How is University of Washington’s undergrad engineering program? Planning on going to either University of Washington or Oregon State University
Net price at each school?
Were you directly admitted to your desired major at Washington?
If not, be prepared for a competitive admission process (based on GPA and essays) if your enroll.
https://www.engr.washington.edu/current/admissions/admitstats
Oregon State also has GPA requirements higher than 2.0 to get into engineering majors, though it seems much less difficult than at Washington.
http://engineering.oregonstate.edu/apply-engineering-professional-program-summer15-later
So with the admission process do you apply for a certain major and are potentially given a different one?
It’s very well respected.
Does your admission letter indicate that you are directly admitted to an engineering major, or to a pre-engineering or undeclared status?
Were you a direct admit to MECOP at OSU?
OP is a junior.
We’ll then, there are some things you should know. Both are pre-engineering schools. Even as a direct admit to either your engineering curriculum doesn’t start until later. It’s not a program style that I personally like because they historically have higher rates of attrition. Don’t get me wrong. They both produce great engineers, but you could broaden your horizons to other WUE schools too. What type of engineer do you want to be.
University of Washington is changing it’s engineering admissions starting in the fall 2018 cycle.
http://www.geekwire.com/2017/uw-college-engineering-establish-admission-program-freshmen/
This makes getting into an engineering major (though not necessarily your first choice) guaranteed for a lot more students than in the past.
so when you say pre engineering do you mean the first two years are general engineering classes for every engineering student and the last 2-3 years is specialized to the major you choose
At UW’s new program, you would take general engineering (and other UW required) classes during your freshman year and then submit placement requests to one or more of the ten engineering departments, at which point you would declare into a specific major.
Looks like the new method at Washington means that students admitted to pre-engineering are likely or assured to get into an engineering major, but not necessarily their first choice.
Im planning on going into mechanical, so what happens if a do a year a UW and then get screwed and don’t get a major I want?
You choose a different major, or you apply to transfer to a different school where you can do your preferred major.
Current admits get Pre-engineering with no guarantees of being accepted by any major in the college of engineering.
Starting with next year’s admits, students accepted to the College of Engineering at least get assured that one of the engineering majors will take them. Since it’s a new way of doing things, it’s hard to say exactly how hard it will be to get a particular major.
At Oregon State you move into your major as a Junior.
To give you an example of a ME from the get go curriculum, I attached Cal Poly’s. As you’ll see, it starts with ME specific things first year, but it’s debatable if they are “engineering” per se. First year students don’t have the background. The intent though is to keep students engaged and interested.
At the end of the day, you’ll take Calc, Physics, Statics, Dynamics, etc. whether you are call a ME from the get go or not.
http://flowcharts.calpoly.edu/downloads/mymap/15-17.52MEBSU.MCMEU.pdf
Similar course of study at UW, depending on whether you have completed calculus in high school:
http://www.engr.washington.edu/files/curr_students/docs/ME_reqs.pdf
It will be interesting to see how much changes for next year.
Respectfully, they are not the same. Cal Poly has 7 courses unique to engineering (ME 128, 129, 130, 163 and IME 141, 142, 143) in the first year. UW has none.
One can argue if they produce better engineers, but it’s hard to argue that they are the same.
Not arguing or saying they are the same. I was following your comment, “At the end of the day, you’ll take Calc, Physics, Statics, Dynamics, etc. whether you are [called] a ME from the get go or not.”
I am not a fan of colleges where you are not admitted to your intended major if you have to get “admitted” later to it. You are forced to accept an alternate major or transfer if you don’t make the cut. Some schools are very stingy with their financial aid for transfers so it could have money issues transferring. Also some find the transition to college eye opening and their GPA can suffer a bit at first. Not good if you are in competition for a specific major.
I do prefer colleges where everyone is admitted as undeclared and you have an unrestricted choice of major at the end of your freshman year. You can make a more intelligent choice at that point. Otherwise, get admitted to the department you intend to major in.