UCR, UCSC, SJSU, SDSU, Cal Poly Pomona, Santa Clara and all for engineering. UCSC for electrical engineering as there is no Mech.
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Have him fill out this form to ask for a change of major ASAP. If he is admitted directly to Engineering before May 15, then he would not need to complete the gateways prior to declaring.
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I think your son has some great options. I think itâs also wonderful that you are able and willing to pay for his undergrad (and maybe grad) college education. This is such a wonderful gift. Some families donât do this even if they can. We were also in the full pay situation, and our kids could choose from any of their acceptances when the time came.
I will sayâŠI do agree that there is lots going on in Cleveland. The city is quite underrated. Case is a fabulous university. I say this as someone who was born and raised in Cleveland!
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Me toođ
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Sample of one. Our DD initially declared an engineering major. She then picked up a second major in biology. She completed the engineering major because she started it (thatâs just the way she is). She will never be an engineer. She really liked the coursework, but realized she never wanted to work in the field. Like you, her dad is career engineer so itâs not like she didnât know about the field.
But as an 18 year old college freshman, her end goal was a very different one than what she is actually doing as a career.
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Oh thanks a lot. Will look into this. One question if this form is filled is there a chance that if he is rejected his admission will be impacted?
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IE (I have a degree in it) is close to Math (optimization, modeling) and can stretch to Economics (decision analysis) but has nothing to do with Mechanical Engineering (at least in my world).
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Nope, admissions decides who gets in to UMD (for fall and spring). Only if admitted for fall can an LEP review a student; if the LEP does not directly admit, then student will be in Letters and Sciences/Undecided. 
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Its great that your DD found what she likes and has been able to do that. Its good to hear stories like as him not choosing a major has been hard for us while discussing college choices. My husband also is an engineer and he has a tough time accepting that he is not able to choose what he wants to do.
While I was 16/17 I wanted to pursue something else but was convinced to do something STEM related by my parents and while I have done well in my job, I still wonder how I would have done in the other field. I donât want my son to have the same doubts if possible
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We had absolutely zero to do with choosing the college majors our kids pursued. Zero. That was up to them.
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I think itâs pretty common for engineering majors to not be âengineers.â My sonâs second internship wasnât and when I asked him - why do they want an engineering major, he said - because they like how they think.
But Iâve had an aero sales VP - and thereâs an engineer in my role.
Itâs a major - not necessarily a living
âData gathered by the Washington Post suggests that as many as 75% of those with science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) degrees donât work in their respective fields.â
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Agree kids need to choose their own majors and I am 100% with you on this.
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Thanks for the details @STEMX
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A kid who is undecided really really really doesnât need to set up such a binary choice as ME or Econ. There are lots of other majors which could appeal to him- applied math/actuary, biostatistics, urban planning (a great major for someone who likes certain elements of engineering but doesnât actually want engineering), sustainability/environmental science, etc.
One of my kids started with astronomy and as we joked- went through most of the alphabet switching majors (never got as far as zoology but got close). Fortunately kid was at a place where none of the switching impacted graduation time since we were â8 semesterâ folks.
The world is changing pretty quickly. Lots and lots and lots of new things to explore!
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I donât believe I said it was the same as MechE. What I said was that itâs still an engineering discipline with an engineering foundation, but unlike MechE it can, as you say, âstretch to econ.â
Even though Northeastern isnât looking like a contender here, their website makes it pretty easy to compare and contrast programs; and MechE and IE are even in the same department. https://mie.northeastern.edu/ Looking at the plans of study, they donât really diverge until the second year. But yes, theyâre not the same, and I didnât mean to say that they were. It isnât clear to me whether this particular student likes MechE for its distinctive qualities, or if he just wants an engineering major and likes MechE better than EE/CivE/Etc. If itâs the latter, then a kid whoâs torn between engineering-broadly and econ might love IE. Just running it up the proverbial flagpole!
