Bigvinu

I'm interested in being a Computer Science major and my reach school is Cornell. However, both Cornell's School of Engineering and College of Arts & Sciences offer Computer Science majors. I'm also interested in potentially double-majoring in History or Government. Yet I discovered that Engineering students may also cross-major in the Arts & Sciences provided they complete their first major within the Engineering School.

All of this leads me to the perplexing question of which school I should look towards when applying to Cornell (I'm aware that I can have a primary/secondary choice on the application, but I don't know which order I would put the two schools in). Is one discernibly "better" to have a Computer Science degree from? Is one "easier" than the other to get into?

Islander4

You will have a lot more flexibility for taking history/government courses as an arts student. You may or may not like some of the requirements (languages for example), though. Also, one college gives out a BA in Comp Sci while the others gives a BS. Getting into engineering may require a stronger math background, but I can't really say much else with certainty since I'm neither an engineer nor an A&S student.

Colene

It's harder for males to get into engineering school. For females it's the other way around. However, if you apply for those reasons, then you've got it all wrong. Look at the graduation requirements and the major offerings.

cortana431

Neither is really more 'easier' to get into than the other; for both you need to be in at least the top 10% and have a ~1450+ cr/m to be competitive.

mikeyc765

It sounds like you belong in CAS. Majoring across colleges is not easy because you have to dual enroll and meet the graduation requirements for both colleges. I'm not sure doing that for Engineering CAS can be completed in 4 years.

I'm pretty sure both CS majors have the same requirements/classes. As for admissions, for Engineering you more-or-less need to be an elite math/science student (as in at/near top of your class and top test scores), whereas for CAS top 10% across the board will generally qualify you.

pneumoconiosis

I'm an incoming Cornell student, and I decided to apply to CAS for Computer Science. My reasoning behind this was that I'd have more flexibility on the liberal arts side, namely if I wanted to combine linguistics with computer science, and I also don't have to take college physics, one of the subjects that I hate the most. ;-)

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Colene

"for Engineering you more-or-less need to be an elite math/science student (as in at/near top of your class and top test scores)"

I kind of agree but I have to clarify on some point - a good number of engineering students I know aren't that type of people - they are simply people who enjoy doing that kind of thing / wants to do that kind of thing for a career / has no idea what they're doing. It's just that the engineering school tends to attract students of the engineering archetype. In fact, one of the best ways to distinguish yourself in applying for the engineering school is showing that you have strengths and interests elsewhere too.

However, I do agree that if you want to do well once you get in, you should definitely be very solid in math and sciences.

"whereas for CAS top 10% across the board will generally qualify you. "

You definitely need to stand out in some way as you would need to for engineering (but in different ways). Being top 10% really just means that you're at the "passable", but you aren't going to get a good shot if you don't distinguish yourself another way. 93% of the admits are in their top 10% of their class, so it's more of a basic requirement than anything.

Anyway, looking from this, ENROLLING engineering students seem to have a higher math score, and enrolling arts students seem to have a comparable/ slightly higher reading score. Overall, engineering has a higher admission % than arts. I'd say it's comparable so just let the requirements/ your interests decide for you.

http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000003.pdf#zoom=100
http://dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000176.pdf#zoom=100

mikeyc765

I didn't mean to imply top 10% will get you into CAS, but rather it's "good enough" to give you a fair chance.

Assume a 100 person class.
Let Student 1 be 10th in math, science, English, social studies
Let Student 2 be 2nd in math, 3rd in science, 17th in English, and 18th in social studies

Both have an average rank of 10. If both apply to Cornell, Student 1 has a better chance of being admitted to CAS than Student 2 but Student 2 has a better chance of being admitted to Engineering than Student 1.

It's a crude example and obviously admissions are a lot more complicated than that, but all else equal, I think this simple example will hold. That "all else equal" is NOT to be ignored. It's a stupid assumption. Student 1 for example could have much better chances in Engineering than Student 2 if the school is sufficiently competitive that the difference between 2/3 and 10 is fractions on the GPA-scale. If the GPA scale was a 100-pt scale and Student 1's math/science grades were 95's while Student 2's were 97's, then maybe Student 1 has the better chances in both colleges because who cares about 2 points, but those 88's or whatever Student 2 had in Social Studies will really hurt him/her. Or maybe Student 1 had perfect SAT I/II math/science scores and 5's on APs. Or a thousand other things...

When it comes down to it, neither Student 1 or Student 2 has particularly fantastic chances at Cornell because being 10th percentile is a more-or-less soft minimum standard for admission to Cornell.

Bigvinu

How does the process of "primary/secondary" schools work on your application? Does the primary school take a look and if they say no the secondary one gets your app?

dragonhurry50

secondary school will be notified that you got rejected by your primary school and therefore, you will not be treated equally as an applicant by your secondary school as another applicant who picked that school as their primary choice if you know what i mean.

GLOBALTRAVELER

I don't know the Cornell policies but I do know this.....

It does NOT matter whether or not your CS degree is from the Arts & Sciences or the Engineering college. Us software engineering recruiters look at:

B.A. or B.S....check
CS or Math/CS...check