then maybe I might need to go to a lesser known college or get less financial aid. I’ll definitely take your advice of trusting my instinct more
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