<p>atm I'm a high school senior, going to baruch (CUNY) college.
I have ~3.4 GPA in high school (Brooklyn Technical H.S), not impressive at all, pretty much slept my way thru most of it</p>
<p>anyways, I've just recently changed my mind about what I want to study as my major, I want to be an engineer, so I'm planning to transfer from baruch since they have no engineering programs whatsoever</p>
<p>my problem is, I want to get into a <em>DECENT</em> engineering university maybe specializing in mechanical.., but I don't know when the optimum time to transfer would be for me
I plan to try extremely hard during my freshman year, maintain a high GPA, and grab as many extra curriculars as I can manage..
but I hear that if you didn't do so well in H.S you should wait till sophmore year to transfer? my problem with this is, it seems like a waste to me since there are no engineering courses at baruch< i dont want to waste a whole year there!
(which brings me to my other question, if freshman year = core subjects, what goes on during sophmore year exactly?)
and what can I do at baruch to optimize my chances at a good engineering university?
h e l p m e !
thanks!</p>
<p>Your freshman year you have to take a lot of GER courses and stuff you don't care about. So tough your way through it because it does matter. If you keep your grades up, I don't see why you can't get into a good engineering school. University of Delaware might be an option. It's in a college town and it's pretty big. I almost went there but it's a tad too close to home for me :P
Like I said, just keep the grades as a high as possible your first year/first semester. UD has gotten extremely selective and I'm sure it'll be tougher for their engineering program because it's one of the best around I hear.</p>
<p>if you posted your sepcific stats, then it would be easier to gage your potential. Also what engineering school(s) are you looking at?</p>
<p>85 gpa
1930 on the sats, 1300 core
no extracurriculars, took a couple of college level programming courses
my only AP was Java programming</p>
<p>I'm not really sure what schools I should apply to, thats the thing
I am pretty confident I'd be able to get into polytech/buffalo pretty easily, I heard they had decent engineering programs</p>
<p>but what I really want to shoot for is MIT/Caltech/Columbia or similar
but my H.S record is so lame it'd prob take 2 years of college awesomeness to make up for it I think.. but theres the dilemma im worried that wasting two years at a college that doesnt offer my major of interest would be wasteful and damaging to my future
hmm, I just came up with this.. maybe I should transfer to a decent engineering school after freshman year, and then transfer to a better school after? but transferring so much can't be healthy..
ahhhh I need a solution!!!!</p>
<p>businessmongrel - Probably the very most important thing for you to do in freshman year - if you want to go into Engineering - is take the right courses.</p>
<p>This is CRITICAL. Check the freshman year curricula of the schools you aim for, and you will see that there is not a lot of Engineering in that first year.</p>
<p>What there is:
Calculus (2 terms)
Physics (2 terms)
Chem or Biology (1 or 2 terms)
Possibly your English/Writing Intensive course
Possibly Computer Programming</p>
<p>As I say, check the schools you aim for.</p>
<p>Given that you want Engineering, I think you should try to transfer in as a sophomore, so that you do not lose ground.</p>
<p>If you want to aim for MIT/CalTech... well, that is up to you. Not highly realistic, though. So I'm not sure why you are obsessing about them.</p>
<p>Put together a list of reach/match and safety schools. Read the Transfer Admissions 101 thread to see how to calibrate those. Find some match and safety schools which excite you. If you happen to get into an MIT/Tech/Columbia, how nice. But the world does not revolve around those schools. There are many, many excellent Engineering schools out there which will take you where you want to go, and for which your hs GPA will not hold you back, so long as you do well in college.</p>
<p>Engineering transfers are what I know the most about, so please take heed that the critical thing is having the right courses on your transcript from freshman year, as well as the recs, essays, etc. to support your application. Many schools will not even consider your application if you do not have these courses.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>