<p>Hey I'm a first year Northwestern student right now and looking to transfer out to ideally Duke, Stanford, or Carnegie (don't know what my chances are for any of those, probably very low). But for now i have a question primarily dealing with switching majors. </p>
<p>I'm currently a Biomedical Engineering major but I've found after 1 and a half quarters here at NU that engineering really doesn't interest me. I'm thinking of switching to some other major and possibly going the premed route. The problem is I already have 3 credits of Engineering courses here at NU. Should I finish out this year as a biomedical engineering major and apply to transfer as a bme major, and switch out of bme if i do indeed transfer? </p>
<p>or should i drop out of engineering now and apply to transfer as an undecided or another major? </p>
<p>would having 3 quarters of engineering and not applying as an engineer hurt my chances of transferring? </p>
<p>Any insight or help provided would be greatly GREATLY appreciated! Thanks!!!!</p>
<p>is your issue with your major or northwestern? can’t you just switch majors in nu?</p>
<p>Ohh, I don’t like Northwestern as a school itself. I’m trying to transfer either way, for social reasons and also because I really dislike how the administration is run here. I want to switch out of engineering no matter what, I’m just wondering what the best timing for that would be given my desire to transfer? Thanks for responding</p>
<p>Well coming from Northwestern, I imagine that you should have a very solid chance for whatever school you look into. Granted that you have a decent college GPA after your first year, you could have no problem transferring as a sophomore. Although they put more weight on your high school performance as opposed to your college performance when you apply as an underclassmen, it should be no problem because you probably have amazing stats out of high school since you got into NU. As far as application major, I say apply as either undecided or something that isn’t impacted so you have a better chance of getting into whatever school you want to transfer to. I’m sure you can switch majors easily once you get in. However, maybe all you need to do is change majors and just stay at NU. After all, it is Northwestern and not to mention very prestigious for whatever you decide to do.</p>
<p>hey thanks for the input fightingillini. What do u mean I should apply as “something that isn’t impacted”. Do you mean a more uncommon major? I was thinking that could be one way to up (albeit by very little) my chances, but then I also thought that maybe more kids would drop out of engineering their first year as at certain schools engineering in general is known to have many dropouts early on. Thus, applying under engineering might up my chances in that regard. I’m not quite sure which path would be the wisest! What do you think?</p>
<p>Well you can look at it both ways. First, the more logical reasoning is “maybe some students switch out of engineering and therefore it won’t be as competitive to transfer into.” On the other hand, you could apply for a major that isn’t impacted. For example, a couple of un-impacted majors very often would be something like philosophy or geography. Some typical impacted majors would be psychology, sociology, political science, etc. Impacted meaning very popular and thus having a lot of applicants. However, if you figure that “I can apply as an engineering major because it won’t be very competitive,” I don’t think you would be wrong. Either or, you cannot go wrong but keep in mind that regardless of the peer applicant competition, it still is engineering and would indeed be more competitive as opposed to geography. Ultimately it will be your decision because I cannot make it for you but do what you feel is best. If you have the pre-requisite courses and that Northwestern swagger, then go ahead and apply for engineering. It would be harder but once you’re in, there is no stress of dealing with the major change into an engineering program. However, if you want to be walk-in, apply for the uncommon majors and make that switch in the near future. You have to weigh your options and decide on what is best. Personally, I would love to be at Northwestern. Maybe you just need to broaden up your class schedule; you could find a major you love and end up staying in Evanston.</p>
<p>hey thanks for the thoughtful feedback again, fightingillini. Does anyone happen to know a site where I can get transfer rates for Duke, Stanford, Brown, or Carnegie for specific major fields? like the number of people that got accepted as a transfer with ______ major? or is that too specific of a stat to be published… =[</p>