Hi i want to go to USC and major in computer engineering but i was wondering if i have a better chance of getting in if i apply for a major in Dornsife and try to switch to a computer engineering major in Viterbi once im already accepted?
also, does me being a women increase my chances of acceptance???
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A woman applying for engineering has a better chance of admittance pretty much anywhere.
If you are certain about computer engineering then you are better off applying directly to Viterbi. You would then be able to take classes relevant to your major immediately. Transferring between schools is possible, however, I would only recommend that route if there is a major in Dornsife you would be happy with if transferring does not work out.
Don’t get lulled into thinking it is a big advantage, it’s not. There are so many applicants and they get a lot of females applying to engineering - I know plenty of girls that applied to engineering with stats off the charts 4.0/4.5+ gpa types that did not get in. Then of course, in a holistic world such at USC, there are those with lower stats that do.
11,000 applications to Viterbi with about 1200 offers made to fill just 410 engineering spots for the freshman class.
Male or female, it’s competitive.
@emmajur agree w. @CADREAMIN post. Especially for CS. That is (I believe) the Viterbi UG major with the highest female enrollment (although iirc, you don’t have to select a major when you apply to Viterbi.) Most of my D’s female engineering friends are CS. She’s in ME and there are still relatively few females in her dept.
As far as applying to Dornsife and transfering, I would not recommend that strategy unless you are willing to graduate from Dornsife even if you don’t get into Viterbi. There’s just no gaurantee you’d be able to transfer and you’ll be at a bit of a disadvantage wherever you go if you don’t jump right into the engineering courses as the program is designed to help students transition from a general overview of Engineering in the freshman intro course, into a taste of their major into more intensive courses. Its best to hit the ground running with everyone else, from what I’ve seen.
@emmajur meant to note that CS probably has highest female enrollment after BioMed Engineering. I think that has the highest. But Viterbi last year hit almost 40% female UG. There are probably other schools at this point (not the UCs however) where being a female in engineering might be more interesting to a holistic admissions team.
@CaliDad2020 When I took CS 201 earlier this year, the professor for the course stated that the number of females in the undergraduate computer science program is now nearly 50%. I don’t remember the exact number, but it was definitely over 40%. He seemed very proud of that 
Any advantages for females applying as CS would definitely be diminishing by this point.
@zettsyntax. Yeah. the 40% is for Viterbi UG as a whole. I’m pretty sure Biomed Eng is >50% and CS is close. But ME is still the lowest, I think. Since Viterbi has been very vocal and active about getting more women in their engineering program, applicants these days may be a bit behind the curve (although the female engineering students I have spoken to there love the program, so girls should still apply, just don’t expect it to be as big a point of interest in your appliction as it might have been a few years ago.) Other very good, competitive engineering programs are playing catch-up and it might be of more interest at some of those.
In my experience, it’s hard to know what is going to get you in at any given program these days, so applicants should cast a fairly wide net, and make sure they chose a few where their stats are well above the top numbers. There are lots of great programs out there.