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Regarding first year course planning if he is still undecided, but is in a situation where changing major is realistic: follow the course plan for mechanical engineering, but take introductory economics whenever there is space for a social science general education course (may be in the course plan, or if a requirement is fulfilled with AP credit). Assuming decision by the second year, the student would not be behind with either major.
University of Wisconsin engineering majors weed out by GPA minimums which can be significantly higher than 2.0. For ME in 2023-2024, students are weeded out if their technical GPA is < 3.2 or their overall GPA < 3.0, according to https://engineering.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/First-year_GPA_requirements_for_progression_2023-24.pdf and https://engineering.wisc.edu/student-services/undergraduate-student-advising/progression/ .
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Thanks I will ask S24 to check out what the courses and plan of study looks like for the various majors especially if he is considering different engineering majors.
I really appreciate all the thoughtful responses we get when we post here. Some of the things which I never knew or considered come up and help us make a more informed decision.
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Great idea on first year course selection. Will ask him to do this so he can keep his options open with out increasing the time it takes to graduate.
Yes I have read about UW-Madison second year review process for engineering and that one reason I did not feel UMD LEP requirements being harder than UW Madison.
Is there a way to see what the avg GPA at a college is or how many people actually donât make the 3.2 GPA required for Mech and have to choose something else for example.
For Wisconsin, you can check grade distributions at Madgrades . Note that Wisconsin has a somewhat unusual grading system â rather than having A- (3.7 or similar) and B+ (3.3 or similar) between A (4.0) and B (3.0), there is only one intermediate grade AB (3.5). Similar with BC (2.5) between B (3.0) and C (2.0).
For Maryland, you can check grade distributions at Course Difficulty | PlanetTerp
I saw this thread and felt like I had to provide some insight as it hit too close to home. I have two sons currently attending Wisconsin who are studying engineering.
My oldest will graduate in May with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. He will graduate in 4 years, including a semester abroad in Sydney his Spring semester junior year that was awesome. He is in a fraternity at Wisconsin and has absolutely enjoyed his four years in Madison - he worked hard but definitely had a lot of fun too. He met his progression requirement of a 3.2 gpa after his freshman year without a problem while pledging most of the year. He had an ME internship last summer that turned into a full-time offer post graduation. We donât know if he will stay in engineering forever. But as someone else indicated, engineering is a great pathway to other areas given the problem solving and analytical skills that engineers possess. Graduate school, including law school and MBA, is a possibility too. Wisconsin actually has a great program where you can get your masters degree in engineering in just 5 years.
My other son is a sophomore at Wisconsin pursuing a double major in Industrial Engineering and Computer Science. He too is in a fraternity and easily met his progression requirement of a 3.0 while pledging his freshman year. He is on track to earn his double major in four years, and he intends to study abroad next Spring. He has an internship lined up for this summer in the supply chain/logistics space. But he is now thinking more about data science and data analytics, hence the dual major with computer science.
By the way, the Madison winters the last two years have been very mild. Chalk it up to global warming or El Nino winters, but it is not that cold in Madison. And even when it is cold, that does not stop anybody from going out and having a great time! Madison is a fantastic city with many great restaurants and places to see. In the spring, summer and fall, hanging out on the lake at the Student Union with a Spotted Cow is a beautiful thing.
The bottom line is that studying engineering, having a social life, and even being a part of Greek Life are all possible at the same time at Wisconsin.
BTW my older son got into Northeastern for Mech. Eng. but would have had to start abroad - this was 2020 covid year. He ruled that option out very quickly because of the importance of making friends and pledging a fraternity his freshman year. Starting out abroad might really impact a studentâs ability to make connections early on - could be limiting.
My HS senior son is now considering between Wisconsin Mech. Eng. or UIUC Systems Engineering, which is not the same as Industrial Engineering at least at Wisconsin. Systems engineering is not really offered at Wisconsin, and I would describe the UIUC curriculum as a combination of many engineering disciplines applied to the business of scaling up engineering design projects. He too will be a freshman pledge at some fraternity somewhere. Industrial Engineering at Wisconsin is more focused on supply chain/logistics/procurement.
Hope this helps in some way.
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