So i got an acceptance letter from UIUC for engineering today, but to be completely honest, in the back of my mind i was kinda hoping that i would get rejected. I want to switch to a math or statistics major, (i like math, but i hate science, including physics), but my parents are not going to be happy about this. If I had gotten rejected, I could have gone to community college and would have time to ease my parents into the situation, but now I feel like if I tell them, they’re gonna be disappointing considering I got into UIUC engineering. Should I wait and tell them after college starts, or should I tell them now? Also, any advice on how to approach them on this topic?
Just tell them whatever it is. Don’t be scared. Parents are usually understanding when it comes to the matter of career. So just speak to them and don’t be scared. And even I am like you. I love math but don’t like science. Hence I’m going for industrial engineering which has only little science in it. There are many options available
@zomboy wait are you serious? i got in to uiuc for industrial engineering as well, but the thing is my parents want me to switch to computer engineering because they dont think the jobs prospects for IE are good. i think otherwise, but we’re still talking about it. doesnt industrial engineering also have a lot of science classes in the curriculum?
also whats weird, is that we have similar college aceptance trends. we both got deferred from gatech, and got into purdue and uiuc. i also applied to northwetesrn/
You don’t declare a major until the end of Sophmore year, generally.
How different are the courses you need to take as and engineer vs a math major freshman year?
Engineering, esp. Electrical Engineering, is basically all applied Math.
I wouldn’t care what my child majored in, except that one has a department scholarship. If she changes majors, then she needs to find a way to replace that scholarship. It’s not terribly large, but certainly helps Almost all the departments have scholarships, so I’d just want her to make the switch with enough time to apply for the scholarship in another major.
The specifics of this vary by school, and sometimes by division. Since the school is known, there are two things that really matter:
- How difficult is it to declare or change to the desired new major. For majors in UIUC LAS (including math and statistics), the criteria are given at http://www.las.illinois.edu/students/programs/declaring/ . Note, however, that changing divisions in UIUC is governed by the policy at http://www.las.illinois.edu/prospective/intercollegiate/ .
- Do the parents have any objection to changing major? If the parents make their funding or financial aid form cooperation conditional on a specific major, you have to do one of the following: (a) convince them to let you change to a different major, (b) obey their preferences with respect to major, (c) find a way to completely self-fund college using merit scholarships and small amounts of federal direct loans and work earnings, or (d) wait until you are independent of parents for college financial aid purposes (age 24, military veteran, or married).
Which engineering? Note that industrial and computer engineering are more math-based than physics-based. So are some areas of electrical engineering.
Generally it is easier to move out of engineering than into it. So it might be good to start in engineering and see what you think. You won’t lose time by switching out of engineering to Math.
@ucbalumnus i got in for industrial engineerng, but my parents want me to switch to computer science of electrical engineering. i know its quite hard to switch computer science at uiuc because its so competative, and i dont want to do electrical engineering. what areas of EE are more math based than science based? would digital signal processing be one? i want to be an actuary, and I think engineering majors wouldnt help me too much with that. either a computer science or math degree would be most beneficial to becoming an actuary.
For actuarial work, you should look at http://www.beanactuary.com for information on college preparation, including the VEE course work for your school. No specific major is required.
Within EE, signal processing should be more of solving math problems.
Why do your parents want you to go into EE or CS? It is not like IE has poor career options. IE majors probably have the easiest engineering major to include actuarial and finance preparation courses.
Note that UIUC offers CS+math and CS+statistics majors in LAS, although getting into them requires a 3.20 GPA.
@ucbalumnus i showed my parents statistics and data on industrial engineering, but they are quite stubborn on their opinion. they keep associating IE with factories (even though i told them thats not true), and they say that because factories are closing down and manufacturing in USA is halting, IE wont be too useful. I know that IE has more options such as operations research areas in business. My parents both work in IT, so they feel that CS has the most options (which might be true), but I’d rather do something along the lines of actuarial science or IE. also, to transfer to CS+math, would i need to wait until sophmore year or when do I ned to get that 3.20 GPA until?
I guess they won’t be convinced that logistics is something every business needs, and that IE is well suited for that.
@ucbalumnus how long do i need to keep that 3.2 gpa? if i want to switch first semester, is that possible?
See the links in reply #5. The math+CS or statistics+CS major requires completion of specified course work, so you need to have the 3.20 or higher GPA in math and CS courses and overall during a semester after you have completed the specified course work, but before you reach 90 credits (you may have multiple semesters of potential eligibility, so if your GPA is slightly too low, then you may be able to raise it the following semester).
The Math&CS and Stats&CS majors at UIUC seems ideal (neither require physics), but note that the transfer requirements will get a lot harder after you get there: https://wiki.cites.illinois.edu/wiki/display/undergradProg/Transferring+Into+Undergraduate+Computer+Science+Majors+from+Other+UIUC+Departments
However, your parents are ignorant. Just because a department is called IE doesn’t mean you work in a factory. Not only supply chain but also financial engineering is in that department. Would they be happier if the department was called “Management Science and Engineering” or “Operations Research and Financial Engineering”? That’s what Stanford and Princeton (respectively) name their IE departments. Yet kids in those departments will take the exact same classes that you will take, and employers know that. Tell your parents that.
Also, statistics would be pretty easy to transfer in to, and you won’t have a problem finding a job with that major. However, IE has plenty of statistics and math. For that matter, physics is mostly math as well.
@PurpleTitan @ucbalumnus do you think it would be possible to become an actuary with an IE degree. by that i mean, do you think I would have the satisfactory math background to be able to pass my actuarial exams (i will self study as well of course).
Recommendations for preparation for actuarial exams are listed at http://www.beanactuary.com/study/?fa=what-to-study . Industrial engineering curricula typically include much of this list. Applied math, statistics, or mathematical economics are also good bases for actuarial preparation. Some schools have an actuarial science major or option within another major that acts as a checklist of useful courses for actuarial preparation. UIUC is such a school: http://www.math.uiuc.edu/UndergraduateProgram/curricula/actuarial.html
Information about the actuarial exams and their content is at http://www.beanactuary.com/exams/preliminary/?fa=preliminary-computer-based-exams .
While in college, you may want to complete courses fulfilling the VEE requirements described at http://www.beanactuary.com/study/?fa=vee-requirements .
Also, companies that hire actuaries will budget work time for their actuaries to study for those exams.