Transferring from arts and sciences to hajim school of engineering. And questions about CS

I was accepted ED to arts and sciences, but want to transfer to Hajim to be a CS major. Is this possible, or are the requirements/acceptance different for the two school? Also is it realistic to be a CS major and complete pre-med requirements and maintain a gpa of around 3.7?

You need to contact the Dean of the Engineering college and request and inter-college transfer. This is usually a matter of filling out some paperwork. It’s no big deal and acceptance is usually automatic.

CS plus pre-med requirements is doable but it will be very time intensive.

You may want to consider 2 possibilities to make it work for you:

  1. consider a BA in CS instead of a BS since there are fewer CS and co-requisite classes required for a BA. A BA may be slightly less employable than a BS degree should you decide not to apply to med school.

  2. if you want a BS in CS, you may need a fifth year of undergrad in order to fit in all the pre-med requirements (2 semester bio; 2 semesters gen chem; 2 semesters ochem; 1 semester biochem; 2 semesters math–including 1 semester of biostats; 2 semesters physics; 1 semester psychology; 1 semester sociology; 2 semesters of writing. A few med schools also require 1 semester genetics and/or 1 semester of anatomy)

You will definitely need to postpone applying to med school until AFTER graduation so you will have time to complete all requirements for both your degree AND med school admission. This means you will need to take at least 1 gap year (potentially 2) between college graduation and starting med school.

I strongly suggest you look at the major requirements and make a spreadsheet of your classes semester-by-semester (making sure to account for pre-reqs and co-reqs and the fact that some classes are only offered every other year) for all 4 years and see if you can fit it all in.


The issue with your degree + med school plans is both CS and pre-med are extremely time-intensive pursuits. Programming classes can be huge time sinks. (Speaking from experience here.) So are pre-med classes with their mandatory labs, and so are the expected ECs that pre-meds need to garner to support a successful med school application.

It's a lot on your plate. 

BTW, having a "hard" major like CS (or physics or mathematics or engineering or --insert name of hard major here--) won't get you any leeway on your GPA from med school adcomms.  The average accepted pre-med had 3.7 GPA in 2014-15.

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I can't speak for "how realistic" it is that you will be able to maintain the 3.7 GPA needed for med school. I don't know because I don't anything about you, your native aptitude for science and mathematics, your work habits, your time management skills, your high school preparation for science/CS/ math or your ability to persist while taking a difficult route. 

Have people done what you're planning? Of course! I know of at least one CS major from JHU who's now in med school. I also know a EE and ChemE --both of whom are now either med students or physicians. My older D was a physics & math double major--she's now a physician.  It can be done.  Will you be able do it? I have no idea.