I’d like to discuss any current information people have about how to get into intended majors. I’m specifically interested in how to get into mechanical engineering.
Is it really true that it is a “lottery” to get in even after you get As in the required units?
Freshmen Applicants:
Freshmen have two chances to apply. They can first apply in summer after their first year at UCSD. To be eligible to apply, they need to have completed the following 6 courses:
-MATH 20A, 20B and 20C
-PHYS 2A and 2B (or 4A and 4B)
-CHEM 6A
Freshmen can apply again in summer after their second year at UCSD. There will be no more chances to apply after this second application period. To be eligible to apply, they need to have completed the following 11 courses:
-MATH 20A, 20B, 20C, 20D, 20E and MATH 18
-PHYS 2A, 2B, and 2C (or 4A, 4B, and 4C)
-CHEM 6A
-MAE 8 (or CENG/NANO 15 or SE 9)
Continuing student applicants are admitted to the capped majors based solely on their grades in the screening courses (listed above)
Lottery is for CS/CSE majors.
@Gumbymom - Thank you for your reply! So does this mean if the student gets As or Bs they will be accepted? I saw some info on-line that suggested that even if they receive good grades that they might not be accepted into major. Trying to see if it is worth it to go to UCSD even though undeclared status.
There is no guarantee that if you complete all the screening courses with excellent grades that you will be able to switch majors since it will depend upon how many spots are available at the time of your application due to attrition. You might want to contact the Department directly and ask how many students they do the accept each year.
I personally advocate that if you have a direct admit into your preferred major you should consider attending that school.
@calpolyalum I too would suggest that if you have been admitted directly to ME elsewhere, that would be a better bet. Then you can be an ME for sure. It’s tough to get into engineering at the UCs if you are not in that college to begin with.
@Gumbymom, @youcee - Thank you for your input. To put it mildly, we’ve been “educated” on this whole process of college apps. My DD was rejected from UCLA and waitlisted from Cal Poly SLO for ME. She is still waiting to hear from USC, but at this point she has not been admitted to an actual ME major. We made the erroneous assumption of viewing CPSLO as a “safe school” because she has a 4.5 GPA, a 34 ACT, and is a varsity athlete. She is an all-around great kid, and deserves to not have the burden of having to still apply to get into her major hanging over her head. So, we are at decision time as to what her next steps should be. UCSD as undeclared, or doing a CC and transferring later. She really wants to stay in California. Any recommendations you might have or insights would be greatly appreciated.
Those are all really tough schools to get into ME. One option, although I don’t know if I’d do it, is a gap year and apply to more schools next year. USC is more favorable for female engineers (much higher percentage of females) so hopefully she’ll catch a break there. Good luck!
I’m asking for someone:
“Should I go to UCI or UCSD?”
She got into UCI as a Civil Engineering Major and into UCSD as Undeclared (Eleanor Roosevelt).
She would like to know about GE requirements between UCSD (ERC) and with UCI. Is it worth going in undeclared to UCSD even though she already has a declared major at UCI?
Any advice is welcome!
@jayjay7737 I think what Gumbymom wrote was really important - "There is no guarantee that if you complete all the screening courses with excellent grades that you will be able to switch majors since it will depend upon how many spots are available at the time of your application due to attrition. You might want to contact the Department directly and ask how many students they do the accept each year.
I personally advocate that if you have a direct admit into your preferred major you should consider attending that school."
I took her suggestion and contacted the MAE department to get numbers on how many students they accept each year. That was very revealing. I would recommend you contact Civil Engineering for those numbers as well. For Mechanical Engineering majors, last year 135 applied (from either undeclared or other majors) and 42 were admitted – gpa 3.95 of major prereqs from freshman year. She told me that sometimes people have 4.0 GPAs in all their major prerequisites and still don’t get in to their intended major.
I’d say celebrate and be thankful that you have an admittance to UCI under the major of your choice and bypass the stress of still trying to get admitted to your major in your freshman or sophomore year of college!
@jayjay7737 Agreeing with what calpolyalum said. In addition, ERC GE requirements are hectic for engineering majors and isn’t recommended. MMW (ERC’s writing course) is very time consuming and stretches across 5 quarters, compared to UCI’s 3-course writing requirement. However, the other GE reqs listed (Humanities, cultural studies, etc) seem hand to hand with each other from a glance, (really the issue is just the writing req) but your friend has no guarantee to the major she wants.