<p>Is there a lot of freedom at uMich to transfer in between different schools? When do you choose a major?</p>
<p>You may transfer between schools, but some are easier than others. Usually, you declare major in sophomore, but many students may change it afterward.</p>
<p>which schools are hard to transfer to?</p>
<p>^Ross, Public Policy, Nursing, Architecture, Art. Engineering isn’t very hard to transfer into if you do it freshman year.</p>
<p>You can transfer between schools/colleges within the University of Michigan, but you will have to apply to do so. The difficulty of the transfer will be dependent on which school you’re currently in and what program you hope to transfer to. Certain schools require a certain GPA, essays explaining why you want a cross-campus transfer, course requirements, etc.</p>
<p>In LSA you need to declare a major by the end of your sophomore year but it’s easy to change your major to another LSA major after that. Transferring from LSA to Ross is usually done at the end of freshman year because the BBA program is a 3-year course of study that normally starts in the sophomore year, but that’s a pretty competitive transfer process; obviously, Ross “pre-admits” have the inside track because their transfer is guaranteed so long as they meet the freshman GPA requirements, but lots of people do transfer without being pre-admits–and some are turned away. </p>
<p>Traditionally there have been lots of transfers from engineering to LSA, some by people who find the STEM courses too hard, others who just find themselves wanting to pursue some other field of study. Back in my day there were fewer transfers from LSA into engineering, partly because most engineering majors require lots of sequenced courses and it’s hard to pack it all into 4 years if you get a late start. I’d be interested in hearing whether that’s still true as engineering and business seem to be “hot” fields of study these days.</p>
<p>Business and Engineering are still very hot at UMich. But now it is feasible to do double major in Business and Engineering but you need to put that on the application (it is one of the option on CommonApp). I am not sure if one can do that after enrollment. At the engineering admission session, they said there are students transferring between LSA and CoE in both direction each year. But transferring to CoE may need to catch up with some pre-requisites for more advanced courses.</p>
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<p>If you want to graduate in engineering in 4 years it’s best to give yourself a full 4 years to do it, and apply for freshman admission to the College of Engineering. This isn’t just a question of declaring a major, it’s a question of which school or college within the university you’re admitted to and enrolled in. Michigan does admissions by school or college–you apply to LSA, or to the College of Engineering, or . . . Ross (business) is different because it’s a 3-year program, so many Ross BBA students start out in LSA or Engineering; but Ross also does a “pre-admission” program during the normal freshman admission cycle where they’ll “pre-admit” a certain number of entering freshmen, guaranteeing them a spot in the BBA class in their sophomore year provided they have a sufficiently strong freshman academic record.</p>
<p>It’s not just Michigan that does it this way. Many universities admit by school or college within the university. And because engineering is a demanding course of study with lots of prerequisites for more advanced courses, it’s hard to complete it in 4 years unless you get an early jump on it in your freshman year. You could also do this by taking all the engineering pre-reqs as an LSA freshman, but then you’d need to apply for an internal transfer to the College of Engineering. If you’re not sure, it seems to me it’s easier to start in engineering and transfer out if you later decide that it’s not for you, than to start in LSA and later transfer into engineering. The downside is that admission to Michigan engineering is highly competitive, more so than for LSA, so there’s a higher risk that by applying for admission to engineering, you won’t be admitted at all.</p>
<p>Even students admitted into CoE directly, many take more than 4 years to graduate.</p>
<p>I was told yesterday approx 30% of college of engineering students transferred in. Can anyone confirm that? Sounds really high. Also, what are so many kids doing in high school that they KNOW they want to be engineers at 17-years-old?</p>
<p>A ton of LSA kids easily transfer into engineering after a semester or two. It’s not at all uncommon.</p>
<p>How do you transfer in after one semester? Do you submit the transfer request after fall grades post during holiday break, and they let you know before the first day of winter classes?</p>
