Explaining Intended Majors

Hello.

Yeah.

Shannon, yes I could hear you.

Just camera shy.

Hello.

Hawaii great great you know. I'm just looking up on the last minute registrants and one question that looks knew to me is, uhm, can I live in the Engineering LLC? I think that's living. Learning community. Is that right?

Yeah.

OK, so as long as you.

OK, that's good.

Yep.

As long as you can anticipate, that's great.

The rest of them.

Oh it's funny. What is best about the engineering program?

And then.

How are you holding?

So I wanted to ask ask you how did we end up with all the other nights webinars added in as well career services and international student services and so on.

So as we were building out our Department ilh webinars, Jen Gamble was looking for opportunities to engage with her perspective students or her admits for yield for 2020 and what we did was anything that was broadly applicable for both grad and undergrad. Uhm.

We tagged those, uh, by audience, for both groups on the website.

Yeah, good nice offerings.

Yeah, it worked out really. Uhm, I think really beautifully that some of the programming that grad Ed would have done if they could host accepted students days in India as they had been planning to do but were able to.

Just a participation in notes.

Let me look at.

Where is it?

The registration numbers were, I think, some of the highest that we've seen.

Let's

So for career services, for example, career services was Holly Justice, talking about how to get a job on campus.

In

And that had 323 registrants. That's of course all in, and we haven't done the recording yet to see grad and undergrad and parents and so on, but that's a That's a large number of registrants for us.

It's nice.

Can you hear me?

Yeah.

OK.

Yep, perfect.

I had some trouble connecting this morning so.

OK.

Ah.

How are you doing now? Do you? Is everything working for you?

Oh yeah, everything's working. I just had a little trouble connecting in general this morning.

To my wireless connection.

Hello.

You get the UM?

You can.

Do you ever settled?

Hello can you hear Maine?

So.

No, uh, well, it seems to be working on my phone, so I downloaded the app on my phone that's working now, but they think it's an issue with my router and that my router is somehow detecting the audio is like spam or something like that. So the call continues, but the sound cuts out. But when I took my laptop to campus on Wednesday, I was able to make a call using my laptop connected to you be wireless.

Can you guys hear Maine?

But it's it's fine. I have my phone, um, and I have the Jabber app on my phone so.

No.

I can, it's I can manage with that no problem.

Don't you feel Kate like we're becoming experts in work arounds and hacks?

No.

I.

How are you doing?

Everything's fine.

I forgot about the hat.

Shannon

Can you can you hear Maine?

How how are you doing Shannon? I heard you might have had a little trouble as well.

Oh no.

OK.

Yeah.

Funny.

Oh my gosh, yeah yeah, yeah, I'm doing my best though. I'm going to bring my laptop to campus next week and um, I told Scott had to asking me to come in an I said I'm so afraid that if I bring home this pandemic, my vulnerable sister who stayed with me to ride this out like I can't Scott, I can't come in so he's coming out to my car with mask and gloves and pulling my laptop from my trunk.

For me, I'm gonna pop the trunk when I see him.

Wow Oh my gosh. Yeah, I know when I.

But that's kind of.

That is very nice, so I at the sense folks are doing such a great job right now. They are so responsive.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, I had. They've just been so response when I I haven't to see when I pulled into campus on Wednesday I saw Jonathan Klubeck. So I waved from my car.

I.

Can you guys see me?

Yep.

OK.

So Kerry and Kate, you guys are gonna uhm.

Stop.

Step off and then come back on is that the plan or?

Yep.

And I'll keep an eye on the chat and the questions submitted.

And the president.

OK.

And I'm gonna, um, I'm gonna click broadcast video so that you don't see me anymore because the more people in control the more, uh issues I've seen. So I'm gonna head out in less. You have questions for me.

No.

OK, Good Luck. I'll be here background.

Alright, so Jeff, should I, I'll click of- broadcast video as well for now and then. I'll wait until whatever you say to jump back on.

