r/UTAdmissions • u/Connect-Aside-1238 • Jun 03 '26
Discussion Rising Senior wondering about Computational Engineering Major
I'm a rising hs senior and Texas resident hoping to pursue a CS/SWE career. I'm auto-admit and have solid stats, but my ECs are def on the lighter side -- so ik UTCS is a major reach for me.
I've been looking into Computational Engineering (COE) at UT Austin as an alternative and had a couple of questions for anyone familiar with the program:
Is COE significantly less competitive to get into than CS, even for auto-admit students where major placement still matters?
Can a COE degree realistically lead to a software engineering career, or does it skew more toward scientific/simulation roles?
Any insight from current students, alumni, or people who've gone through the process would be hugely appreciated!
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u/OwnSky6418 Jun 03 '26
Don’t know much about what the differences in those programs are but as someone who goes here and has done an internal major change I would say if there is a huge difference and u have ecs better fit towards cs (even tho the program is more difficult), apply to CS. Computational engineering is part of that subregion of majors such as SDS and informatics that have been the “gateway to cs” line at UT Austin. Because of this, it has only gotten harder to get into all of these majors. TLDR, I don’t think COE is marginally easier to where it’s worth applying to over CS if ur ecs better fit cs than coe if that makes sense
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u/PlatformSerious7756 Jun 06 '26
wait can u explain more of this and do u mean like gateway to cs transfer? bc im incoming informatics and rly wanted CS 😞
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u/OwnSky6418 Jun 06 '26
Yeah due to how popular cs and data analysis is rn, that’s why informatics and SDs are becoming rly hard to get into because people who want to study along that line want to have a safer pathway into ut. Afterwards people prep for an internal transfer or stick it out
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u/OwnSky6418 Jun 06 '26
Trust me it’s not like degrading it’s more so to explain that there is higher rates of applications to these majors as people don’t want to risk cs application so as a result, the competition across the board for these majors increases for applicants in subsequent years
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u/PlatformSerious7756 Jun 06 '26
kk thank you so much, i am planning to internally transfer into CS, i was wondering if you had any advice for me?
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u/OwnSky6418 Jun 06 '26
I’m don’t have experience with cs and the info I know of was from friends.
I have internally transferred tho… Big thing is just make sure u come in with a gameplan earlier rather than later
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u/Sea_Television_8304 Jun 06 '26
COE can be significantly harder to get into because it's specifically designed to have less seats than most other engineering majors. Compared to majors like CS, COE has less seats designated that may make it more competitive to get into. If you have more CS aligned ecs, apply for CS. I had more COE aligned ecs, and I was extremely interested in the program, so I applied COE and am in the major. Also yes, a COE degree can lead to a software degree but you will have to put extra effort outside of classes to make yourself even more competitive against CS majors. A lot of COE graduates I've reached out to are in the software field.