<p>Hey, recently admitted Cornell student here. Back in December I applied to the College of Arts and Sciences, unsure of what I wanted to do in college. With a few months of research into both personal interests and career opportunities, I have decided that engineering would be right for me. Two-fold question here:</p>
<ol>
<li>How difficult is it to transfer from CAS to Engineering? I heard that i would have to stay in CAS for a year before transferring. I would likely be taking high-level math/science courses (I have many AP credits and university transfer credits) as well as an intro engineering or CS course if possible.</li>
<li>Would it still be feasible for me to complete the 5-year masters in engineering program with this in mind?</li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Before getting to campus:
Go to the engineering website and look up the typical freshman required courses for your intended engineering major. </p>
<p>Figure out a completely new schedule based on what you find and sign up for as many of those courses as you can. As far as I am aware, A&S doesn’t have a fixed curriculum for freshman year so you should be able to take a “freshman engineer year” in A&S, since most of the 1st year requirements are math, chem, physics and programming basics (take “python” if you intend on CS, matlab otherwise). If you can opt out with AP, your scheduling will be easier. Make sure you take the engineering versions of those classes listed on the engineering major requirements.</p>
<p>On campus:
Talk to your A&S registrar first immediately, and then speak with the engineering registrar. There should be someone who can advise you on the transfer process. I’m not really sure how the “intro to engineering” required class will play out for you so definitely ask about those.</p>
<p>Overall:
You will be considered to be part of A&S for one year, but as long as you take all engineering versions of classes, your transition should be smooth. If it turns out that there are some courses that you can’t enroll in but are required for engineering, you can look into fulfilling your liberal arts requirements in your freshman year.</p>
<p>Cornell offers Master of Engineering which is a 1 year program instead of the more common Master of Science. So basically you’re asking if you can graduate in 4 years with the transfer. Yes you can. If you have a lot of AP credit you should be able to get that in without any issues if you plan accordingly.
There is an Early MEng program which allows you to graduate with MEng in 4.5 years though. Again with a lot AP credit you should be able to fit this in. I’d worry about these after your transfer.</p>