<p>I'm currently a freshman at a liberal arts college with no declared major at this point.
I've taken no science classes this year, except for Calc II and III. Although I've always had engineering in my mind, I chose this school because I liked the idea of the well-rounded education liberals schools offer. However, I soon became disenchanted as the year passed by, and as I realized with more certainty that I am more of a technical kind of person. </p>
<p>At this point, I'm looking into transferring to McCormick at Northwestern University. This is the school that I would have gone to, had I not chosen the LAC. It has a great engineering design program, in which my utmost interest lies (I want to become a design engineer). I am not sure if the previous record of admission will affect my chance for transfer at all, but what I do know is that I need to re-apply by May 1st, which requires me to make the decision of transferring promptly. </p>
<p>My question is whether I should be able to transfer to McCormick as a sophomore, or any other engineering institution, without having any credits in engineering or natural science in freshman year. Any suggestions or comments on my direction or other options will be greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading.</p>
<p>Have you looked into joint LAC-Engineering school programs? I know Columbia SEAS has the 3-2 program for liberal arts college students wanting to do engineering. There are a couple of other engineering schools that have a similar program, I can’t recall their names off the top of my head but its something you should look into.</p>
<p>Yes, joint 3/2 programs are definitely things to consider. Although, I was afraid by the fact that not too many people are familiar with the programs, and it is hard to find much information/resources with regard to it. But it is an option that’s still on my list in case my transfer option becomes unlikely.</p>
<p>You might be able to transfer in as a sophomore with the number of credits you have, but you’ll certainly be behind quite a bit in your engineering curriculum. Most engineering freshmen take two semesters of physics, two of math, one of chem, and maybe an intro engineering or two. If you haven’t ever done calculus-based physics, you’ll certainly be a year behind as it’ll be pretty difficult to enroll in sophomore-level engineering classes without the background required for them.</p>
<p>If nothing else, you’d at least have all of the humanities requirements finished, so if you’re good at scheduling and can fit in a few extra classes you might still be able to finish in four years, though it’s likely it might take an extra semester or two.</p>
<p>Here:
[Departments</a> - Northwestern University: McCormick School of Engineering](<a href=“Departments & Institutes | About | Northwestern Engineering”>Departments & Institutes | About | Northwestern Engineering)
I’m not sure what major produces a design engineer, but that page has the relevant departments. All the ones I checked will give you the exact major requirements (click links such as “prospective students”, “undergraduate”, “curriculum”. NW seems to have some humanity requirements (about 7 humanity, 5 general elective courses required, but watch for details). I saw engineering requirements ranging around 18.</p>
<p>The forecast: Your math is plentiful, but it will take extra work to catch up on actual engineering if no courses have been taken. With some extra strain, you can finish on time.</p>
<p>NU is gonna give you at least a year of credits (12 of the 48 courses) for math, humanities, and unrestricted electives. So you won’t be behind in terms of number of courses but in terms of getting into courses that require the sciences as prereqs. I really don’t think basic sciences background are needed for fields like computer engineering or industrial engineering/management sciences. So the professors/NU may let you start taking those engineering courses concurrently. On the other hand, for chemE or BME, they may want you to have some chemistry or bio under the belt first. I imagine it’d depend on your major. There’s no engineerign design major; what you are thinking is probably the design certificate program that you can add to your major.</p>