<p>Hi…I have a friend who got into UIUC and UT Austin</p>
<p>His intended major was Aerospace, but his acceptance letter for UIUC stated that his major was General Engineering. </p>
<p>He called the college admissions dept…and they told him that he had potential, hence they selected him…and the syllabus of the first two years of any Engineering major are more or less the same…so if he maintains good grades, high GPA, they’d transfer him to the Aero Dept in two years.</p>
<p>Would he be a sitting duck ? I’ve heard transferiing majors is pretty tough. Suppose if he doesn’t get whats required…would it be safer for him to join UT Austin ?</p>
<p>Hey, I got into those 2 same exact schools of engineering! </p>
<p>So you mean Austin would be all 4 years Aerospace? What’s the diff. if the first 2 years are all general engineering. Chances are anyway that he will change his major anyway, so I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Tell him to go to whichever college is cheaper, I’m sure he’ll do fine enough in UIUC.</p>
<p>tell him to sit himself down and ask himself, “in two years will I really have worked hard enough to keep my grades up and everything to transfer in?” i.e. will i be a nerd my first two year or will i party a lot and do that non-stop? in other words if he’s unsure at all he can get the proper gpa and stuff just go to austin to be safe.</p>
<p>Actually, he’s an International student…he works pretty hard…but it would be a bit difficult for his parents to let him go to a college a thousand + miles away from home with for an unsure major.</p>
<p>People say that a UIUC degree is more prestigious than an Austin one…he’s having a bad time deciding which college to chose.</p>
<p>I hope your inputs help make up his mind. Thanks.</p>
<p>“General Engineering” is actually a major at UIUC, it is geared to engineering with a business management overtone. What appears to have happened is that the engineering department decided not to admit him as Aero and offered instead General. It is correct that classes first year, and many in second, are similar for engineering majors. As to changing majors, such as after first or second year (and you can request after first year), there is a risk that he will not be approved to do so. However, changing majors within the engineering department is easier than for someone in another college, such as from the Arts & Sciences college, switching to engineering. To do so, he will need to maintain a fairly high GPA (likely at least 3.0 or higher) and at UIUC that is not necessarily easy to achieve. So, the answer is yes, it is somewhat safer to accept UT Austin since he is already admitted for aero there.</p>
<p>my understanding was that in both the colleges of engineering and business, everyone is in a “general” curriculum the first two years, and then they pick their specific major for the last two years. i know that’s how the business college works, but i can’t speak in certainty regarding the engineering college.</p>
<p>“general engineering” at the UI has actually morphed into “industrial & enterprise systems engineering” (it does have seperate tracks in it, gen. engineering and industrial). however, with regards to which classes overlap, the course catalog (<a href=“http://courses.uiuc.edu/cis/schedule/urbana/2007/Fall/[/url]”>http://courses.uiuc.edu/cis/schedule/urbana/2007/Fall/</a>) has a pretty good description of the classes in each department, so looking at the 100 or 200 level classes in various departments is a good way to go – the introductory courses for several majors tend to overlap quite a bit.</p>
<p>Further to divinity’s question, courses you take first year and most second year are essentially the same for engineering majors (and consist mostly of math, chemistry, physics, rhetoric and some introductory engineering courses), but you do apply for and are put into a particular major when you start as a freshman. Thus, you pick (or in the original poster’s situation given) a major when you apply and are admitted, and thereafter you must request and be approved for any change of major. Some engineering universities (e.g., Purdue) do it differently by admitting all to a general engineering curriculum and then choice of major is made later.</p>