Appeal Your Major

Admitted to UCI but not to engineering? Here’s your second chance; appeal your major.

This year, 11,000 students applied as freshmen to the Samueli School of Engineering. However, with just 750 seats available, we simply cannot accept all of the talented students who apply. But we may have some spots opening up, so we’d like to give students who are admitted to UCI, though not to Engineering, a second chance. We invite you to appeal your admitted major.

If you were not admitted to UCI at all, you must appeal through Office of Admissions: Appeal Information. All appeals submitted through Office of Admissions will also be reviewed by Engineering. Follow the instructions carefully.

If you were admitted to UCI, but not to Engineering or not to the Engineering major you wanted, you will need to apply directly through Engineering. We have your UC application, so you don’t need to repeat any of that information. There are three things we’d like to know about you, for further consideration. Give the following questions some thought and submit your appeal here.

For which engineering major would you like to be considered?

You may select only one. We definitely have space in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Materials Science Engineering. Most students aren’t familiar with Materials Science Engineering, so here’s more information: MSE Overview.  It’s a very good choice for students who are interested in Mechanical, Aerospace, Chemical, or Biomedical Engineering.

Please note, it is extremely unlikely there will be any seats in Biomedical: Premedical.

What were your senior year, first semester grades?  

This is your chance to shine. Tell us about all the courses and grades that you have completed since Nov. 30, 2013.

What cool things have you built that you’d like to share?

Please describe and/or show us with photos or video about the projects you’ve attempted. We won’t ask you to take the SAT again, but in your first quarter at the Samueli School, you might design, build and test an autonomous hovercraft. Our undergraduates are building rockets and race cars; designing transit systems, refineries and heart valves; and programming robots and smart phones. We’ve even got an energy-efficient house to build: Team Orange - Solar Decathlon 2015.

We’re looking for students with big ideas who are willing to get their hands dirty. Tell us what you’ve designed or built. Do you program games in your spare time? Can you sew or weld? Were you on the robotics team? Did you do a cool science project? Are you helping your dad restore a car? Did you start a business or a non-profit? Show us what motivates you, something that demonstrates your skill and persistence. If you have photos or a video, give us a link and we’ll check it out.

Aside from Materials Science Engineering, we don’t know now if or how many seats will be available. We intend to complete all appeals soon after the May 1 SIR deadline, so students can be properly advised over summer. We will contact all those who submit an appeal.

If you’re still interested in Engineering, fill out the appeals form now

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