Right, so the last slide, or sucking the last slide.

Sure.

Uh.

Yeah so slight 11 when we get to that one is.

When you come out so I think slide 10 is Kerry will come on and then once we finish everything you can join us and then we can all handle the questions together.

OK, great.

OK, see you then.

All right?

Good morning everyone. I see a number of you joining us that's that's fantastic. Thank you. Uh, will perhaps wait another or another minute, maybe for others to join.

Alright, it looks like we got a pretty good group here and the numbers have sort of flattened out, so so welcome everyone. Thank you very much for joining us for this event today.

Let me start off by introducing myself. I'm Jeff Herrington. I serve as the associate Dean for undergraduate education within the school of engineering and Applied Sciences, and I'm also a faculty member within the Department of chemical and biological engineering, joining us a little bit later today are going to be doctor Kerry Collins Gross. She's our assistant Dean for undergraduate education within the school of engineering and Applied Sciences, as well as Miss Kate Dorham, who is a senior academic advisor within the school of engineering and Applied Sciences.

So what we wanted to do today was tell you a little bit about, uh, intended majors in engineering and computer science at the University at Buffalo. Let you know what they are all about and answer some of the questions that you have with respect to the intended major.

So let me begin by giving a bit of a description, an overview of the admissions process for first year students within the school of engineering and Applied Sciences. We work very closely with the UB Office of admissions, and we collaboratively work on a process to to review students and to decide on whether they were admitted or not and what we do is we provide performed by a holistic review.

Of students, we look at a academic metrics such as SAT scores, AC T scores, high school averages. We look very closely at regions. Exam scores, particularly in in math, chemistry and physics.

And we also looked at.

Other aspects of a student record, including their personal statement, letters of recommendation, so called non cognitive attributes. So these include things like ability of a student to to persevere under difficult circumstances, leadership aptitude.

A motivation and uh, sort of commitment to to the field of study that they're interested in.

So based upon that review, we either directly admit a student to the school of engineering and Applied Sciences and.

Or we end up putting a students into our so called intended major, which is what we're discussing today. Um, students that are placed into the direct admit pool or the approved major are ones that have a very high likelihood of success based apon pass reviews that we've done on average about 60% of the incoming class is put into the direct admit or the approved major, the balance.

About 40% are placed into the intended major, and these are typically students that we look at the record and we have maybe some concerns about their ability to be successful within the school of engineering and applied Sciences. But based upon past students, there is much to be excited about, and certainly there is a very high chance that they are also able to be successful within the school of engineering and Applied Sciences.

OK, another question we often get is well. What are the implications of being in the intended major?

Basically, within the first couple of years of study there, there are really none. So in terms of the coursework that students within the intended major participate in, it's exactly the same as the course work that are approved majors participate in, so the types of courses that students enroll in are the same.

Uh, they have the same access to any resources that are available within the school of engineering and Applied Sciences with the University of Buffalo. For example, many of our intended majors make use of our maker spaces and tinkering, another experiential learning opportunities available to students within the school of engineering and Applied Sciences.

Um intended majors and approve majors are both advised by our sea S Office of undergraduate education. Where are advisors there performed by a holistic advisements protocol for our students?

The sort of key distinction is that intended majors need to meet admissions requirements for the school of engineering and Applied Sciences.

The sort of practical point where that kicks into play is when an intended major needs to access junior and senior level coursework. That is important for the major.

So in order to access junior and senior level coursework, students need to have been admitted to other major program of study within the school of engineering and Applied Sciences.

So the next.

So the key question that is OK. Well, how? How do I get admitted? What is the admission process? What does that look like?

So that's why I like to take you through now and explain that process in full detail.

All of the details are also available online, so the URL on pointing you to hear A is one that you can go to, and you can learn about all of the specifics with respect to the admissions policy that we have within the school of engineering and Applied Sciences.

So let me lay it out for you.