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<p>Some kids are just born engineers. My brother is like that. From the time he was a young kid, he enjoyed nothing more than taking things apart to see how they worked, then putting them back together–or fixing them when they weren’t working. By the time he was a teenager he was doing that with cars. He knew there were only two careers that would satisfy him, auto mechanic or mechanical engineer. The latter pays better and is somewhat more intellectually challenging, and he had the academic chops to get there, so that’s the path he chose, and he made a successful career of it. There was never the least doubt when he was applying to college what he wanted to study, and he never wavered from it.</p>
<p>I do think some others get stampeded into it. It’s a tough job market out there for liberal arts majors, which is pushing a lot of people toward “safer” career trajectories like engineering or business. This has made CoE and Ross the most selective undergraduate units within the University of Michigan. It wasn’t always like that. Back in my day (when dinosaurs roamed the earth), Michigan engineering was very good but no more selective than LSA, and business (it wasn’t Ross back then) was seen as a lighter and less academically rigorous track, a refuge for those who couldn’t cut it in the more rigorous LSA econ classes. But liberal arts majors had pretty good job prospects with just a BA back then, or if all else failed could usually get into a pretty good law school and have a more-or-less guaranteed well paying job waiting at the end of the pipeline. Times have changed. Lots of HS students and their parents now convince themselves early on that Sonny should be an engineer because Sonny has math/science aptitude and that’s where the jobs are.</p>
<p>How do transfers in CoE occur? Are the requirements stiff?</p>
<p>Wolverine - re:
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<p>First off, deciding your major after getting to college is FINE for a BA.</p>
<p>But engineering, like music, art & design, or theatre, is NOT a BA. It’s pretty much the equivalent of a professional degree, just like a BFA in A/D is a “studio based” professional degree and the way a BMus is a professional degree.
I can assure you that it can be even more difficult to access something like a BMus at Michigan if you don’t have the background going in, the audition material or portfolio 
In the case of these programs where auditions, portfolios, or notable accomplishment or mastery in math/science/tech are requisite, there is always still the option of transfer when one has gathered the necessary experience and level of accomplishment.</p>
<p>What disadvantages a student from a tough background is the fact that if they enter college not knowing they want to do engineering, and spend time and money and financial aid eligibility on courses that will not be useful toward the ENG degree, then they will have to spend more of both time and money pursuing something specialized like ENG.</p>
<p>SO if you think you’re interested in Engineering, research NOW and apply to COE to make the most of the time/money you spend at Michigan. It is theoretically easier to transfer to LSA from COE than vice versa. However, if you’ve already started in LSA, check the prerequisites for ENG, take as many as you can, and you’ll optimize a transfer scenario.</p>
<p>BTW, COE typically takes 9 semesters to graduate (4.5 yrs).</p>
<p>Thank you for that good post. What about a student that explores engineering during the spring of and summer after their senior year? To the best of my knowledge there’s no way to declare engineering in July or August before welcome week, right? Is there any way to position yourself in the fall of your freshman year for an easier transfer in Jan?</p>
<p>For CoE, you apply to it directly on the CommonApp. If you want to transfer from LSA, you apply later on.</p>
<p>Yes, but if I’m not sure yet, so I am only applying to LSA. But I am curious, so what if after exploring engineering this spring and summer, I find engineering alluring. What are my options then? It’s probably too late to get into engineering this summer, so how would I go about positioning myself for a Jan transfer? Is there a certain fall schedule I could craft at LSA that would make me a stronger candidate to do well in Jan at CoE?</p>
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<p>30% sounds a little high to me but it’s not unthinkable. If I had to guess I’d guess somewhere between 20 and 25%. </p>
<p>Also, what makes you think someone starting in CoE has to know they want to be an engineer any more than someone starting in LSA has to know they want to study Liberal Arts? CoE is general in the same way LSA is, which is different than the other colleges.</p>
<p>I bet the 30% transferred students include mostly students from other colleges and universities if that number is real. Transferring from LSA would be a very small percentage.</p>