Admission to the Major

Applying to Ohio State University

If you are not currently a student at Ohio State and are interested in becoming a first-year or transfer student, please contact the Admissions Office for admission requirements, deadlines, and application. The department is not directly involved with admitting students to Ohio State.

Pre-Majors

Students new to OSU are not directly admitted to major status. Instead, they are admitted as pre-majors (pre-CSE, pre-CIS) and apply to enter the major after specific pre-requisite coursework has been completed.

Pre-CSE

To be directly admitted to pre-CSE, New First Year Students, must be directly admitted to the College of Engineering. Entry into the college is competitive and several factors are considered including ACT/SAT scores, strong college prep curriculum, class rank and GPA. For more information, please see the College of Engineering Admissions site.

To be directly admitted to pre-CSE, Transfer student, must be directly admitted into the College of Engineering. Students must have: at least 30 credits of post-high school college credit, a 3.0 transfer GPA, and transfer credit for Math 1151 or higher. Students with less than 30 credit hours will be considered using the criteria for New First Year Students. For more information, please see the College of Engineering Admissions site.

Pre-CIS

To be directly admitted to pre-CIS, New First Year Students and Transfer Students, need to be admitted into the College of Arts and Sciences. After a student is accepted into the College of Arts and Sciences, there are no additional requirements they must fulfill. For more information, please see the College of Arts and Sciences site.

 

Please note, starting Autumn 2023

Students will no longer be permitted to switch into the Aerospace Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, Computer and Information Science or Mechanical Engineering pre-major programs

Students interested in these programs must indicate one of the majors on the Common Application as pre-majors close once they reach capacityStudents will not have the ability to switch into one of these four pre-majors. Only students in these pre-majors may apply to their respective major. For example, only Computer Science and Engineering pre-majors are permitted to apply to the Computer Science and Engineering major.

  • Aerospace Engineering
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Computer Science and Engineering (ENG) / Computer and Information Science (ASC)
  • Mechanical Engineering

Application For Major Status

To be admitted to a Computer Science major, student will need to meet specific GPA and course requirements. Pre-majors should submit their application to the major during the term in which they will complete the prerequisite requirements by completing the Application to Major. For any question students should see an undergraduate academic advisor in the Advising Office. Students must complete an application to be admitted to the major; simply completing the prerequisite courses does not automatically confer major status. For specifics for getting into each individual major, please see the majors page.

Major status gives students access to faculty advisors, a permanent computer account, and priority scheduling for CSE courses. These are important benefits. Hence, if you plan to major in any of the programs in the department, and have completed the prerequisites, you should apply for admission to the major as soon as possible.

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