There are three key attributes that we look at when deciding to admit a student to the school of engineering and Applied Sciences. The first is that a student needs to be in what's called academic good standing within the University at Buffalo, and so basically what that means is that across the University of Buffalo, the student is performing at a level in which they're getting an average rate of C or better. In other words, your your most recent and cumulative GPA are at least a 2.0.

Uh, within the University at Buffalo.

The second key thing that we look at is what we call our core course analysis, and here there are four courses that we've identified that are particularly meaningful to a major.

And we look to see that a student has a grades of C minus or better in each of those four core courses.

And they also have a GPA across those core courses of 2.5 or better. So that means that on average the student is performing between a C&AB within those set of core courses.

They also have a restriction on the number of times that a student is able to to repeat a given core course. So we say that the students are permitted to repeat at most 2 core courses one time.

Many of our students come in with prior work that they've done in high school and so one important note here that I'd like to convey is that any of the course that you've already completed through high school can only help you.

If you have, let's say a participated in a calculus course through a local Community College and that has been an experience in which you've been awarded official University credit. If you've done well in that calculus course, fantastic. That's something that you can go ahead and apply to the admissions requirements for this will of engineering and Applied Sciences.

If it turns out that you took that calculus course and you maybe didn't do so, well, that's OK too. Uhm, you know that is not something that we're going to hold against you from the perspective of the admissions analysis for the school of engineering and Applied Sciences, you can come to the University at Buffalo. Take that calculus, of course again, and show that you can perform well in that area.

The third major component of the admissions analysis is pertains to the overall cumulative GPA So what the overall cumulative GPA is is a GPA which we take all coursework that a student has completed within higher education and so it includes all coursework. You complete at the University at Buffalo as well as any coursework that you complete at a Community College or some other institution of higher learning so I just mentioned students that maybe participate.

In in programs with local community colleges and get credit for that, well it's still in high school that credit would contribute to this overall cumulative GPA. And again, many students perform well in this circumstances and that can help you in terms of meeting the admissions requirements.

So three key criteria. One be an academic good standing to be successful in terms of the core courses and three obtain an overall GPA that is consistent with the requirements for the major. So now let's take a look at the specific details.

The second key criterion had to do with the core course analysis, and so let's take a look at what those poor courses are.

So if you're interested in one of the engineering programs, there are four core courses and those are calculus, one calculus, two general chemistry one and general physics.

If you're interested in our computer science programs, there are also a four core courses and they are calculus. One introduction to computer science for majors, one introduction to computer science for majors, two and of course that we call discrete structures.

The third key criteria had to do with the overall cumulative GPA.

And the requirement here is something that varies by major. If you're interested in our aerospace, computer or mechanical.

Ignoring major or one of the computer science majors, either the BA or BS. The requirement here is a 2.8 or better.

If you're interested in one of our other engineering majors, including biomedical chemical, civil, electrical, environmental, and industrial engineering, as well as our engineering physics program, the requirement is a 2.5 or better overall cumulative GPA.

Alright, so now let's address some of the other questions that we typically receive for intended majors. So one of the questions that we often receive, regardless of the nature of the admission type. This comes from us for the students that are directly admitted, as well as our intended majors. Is can I pursue something other than engineering and computer science if I come to the University at Buffalo?

The answer is absolutely yes. Uh, we have many students that come to the University of Buffalo, and they're not quite certain as to what major they'd like to participate in.

And that's completely understandable. You know if you've gone through high school, maybe you don't quite understand exactly what different majors are all about. Maybe you're not certain. Maybe a varied interest. All of that is perfectly natural and perfectly fine. And as we'll talk about in a minute, there are a number of things that we do within the school of engineering and Applied Sciences to help explore different possible careers during the first year of study and ensure that there are finding a major that makes sense for that.

So one of the wonderful things about the University of Buffalo is really the diverse array of majors that are available to students.

