Which colleges offer the most flexibility in changing Engineering majors?

Scubaski1
Sat, 24 Aug 2019 15:00:53 +0000

My daughter is applying to schools and wishes to study engineering, however she’s not sure exactly which specialty. She’s considering ChemE, MechE, BioMe, Materials, or possibly another STEM major, (but not computer)… We’ve toured many schools and understand that switching engineering majors is much easier at some schools than others.

She is deciding now which schools she will apply EA or ED. She is also considering an engineering/music double degree or music minor, so some schools on her list have stronger music than engineering programs. I know some of these schools don’t offer the breadth of engineering major choices she’s looking for.

Of the following schools on her list, how would you rank them on ability to easily switch between engineering majors (assuming all the privates, Ivies) and which make it more difficult (assuming all the Big 10/“direct admit” to engineering schools)?

MIT
Cornell
Northwestern
Penn
Carnegie Mellon
Princeton
Yale
Harvard
Dartmouth
U of Washington
U of Minnesota
The Ohio State
U of Illinois

Note - She does have the academics/extracurriculars to qualify for these competitive schools… E.g. 4.6+ GPA, SAT 1580, Math 2 800, Chem 790, National Merit, etc. We will do a “chance me” on another post.