I really like Mechatronics, but both ME and EE are really competitive majors. If I’m not the most confident applicant, should I apply for something like Environmental Engineering and then transfer? Would that increase my chances?
Thanks in advance!
What are some schools you wish to apply for? Prospective major is not always a factor for admissions.
For example, at Umich, all College of Engineering students come in undeclared. When you apply for admission to the CoE, you are only competing with other CoE applicants, without regard to prospective major. In order to declare a major, you must wait until at least your second semester and after you have satisfactorily completed certain courses, thus your ability to choose a major is solely based on how you perform as an actual Umich student.
And at other schools it matters and switching is not guaranteed. Switching from Environmental to ME at Cal Poly for instance, might not be possible. Part of their major change algorithm is whether you would have been admitted out of high school into the destination major. Many schools have mechanisms to prevent the backdooring you’re proposing.
I do agree that schools may have mechanisms to avoid abusing the system like that, but I’m not sure that high school records are used. Generally, if you can prove that you can be successful in the desired major through your coursework at that university, there is no reason why your high school records should even matter anymore. There are other tactics, such as enrollment caps, if an overwhelmingly popular major (such as CS) wants to control its enrollment size. In such cases, declaring or changing to that major may actually require an application where you would need to write essays in addition to maintaining a competitive university academic record. Other times, you can change majors by simply being in good academic standing and maintaining the minimum GPA dictated by the department of interest - greater competition generally correlates with a higher GPA requirement.
If a school does require you to apply directly to a specific major, I would hope that they allow you to list a first choice, second choice, and third choice. In that case, if one major cannot admit you, then your application will be passed onto the next major on your list for them to make a decision.
I can only speak for Cal Poly, but this is the first bullet on their change of major list:
a. Eligibility for the proposed major at the time of admission.
As for second and third choices at time of application, students can pick a second choice, but are only rolled to that if the second choice isn’t fully subscribed. For instance, a student who did not get a spot in ME, MIGHT best a slot in IE which is far less competitive. They will not get rolled over to Aero, CS, CE, etc.
As mentioned before, look at the admissions specifics of each school. Cal Poly and Michigan are the two poles of the spectrum as examples.
It also depends on the classes you’re going to be able to take since registration for classes is usually locked or heavily prioritized towards the people who are declared that major. So if you were environmental engineering, it could involve some red tape to take the intro to circuits class that an EE requires while you are still an environmental engineering major.
Also, it is highly unlikely any college will let you transfer majors as soon as you get there so it could potentially put you behind if you have to wait a term or two to transfer into EE/ME and begin taking classes for that. Most engineering majors take basically the same classes for the first year or so, but the major specific ones are usually pre-requisites for higher level classes and are a beast to fit in your schedule if you don’t take them at the time they are intended to be taken.
So TL;DR, I wouldn’t try to backdoor an engineering major.
Thanks for the replies! I’ll just do my best and see what happens I guess.