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0 pointsswang14y ago0 comments

That is not true at all schools in the US. At least not when I applied around 10 years ago. A lot of schools, especially the top tier CS programs told me that I would not be allowed to go in undeclared and then transfer into their CS program. I had to declare as a CS or I wouldn't get in. I knew some people were able to get away with not declaring and transferring in but I didn't want to risk it.

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6 comments · 2 top-level

msbarnett14y ago· 4 in thread

10 years exactly, or a bit more than that?

The reason I asked is that CS enrollment changed dramatically after the .com bubble burst. When I applied to CS a little more than 10 years ago the bubble was in full swing, and only the top 1/4 of applicants to the program had a hope of getting in. Transferring in was a no-go.

2 years later enrollment had dropped so low that the quotas were gone and transferring in was easy. Application numbers, as far as I know, still haven't recovered to bubble levels.

swangOP14y ago

Ah interesting point. I came into my CS program the first year after most people considered the bubble burst in 2001, (also obviously when 9/11 happened). Only a few companies were "left alive" so to speak so maybe my year was the last year that they did this.

_delirium14y ago

These days Stanford, at least, has an active program trying to convince non-CS first-years to switch their major to CS!

tedunangst14y ago

It's been a few years, but when I went freshmen at Stanford weren't even allowed to have majors. When did this change? Link?

aidenn014y ago

I tried to transfer into CS in 2004. The policies from the bubble had not yet been revised and so it wasn't possible. I received a degree in "interdisciplinary sciences" but had all the credits required for a CS degree (and only 4 credits shy of a physics minor, which was my original major).

ericd14y ago

When I applied around that time, CMU was the only one I applied to that required that I declare CS, MIT didn't, Harvard didn't, and I don't think CalTech did either.

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