How much will 1st semester gpa impact engineering transfer options?
HS GPA 3.96/4.75 34 ACT / IB Diploma / APs / Physics CC credit
College 1st semester gpa 3.1: A/A/B/ C chem
D23 OOS civil/environmental eng. major at large midwest well regarded/ranked public.
I’m sure they’ll find a spot at another school.
Nothing wrong with a 3.1.
Where are they and what type of school do they want ?
Why does this student need to or want to transfer?
Socially unhappy/lots of kids already know each other from HS/hard to break into groups/fit doesn’t feel right.
Assuming/hopeful she will find her people next semester. She has definitely been trying and continues to want to work on social.
Involved in athletic club and community service group. Would like to put out a few transfer apps just in case and wondering how much weight 1st semester gpa given in transfer admissions.
Professors/TAs seemed great once D23 realized she needed office hours/tutor centers. This came late as all grades strong (As) into Nov. at which time social stressors seemed to take over. She enjoyed classes inc chem.
Get involved in clubs etc and be busy on campus. Internships and jobs love busy students.
3.1 is typical of first year engineering especially Chem. Engineering is hard for a reason. Study groups and she will meet people. But most schools like when kids transfer after their sophomore year for engineering. Put feelers out and see what happens. But it’s only January. She has tons of time to get her social on. This isn’t high school. It’s harder to meet people. You gotta go out of your way but there are tons of people in her situation. Turn to local school Facebook. There was a girl in the same situation and wanted to play tennis. She put a post out and had 5 girls just trying to meet people, some played tennis and some didn’t. She’s not alone. Do activities that make her happy say Hi alot especially when sitting at lunch /dinner. Hope things turn around especially if she’s at a good program.
Campuses have chapters and great way to meet others with similar interest.
Back to your question - where is she and what type of school is she aiming for?
I’m not a fan of transferring necessarily cures things but she’ll have plenty of schools who would want her if she goes that route.
Are the A grades in courses with fewer credits than the B and C grades? If all of the grades are in courses with equal credit, the GPA should be 3.25.
In terms of transfer, college grades will be significant – it depends on how selective her major is at the target transfer colleges. Her state of residency likely has some public universities where transfer admission for civil engineering is not that difficult.
Yes classes have different weights w chem being the highest at 5 credits. Calc and 2 intro eng are the others.
Thanks everyone for your responses!
She’s looking for colleges closer to family (In state Oregon)(extended family in CO)
or
midsize private w on campus transfer housing/good transfer orientation/high % OOS kids. Liberal leaning or neutral politically preferred. Might also consider smaller public w same.
Has she experienced “politics” at school because I think most kids are not political at most schools.
So her choices are:
CU Boulder
CU Denver
School of Mines
Colorado State
Oregon Tech
Oregon State
Portland State
U of Portland
I would check out - who takes 2nd years - but she’ll be good at many of these.
If religious ok, Seattle U and Gonzaga will be close - depending where in Oregon. UW and Washington State too.
In CA, is Chico close enough.
There will be schools - for sure. Maybe not all these but many if they take 2nd years.
Check into them - all are ABET for Civil.
Best of luck.
PS - you can look at common data set section D2 - you’ll see transfer acceptance rates. Oregon State, as an example, had 5163 applicants and 4250 acceptances - so yes, see if they take 2nd years and check out engineering…but in general, it’s going to be an easy admit for most. You can do school by school.
Good point re political.
Looking at Oregon St, CO Boulder, and CO state univ. Will check out Gonzaga and a few others mentioned above. Some we had not thought of so really helpful!
Any thoughts on WPI or Elon (abet? new eng program)
Still trying to get a feel for how admissions might weight college gpa and sure they will want 2nd semester midterm grades.
Your HS record is great and you are over worrying about the college GPA which is fine.
i looked near the states you said.
I would not pursue Elon for civil since they don’t list it on their accreditation page. What excites you about Elon - maybe we can find a sub.
As for WPI, it’s on 7 week classes…does that appeal? I don’t see a common data set so you should reach out about transfer stats - and timing.
Good luck.
Elon offers an ABET-accredited Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree with concentrations in biomedical engineering, computer engineering, environmental engineering and mechanical engineering.
Really hard not to overthink everything when it comes to admissions these days. Rationally I’m sure you are right.
Was excited to see that Elon had added eng but w no abet for civil/env see why that wouldn’t make sense even with their env eng concentration. Really like size and feel of their campus and seemed like happy supported kids.
If theees something in the concentration that works for you, then maybe it’s fine.
How about Dayton, Lafayette, U of Pacific, Pitt, Utah.
It’s a tough one. Maybe the current school will work out. Most importantly she needs access to her desired career.
Good luck.
Back to your initial - if you find soph taking schools, I think she’s in fine shape. There’s 309 accredited civil schools in the US.
Good luck.
In case you (or someone else reading the thread) isn’t familiar with ABET’s website program finder tool, here it is, set for environmental engineering accredited programs. Unlike some other websites, I think they do keep it up to date:
https://amspub.abet.org/aps/category-search?disciplines=31
ETA: ok, sorry, link keeps being broken. But google ABET find programs, and it should come up.
Thank you! We’ve been utilizing the abet site. I do wish they published a list each year of just the new programs certified in last 12 months as it does seem many more are being added annually. (ABET Accredits 110 Additional Programs in 2023) Perhaps there is a way to search by accreditation date that I couldn’t find.
In any case we’re currently narrowing down list for eng transfer apps that take sophomores and seem to have established/thoughtful transfer programs. Also optimistic for good 2nd semester at current.
Considering -
Oregon state
CO Boulder
CO State
Elon (if makes sense after dig deeper)
Lafayette
Gonzaga
She’s brought up a few others that seem more reachy (URochester/Vandy) but trying to stay more realistic and targeted w only a small amt of apps that make the most sense.
Happy New Year and much thanks to everyone for their thoughtful responses!
Reachy is ok if they work for her. I mean as long as you have the assured. In engineering, reachy may not equal better career outcomes.
Does she want civil or environmental ? What types of career outcomes does a newly accredited program like Elon have ?
There are other schools out there like an Elon…personally I’d avoid any school that didn’t have my exact major and/or either wasn’t or is newly accredited. But at least have them demonstrate their career success.
You have a mix of large / small and even a religious school - and there’s more. Oregon Tech. U Portland.
What is the issue at school A - I mean unless it’s small it’s hard to believe they all know each other. Kids say that. My son says it yet stays in touch with few hs from campus and has a whole slew of new people.
I would also check how many transfers go. It’s gotta be hard. If there are few, does it make it that much harder to integrate ? People do rave here about Vandy (can u afford)?
The latest CDs shows 87 transfer enrollee at Elon vs nearly 3x at Vandy.
If she transfers some issues may remain. OR and CO are relatively small states in terms of population so I’d expect lots of kids to have friends from back in HS at the public options. Furthermore if she starts as a sophomore the “breaking into groups” problem will still be there but with a twist; now many of the kids, especially in smaller majors like engineering, will have spent a year together.
D23 has friends/family at both OSU (we live in OR) and CO schools plus closer to family supports so that is what is prompting us looking there. You are correct that otherwise these would not be better socially than current.
Vandy does seem to have great transfer supports but a much harder admit. Looks like took @ 17% of transfers 22-23.
We are still looking at other Oregon schools suggested.
Thank you!
In Oregon, civil engineering is available at Oregon State, Oregon Institute of Technology, Portland State, and University of Portland.