And we see during the first year of study a number of students that transition from outside of the school of engineering and Applied Sciences into the school of Engineering Applied Sciences. So maybe a student that originally came to the University of Buffalo thinking that they would do something in physics or public health, or maybe business, and we see those students come to the school of engineering and applied Sciences. But we also see the opposite case in which didn't start off. Maybe thinking that they wanted to do electrical engineering, but then discover that physics is really the might.

Right major for that and all that is perfectly fine. We very much support that at the University at Buffalo support students finding what's right for that.

Another question we get often times is well being intended major lengthen the time it takes me to complete the degree answered as no there is a path that students can pursue in order to complete the engineering or computer science major in four years when starting off as an intended major, one of the things that I forgot to mention before was that this whole whole admissions process, the core courses that you need to complete. This is something that if.

Student follows the standard program of study that can be done within the first year. So a very typical sort of outcome is that students participate in core courses in the first semester at you be as well as a second semester at you be.

Within those two first semesters, they complete the four core courses. They perform well, and they're able. Then, at the end of the first year of study to meet the admissions requirements.

But at this point we wanted to tell you a little bit about how are intended majors are supported within the school of engineering and applied Sciences and I'd like to bring in doctor Kerry Collins gross as I mentioned before she's our assistant Dean for undergraduate education she leads are advisement services within the school of engineering and applied Sciences and she's going to tell you about some of the ways in which advisements of plays a role for intended majors so caring take it away.

Good morning everyone thank you doctor Arrington one of the things that we emphasize within the school of engineering and applied Sciences is academic advisements when a student joins the school of engineering and applied Sciences they're paired with a professional economic advisor from the schools office of undergraduate education these are the same advisors that work with students that are directly admitted.

Advisors work holistically with the students on a wide range of issues including selecting a major identifying appropriate classes to enroll in managing the transition from high school to college or other personal concerns or even helping to understand academic matters related to financial aid.

Students meet with her advisor an individual appointments and we also offer group advisement sessions in class presentations to help improve outreach and student engagement with us and one another.

Students can also log into an environment of portal at anytime to see their personal progress report.

The show students each of the admissions criteria and their status and satisfying them.

In addition the school of engineering and applied Sciences advisement team makes contact with intended students every semester to provide an update on their progress in meeting admissions requirements.

This regular review process provides a helpful checkpoint reminding students of any requirements they still need to satisfy for admission.

And alleviates the need for students to formally apply for admission. With this review, we are able to identify when a student is eligible for admission. When that occurs, we process admission and then send the student their new admissions letter along with reminder to meet with her advisor.

Students keep the same advisor for the remainder of their studies, and then they will also be paired with a faculty mentor for their major in the junior year of study.

This faculty mentor helps a student with technical elective selection another academic matters.

They also places significant emphasis on professional development exploring whether or not the student wants to go to Graduate School and sharing information about career pads within the field or advice and starting a job search the kinds of things that become more important as the student makes her way through the academic program.

And finally, a very popular advisor tool we developed for students is their personal floci

Personal flow sheets provide students a view of their progress toward completing their engineering or computer science degree and can even be used to generate an optimized path toward graduation.

Advisors enjoy helping students learn how to utilize these tools.

As well as other University resources like the experiential learning network or tutoring in academic support services or engineering clubs and organizations to be sure they are aware of many opportunities the University provides.

Now, Doctor Arrington is going to explain a few additional D programs within the school that support our intended students.

All right, thanks very much Kerry. So I just want to touch on a few of the things that we already discussed within the sort of General overview of the school that doctor, human and I presented last week and a recording of that is available from the sea S website.

If you're interested in that, but let me just touch on some of the key things.

The play a role in terms of supporting first year students.

So the first is that we have a seminar series that all first year students participate in, including intended an approved majors and within engineering we've structured. I'm in such a way that the introduce students to the sort of grand challenges of engineering and we also place a significant emphasis on career exploration. And so again, we're really committed to this idea of making sure that students understand what it is that they're getting into, understand what.

