masjjd

I'm currently a graduate student of architecture with an undergraduate education in art/architectural history. With finally taking studio courses and gaining professional experience through internships, I'm realizing that unfortunately I won't be happy in architecture (for many reasons). I love analytical problem solving, discovering how things work, building and working with my hands, thinking visually as well as abstractly, and thinking of "big ideas" as well as working out the details. After many career center visits, conversations with friends and professionals, and personal reflections, I would like to pursue engineering, probably either computer engineering or mechanical engineering with a focus on computer aided design.

As I already hold a bachelors degree I would much prefer to work toward a master's rather than a second bachelor's, but I know my options are extremely limited. After quite a bit of online research, I've learned that there are ways that non-engineering backgrounds can enter a graduate engineering program. Although its uncommon, if a non-engineering student is admitted to a program, he/she would be required to take necessary undergraduate prerequisite courses before taking graduate level courses. Also, I've read about BU's LEAP program, which makes it pretty attainable for humanities/liberal arts backgrounds to transition into engineering. I have taken a number of math/science classes, including statistics, 2 quarters of calculus, linear algebra, physics, and an introductory computer programming course, all of which I did very well in. I figure that even if these don't satisfy any prerequisites, they will at least show my interest and aptitude so that my switch doesn't seem completely out of left field.

The only thing is that although I haven't enjoyed architecture school, I thoroughly love my university and feel absolutely privileged to be a part of this academic community. I was thinking that before I completely withdraw from my program, I would like to go to the graduate admissions office and the engineering school and tell them of my situation. I figure that if any university might make an exception for me, it might be more likely that it's the one I already study at rather than a completely new school. Has anyone ever been in a similar situation or heard of this kind of request before? Any kind of advice or insight would be very much appreciated!

polarscribe

It's worth trying. Ultimately, it's going to be up to the engineering school at your university as to whether you meet their admissions standards. The worst they can say is "No."