Engineering and computer science have traditionally been the most difficult majors to be admitted to as first-year students, and the most difficult to transfer into if students start with a different major once at a university. They also have the highest attrition rate, with a 50-year average of approximately 50%.
In the last applicant cycle, the situation became even more complicated when schools began offering a new slate of possible admissions decisions to students applying to these specific fields within STEM. The possible decisions we saw among students were: (1) direct admit into the major listed on their application; (1a) direct admit into a specific field within engineering; (1b) exploratory engineering; and (2) admission to a pre-program.
Direct admits
There are two different types of direct admission into engineering and computer science programs. Students will know that they are directly admitted into a program upon receiving their admission decision, as the letter will say something along the lines of “Congratulations on your admission to XXX University for the Class of 2027 with the major of Mechanical Engineering!”
Students can easily identify their intended major, as selected on the application, in the communications they receive from the university, and there is no question as to which major they will begin upon enrolling.
At institutions with direct entry, students may be able to begin taking lower-division courses specific to their major within the first semester or first year of study.
Exploratory or undecided engineering
Another direct entry, but more general pathway, is referred to as exploratory engineering. Exploratory engineering is built into some college curricula to allow students to try out various types of engineering before committing to just one “specialty.”
Students need to decide if they want engineering or not, but they do not need to commit to mechanical, civil, electrical, computer, biomedical, etc., right away. They are able to take coursework in their first year that allows them to understand each specialty, and then decide which route they hope to pursue. This allows students to get the fundamentals of engineering under their belt without feeling locked into a specific type of engineering.
Schools that offer exploratory engineering programs include but are not limited to Syracuse University, Northeastern University and the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Admission to a pre-program
On the other hand, we have seen a growing trend of schools adopting admissions to a pre-engineering or pre-computer science program for their students interested in pursuing engineering and computer science.
While students may be admitted to the university as a whole, they are not admitted directly into the major selected on the application. For example, the University of Colorado- Boulder admitted applicants into its Exploratory Studies programs, as opposed to directly into the major, where students would need to take a series of prerequisite courses and earn a specific GPA, as determined by the university, in order to declare and progress in their initial intended major.
The University of Washington adopted this model over a decade ago, and more schools are using the approach as the competitive applicant pools for engineering and computer science increase in size. This can and does create a competitive culture among students, as they are all working to prove themselves in the classroom in order to move on in the programs.
It is important to understand if engineering and computer science programs are direct entry, with exploratory options, or if they are pre-programs. As more and more applicants are interested in engineering and computer science, and as the competitive applicant pools continue to grow, we anticipate that more and more schools will be shifting to a pre-program model to avoid having students switch out of engineering and computer science programs later into their educational careers.
Students should research their schools before applying and carefully read their admissions letters to understand how they have been admitted into a school to better prepare them for their paths ahead.
Hollis and Jordana Bischoff are college admissions advisers for College Unlocked. For more information, visit collegeunlocked.com.