Uh engineering and computer science is all about uh, and if they prefer to study some other major, that's fine. The first year seminar is is designed in such a way to help students sort of Acclimate to the major and understand what it's all about. The same time introducing these grand challenges, sort of letting students know about the key things that they're going to be studying in tackling in the future.

There's also a very nice peer mentoring program that we've put into place.

So the the same first year seminars that I just mentioned, they're supported by well over 100 junior and senior level students within the school of engineering and Applied Sciences, and these students act as mentors to the first year students.

So some of the things that they do or help them out with with their academics in terms of understanding how it is to engage in the course work that they're doing within the first year seminar. But they also help them that much more broadly. So, for example, one of the new first year students might have questions about, you know, hey, how is it that I go about approaching a faculty member? I've got these questions, you know, should I go to office hours? I should I email him or her? You know what's the best way to approach a particular faculty member? And that's what the peers.

Mentors can help out. It is giving guidance with respect to those sort of everyday things that a first year student encounters.

We also have a small groups program that I talked about in our previous seminar.

Uhm, this is a really unique program to the University at Buffalo. It's a voluntary supplemental instruction program that focuses on helping students to develop those key problem solving skills that they were going to need within the first year of study. But then on into the rest of their major program. And so it helps them to develop those those key skills. Key underlying skills that are going to be necessary in the years ahead.

And the small groups program focuses on those courses that are the core courses in order to be admitted into the engineering program. And so we offer supplemental instruction in courses like calculus, calculus, one calculus 2, as well as chemistry one and physics one.

So these are some of the many ways that that we support students within the first year of study and beyond within the school of engineering and Applied Sciences.

So at this point, let me bring back a doctor Collins Gross and we also have with us Kate Dorham and they're going to be helping with the questions that we have. We intentionally try to keep this presentation relatively short so that we have more time for questions and answering the types of questions that you have. Also, on the screen right now is the contact information for doctor Collins gross and me. If after this web, and are there are questions you have, we're more than happy to address those.

Feel free to shoot us an email at anytime.

To discuss further the and any questions you have about you be or. This will of engineering and Applied Sciences.

Alright, so Kate I know even uhm taking a look at the chat, uh, any good questions coming through there?

Right, so one of the the programs that the University launched.

A struggling to remember when now, but maybe it's been awhile Seven or eight years ago.

Um is a finishing four program, and So what that basically says, it's a commitment between the University and the students. the University basically saying that look, we're going to do our part to make sure that students have access to the courses that they need to be able to complete.

Other program of study in a timely manner, and so, um, any student that needs a seat in calculus. One for example, or calculus two or chemistry won. the University puts that commitment in place to say that we are going to ensure that students have the ability to have access to those courses that they need to complete the degree in a timely manner.

It also has components of it that are with respect to Advisement. Uh, the program that was put in place also shifted some of the way in which we do advise me at the University at Buffalo.

And now I mean we have had for quite some time, but within the school of engineering and Applied Sciences we have quite a robust advisement mechanism that doctor Collins Rose told you a little bit about making sure that students are known within the school of engineering and Applied Sciences. They meet with advisors on a regular basis, and they get that key academic as well as professional guidance that they need to be successful at the University of Buffalo and beyond.

I I'd like to add a little bit to to that as well. In one of those advisement aspects is proper course placement. So while most students will register in the beginning courses, which is one of these other questions.

Like Calculus one, so most engineering majors would start with calculus, one which is one of the core courses. Some students are not ready to start with calculus one, so students would need to take and Alex Placement Assessment in score well enough on that in order to be able to start in calculus one. And there's a lot of guidance and support through that assessment. Some modules that students can use to practice into preparing to improve their score.

But if it turns out that the students preparation coming out of high school is not good enough to go into and be successful into calculus one in their first semester, they would be advised and placed in a pre calculus class so they wouldn't necessarily start in calculus one. But as you mentioned earlier, document and there is still a path to graduate in four years. Such students often would take the pre calc the first semester calculus and next semester and then catch up on the sequence by taking calculus 2.

