@bz3mvl Thanks. He did choose Cockrell as his 1st choice but it’s an uphill climb for him as an OOS applicant, even with stellar scores, and impressive industry related resume and good grades. (He hits 2 out of 3 there) The truth of the matter is that he’s not 100% sure what he wants to study. I’ve heard that as many of 50% of students change their major from CE because it wasn’t what they thought it was going to be. Since he’s an IB student, I’m not too worried about the workload. They really put their students through the ringer in that program to earn the IB diploma. But I get the feeling that he wants to do CE only because he builds his own computers and plays video games. I haven’t seen any evidence that he’s a handy guy or enjoys learning the technical workings of computer parts. He switched from programming because he wasn’t that into coding. Perils of being 18 years old, I suppose. I ended up in a career very different than what I wanted at that age and not in line with the intentions of going for my degree. I’m better for it though as journalism isn’t as high in demand as it was in the 90’s.
But, if he were to get admitted to the University, he may reconsider his major. I just don’t know how likely his admission will be due to his 2nd choice being business. There are limited spots for OOS applicants and choosing another competitive field probably wasn’t the way to go in hindsight. Then again, Liberal Arts isn’t high on my wish list either. The only real answer is “wait and see”. But, we have to get a few other options as UT is the only school he has applied to at this point. UTD should be a foregone conclusion for him as he well exceeds their admission requirements.
Congratulation to you guys on University of Colorado Boulder @amottmers . Do you mind me asking you - which Engineering Major did your son get accepted to at UIUC ? Also I was checking CC and it seems your son is at TAMS ? if yes, we should exchange notes offline
@spankytoes - I completely understand where you are coming from. It is hard for 18 years old to know what they want to major in. I hope your son gets into CE. The good thing about CE at Cockrell is that one can go Hardware route (Computer Architecture, networks et al) OR software route (Software Design, Data Science et al). So that gives some flexibility of choice within CE degree. But it is the hardest Program to get into as well.
UTD is improving in quality and ranking, so that is a good choice as well.
Good Luck!
@sparklytoes – what have others told you about his flexibility at University of Texas if he decides CE is not for him? The lack of flexibility in some majors has raised my eyebrow a bit and caused us to think long and hard about an engineering degree there.
There is no arguing that it is an amazing program with fantastic opportunities. But we hear lots of stories about kids coming home after a year because they couldn’t switch to another major after they decided their original major was not for them.
@carachel2 I haven’t heard much. If you’re enrolled at the university, they’re not going to kick you out for switching majors. But some are much harder to transfer into. So I can buy that kids came home because they didn’t want to get a degree in film or ancient philosophy. I’ve heard that the first year in Engineering is designed to weed out those that are serious and those that are just smart kids that don’t want to put in the work. Texas has a top engineering school so the courseload is elevated more than most schools. I had a cousin get her Engineering degree from A&M and she thought the classes were relatively easy. A degree from Texas in that field has some cache within the industry. They know the dedication it took to see it through. It just seems like a shame to put that added pressure of getting into the school and wasting all that money on courses that aren’t going to transfer. I think it’s the fashion design equivalent for girls.
There is a great feature on CC-- if you click on the username you can then select Ignore and never see posts from that person again. They taught me how to do this in fashion design school:)
@honeynut12 She was in the top 5% of her class but her SAT score wasn’t that great (she tends to freeze on tests like that) She was in ROTC all 4 years of High School and was a high ranking officer, that is where she did all her extra activities and stuff. She is a very good writer so her essays were pretty good. She didn’t send in any recommendation letters though which I thought might hurt her. I can’t remember her exact GPA.
@amottmers Was her major competitive? McCombs? Cockrell? I’m not sure if the recommendations help or not. I heard from an admissions officer that in most cases, they do not help or hurt an application because the recommendation does not say anything new about the applicant.