Engineering is obviously a very competative field with stellar students applying. Aside from an 800 on the math section of the SAT and AP/Honors math and science courses, I don’t have any distinctions that make me stand out as a potential engineer. My ECs are more related to humanities (Tutoring, being a camp counselor, community service, third place in a National Japanese competition…nothing STEM related). From this breif profile, do you think I would have much of a chance if I apply as a mechanical engineer to places like Stanford, Cornell, Rice, and MIT? Should I apply as a humanities major instead, like Psychology? Or should I just put undeclared? I could honestly go either way right now, I just want to know if putting engineering as my major would put me at a very significant disadvantage since other students are likely more qualified with their ECs. If I don’t have much of a shot at elite colleges like this, which other colleges would you recommend I look into where engineering might be a little less competative? Thanks for your help, haha.
It matters on what you want to do. If you want to continue to take humanities courses, while pursuing engineering it would be perfectly fine to apply to Rice or Harvey Mudd. It is sometimes good to put non-Stem extracurriculars on Engineering schools as it shows that you have broader interests and a bigger view of the world. As long as your able to write a strong essay about why you are interested in engineering, colleges won’t care that your ECs don’t relate to your major. However, you are always going to be at a disadvantage when applying as an engineer(unless you are from an underrepresented group or have a compelling background). If you don’t love engineering, it might be better to choose a different major and apply to that college.
No one can help you if you don’t put down your unweighted GPA and your sat/act scores. Also what is the highest math and science taken. Also a lot of kids don’t have engineering things when they apply. Very few really know what engineering is about and discover it later on. Also apply to match /safety schools. The ones you stated are hard for the most elite students also.
SAT: 1520 720 Reading 800 Math 24/24 Essay
SAT Subject tests in Physics and Math 2, expecting at least 780 on both, but may retake in December if scores are low.
UWGPA: 4.0. School doesn’t calculate class rank or weighted GPA, but it would be a 4.35.
Current Course load: AP Physics C, AP Calc BC, AP Japanese, AP US Gov (AP Micro Econ next semester) British Literature.
btw my school doesn’t allow freshmen and sophomores from taking APs/Honors classes unless it’s foreign language, comp sci, or if you’ve completed a math course outside of school. That’s why my weighted GPA isn’t too high compared to other people’s weighted GPAs, haha.
Hope that gives more context.
For safety schools, I was considering UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine,
and Cal-state San Jose.
Also @fromDaBay, how much of a disadvantage do you think I have compared to other applicants? I am an Asian male in California, but I have a visual disability. In my essays, I was hoping to draw on my experience both living and working with visually impaired kids (camp counselor and tutor) and explain how I want to use these experiences to engineer devices that will help the impaired. Otherwise, for Psych, from my past experiences, I want to either do research or therapy with those who feel isolated or stigmatized because of an impairment. Which do you think would be a stronger approach? And like I said, I’m not fully sure what I want to do yet, I just want to weigh my options. I’m not trying to manipulate my application just for the sake of admission.
Sorry that was kinda long, but thanks for your input!
At Cornell and most UCs and CSUs, changing into an engineering major after enrolling as general undeclared or psychology requires another admission process, typically due to capacity limits on the engineering major.
You don’t declare your major when you apply to Stanford (although they do ask for your preference). Students can declare any time during their first or second year.
Cornell has seven undergraduate colleges.
An applicant applies to a particular college there. One of which is its College of Engineering.
At each of its colleges, admissions decisions are made by a panel consisting of admissions office personnel and faculty of the particular college. So a student is only vetted for that one college he/she is applying to, not for the university as a whole.
The College of Engineering and the College of Arts & Sciences do not require applicants to specify a particular major at the time of application However it is understood that the eventual choice must be a major that is actually offered at the college the student matriculates to. The psychology major is offered in the College of Arts & Sciences.
A transfer from one of Cornell’s colleges to any of its other colleges would require an application through its “Office of Internal Transfer and Concurrent Degrees”. This is the case whether or not capacity limits exist in the desired major at the intended destination college. It is because the applicant was never vetted as a student for this new college, and that college wants to make sure he/she can do the work. Of course if capacity limits do exist this would also come into play in their decision. But the student must apply in any case. Because it is a different college there.
Transfer admission to another college there is not guaranteed.
In the past they generally did not make it impossible though. if you did well in courses there in general, and in the destination college in particular, transfer admission was pretty likely. But I can’t say about now with any confidence. Except that it goes on enough for them to have an “Office” devoted to it.
The College of Arts & Sciences (“CAS”) is itself not easy to be admitted to, and if they have reason to believe through your application that you are planning to use CAS as a “back door” to COE you will likely be denied admission there.
It depends on the school. At some (especially the UC’s) it’s extremely difficult to switch into engineering if you don’t apply to an engineering major to begin with.
On the other hand, at a school like Rice where there is an “open door policy” vis-a-vis majors, if you are legitimately undecided between an engineering major and a humanities or social science major, it may be to err on the side of the latter, particularly if your EC profile is aligned with the non-STEM choice. Case Western Reserve is another school that is similar to Rice in this way and could be a good choice to add to your list. URochester could be worth a look as well.
Have you considered a crossover major between engineering and psychology? Examples:
https://ase.tufts.edu/psychology/undergraduate/concEngineeringPsych.htm
https://www.hcde.washington.edu/
Majors like these could be particularly appropriate if you’re interested in the design of access solutions and interfaces for people with visual (or other) disabilities.
It might be worth looking at Swarthmore, which is not only a liberal arts college with a strong general engineering program, but has also built a track record in recent years in terms of supporting students with visual impairments. https://www.delcotimes.com/news/blind-engineer-has-vision-of-a-sustainable-world/article_c1a0f4a5-234d-52f3-a1c3-b76b3b799c74.html @Kelvin82 is there now and may have more information for you.
Lehigh could also be worth a look. They are stepping up their efforts to recruit California students, and they give URM advantage to Asian applicants. And their IDEAS program is another great way to span engineering and liberal arts. https://www.lehigh.edu/ideas/ However, they don’t offer the public transportation access to the resources of a city that, for example, Swarthmore does. (The fact that most of the schools on your list are at least urban-adjacent probably isn’t a coincidence, I would imagine.)
Pitt is another school with a solid record for disability inclusion - their med school was way ahead of the curve in terms of admitting disabled students, and quite a bit of disability-related research is done there. You would likely get Honors and merit aid there.
Good luck - hope some of the ideas above are helpful!
@Student334468
Well if your essays are about engineering a device to help the visually impaired I think that you should apply for engineering. Again, I think applying to liberal arts colleges, which have good engineering programs e.g. Harvey Mudd, Swathmore, Davidson College, Univeristy of Virginia would be a good fit. For Example, at Harvey Mudd you can enroll in great Pyschology classes at Pomona because of the Claremont College relationship but still have great engineering professors and do research. I think that you have pretty good chances at getting accepted to your safeties.
I’ve no idea about admissions, but based on your stated interests I suggest you check out some of the following schools which may have relatively good programs in biomedical engineering:
Johns Hopkins, MIT, Georgia Tech, Duke, Stanford, UCSD, UC Berkeley, Rice, U Michigan, U Pennsylvania, U Washington, Boston U, Northwestern, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, U Texas (Austin), U Virginia, Washington U (St Louis), Vanderbilt, U Rochester.