In the summer session, and then pick right up from there into the sophomore year.

OK.

Yeah, so I mean the particular course that were courses that students may struggle with or accelerate at that depends from one student to another. It will just reflect on my personal experience. I remember when I was a student.

Physics one course was really sort of transformation offer for me in the sense that, um, it's really a course that requires you to.

To stop adopting the types of of habits that you may have adopted in high school and in many cases in high school, you know the sort of approach even in science and math, is to learn how to sort of memorize formulas, and to say that, OK, I've got this particular problem that I need to solve, and then the sort of reaction typically is OK. Go back to the textbook and find that one equation that I need in order to solve that particular problem.

Ann

You know, certainly what you find as you move through the engineering and computer science curricula are that you simply can't use that type of approach anymore. Really, what you need at the University level is a fundamental understanding of what it is that led to the development of those various different expressions, various different equations. An come up with a much more holistic and fundamental understanding of how it is that you tackle problems. So the physics one course is really a good example of that in the sense that.

You no longer a can really memorize all of the different scenarios that happen in Newtonian mechanics that you know. If a particle starts here with this velocity and you know figuring how later where it is, there are of course formulas for all that, but they become many, many, many, and what you realize in physics one is that if you simply understand newtons equation of ocean and you understand a little bit of calculus, you can quickly get to all of the equations that you need in order to solve the problems that are of interest and so.

With a little bit of understanding and relatively little memorization, you can do a whole lot more than you can with memorizing a bunch of stuff, and so that was one of the things it was very transformation for me. And as was just mentioned really, one of the things that we we focus on in the small group program is to help students make that transition from the high school mindset to the college level mindset where you have to. Like I said before, the high school mindset is often times more about Memorization.

University mindset is more about fundamental understanding and being able to apply those fundamentals to practical problems of interest in the small groups help students to make that transition.

Kate, there was actually one question that came to us before the session started in. It had to do with financial aid.

Uh, if a financial aid package is not showing up in my student portal, uh, is there an issue or does this mean that I did not receive any financial aid if I did not receive financial aid, how can I see my specific cost of attendance? Did you or Perry do you know how to address that question?

No, what I thought I heard was that they might be an estimate available for students to see um, and if there is not an if you have applied and indicated that you were applying to UB. So if you submit the FAFSA and indicated you be school cold on that, then certainly should follow up with the office of financial aid at you be.

I'll add just one more thing with regards to computer specifications. We do have a FAQ guide on our website which does indicate if you're going to be purchasing a new laptop. For example, the recommendations in terms of what to look for.

I know there was one question that was submitted before the seminar began. The web and R and that was asking about the engineering, living, learning community and whether students would be able to request to live there. And the answer is yes indeed. So it's one of their preferences that you can indicate on your housing application. So certainly if you're interested in that, please do indicate your interest on the housing application.

I'd like to piggyback on that 'cause one of the questions presented to us before the web and R began was what is best about the engineering program, and I'd like to chime in on this and then offer up for Jeff and Kate to add in, but from my perspective one of the things that that is best is the large school opportunities at the University provides, but then the small sense of community that you can find and the first semester black initiative is just one example of how we help to develop a sense of community.

There's lots of pockets of community that you can find based on whatever interests. You might have whether it's getting involved in our student clubs whether it's other academic clubs or other interests that you have whether they're connected to engineering and computer science or other things, so there's a lot of opportunity at the University. So our size gives us that opportunity and the ability for you to find your way to make connections.

Students can contact me at collinsk@buffalo.edu if they'd like to know how to connect with their advisor. Another option is to send an email to you be engineer at buffalo.edu. Doesn't matter to me which you're more comfortable with, but were available all summer long to connect with you. So you heard Kate described the pre registration process that will be going through to get registered for fall. But if you have questions as a follow up to this seminar.

Or you know these other questions with regards to maybe taking a summer course, then please do reach out to us.