@ucbalumnus Thanks for the advice. Not to hijack the thread, but hopefully it will help OP and others when evaluating programs. DD was direct admit BME to some programs, and gen eng to those that follow that format. Thankfully many of the first year gen eng program classes will contain a lot of review for her. The advisors from 3 of 5 programs all highly recommended she re-take calc 2 for B/C, Chem 1 for AP Chem, etc. They strongly suggested not to take Calc “3,” and recommend she take a humanities class instead. She’s taken several engineering classes that included programming and CAD, physics with calc, Calc
BC, Stats, Bio, Chem, etc, but she’s only transferring her humanities credits (except maybe AP A/B for calc 1). The professors she met with did not seem to care for the AP classes and strongly encouraged her to start at the “beginning” for any sequential classes because they’re seeing such a high failure rate of kids going AP to college level sequentials. Luckily she started planning early and spoke with them at the end of sophomore year, so she knew she was taking the APs to get the base knowledge, not necessarily the credit. Every program she spoke with was very helpful and open to giving recommendations early on to make sure she set herself up for success later. As far as competitive secondary entry, the dual university stamped NC State/UNC BME degree program for example caps at 60-80 kids per school per application cycle, so she considered it a “high reach” program for entry. They were one program that strongly recommended re-taking calc 2, Chem 1, any sequential physics class, etc. This was not info given at engineering open houses or info sessions, but during the “one on one” conversations with professors. She is still weighing all of her options, but is definitely excited to learn about all of the engineering discipline options available. At the top of her list are programs with great academic support offices; she knows a 4.0 h.s. gpa and high test score does not necessarily equate to good grades in college, so she reached out to the academic support offices of her top choices to see what services they offer. Listening to her friends who struggled freshman year in engineering programs gave her a wakeup call; many transfered AP stem credits, assuming they were “equal” since their schools accepted the credit. She has the benefit of having mostly older friends in some great programs and is soaking in and learning from their experiences. Obviously, every program is different, but perhaps the lesson in all of this is to ask the engineering departments what they recommend to give the student the best chance of success.