flash1313

Is the Environmental Engineering major at Cornell in the School of Agriculture and Life Science or the School of Engineering? I get different answers from different people. Cornell's website has it in both colleges so I was wondering if there is a difference between pursuing the major at one opposed to the other? In addition, which school is easier to get into?

alamode

I know for a fact that one of my friends i an Environmental Engineering major and is technically in CALS although almost all his classes are on the Engineering quad. He often talks about how he gets a great deal by getting an Engineering degree at $20 grand less since he's an NYS resident and gets the land grant tuition discount for CALS---definitely worth it if you're from NY, you can't beat that.

That being said, I don't know whether the major is only offered in CALS or also offered in Engineering.

I'd suspect that if it is offered in both, like the Bio major which is offered in I think 3 different schools, the difference is probably in the specific curriculum requirements. Each college has its own, in addition to the university requirements and major requirements. For instance, I think Arts students are required to take a language, or can't go abroad unless they do.

I don't know CALS requirements but I know HumEc requires a certain amount of HumEc credits outside the major and CALS probably has something similar. Engineering might have its own requirements to take Engineering classes outside the major or something. You might have to do some research to find out about the specific college requirements.

bootcamp

Hi,
My son entered Cornell his freshman year as an Environmental Engineering major and matriculated through CALS. Both CALS and the Engineering School have the identical major. If you matriculate through CALS, you actually have to satisfy the requirements of the Engineering school, NOT CALS. Therefore, the 60 or whatever the number is of CALS required credits do not apply to those in BEE(Biological or Environmental Engineering.). However, the AP score on Language arts exam I believe is different in the two schools. In this case, you would follow the required score for CALS. The main difference is that you pay tuition to CALS, which is about $15,000 less if you are a New York State Resident. However, my son transferred into the College of Engineering the spring of his sophomore year. He changed his major to Mechanical Engineering. Our tuition bill did not go up because Cornell meets 100% of need. So just because the tuition is higher, they said we could not afford to pay full tuition, so we still pay the same as if we were in CALS. Hope that helps!