Changing Your Major to Computer Science
Computer science applicants will encounter universities with greatly differing program-specific admissions policies. Certain schools such as Carnegie Mellon, Northeastern, and UCLA allow high school students to be directly admitted into their CS program, while other schools require freshmen to first complete a number of entry-level courses with a minimum GPA prior to being admitted into the major. Given how incredibly competitive entry into CS programs is today, teens should be aware of the initial barriers to entry and鈥攆or those eying a backdoor route into a given program鈥攖he level of ease with which one can later internally transfer into a computer science major.
The table below provides this important information for a number of top-ranked computer science programs. Column headers are defined below:
Direct Admit聽– Indicates whether prospective undergraduates can be admitted directly into a computer science major.
Prerequisites聽– Links to the institutional webpage that details requirements for transferring into a computer science major.
Minimum Progress聽– Indicates the minimum number of credits, semesters, or quarters needed to transfer into a computer science major.
Minimum GPA聽– Indicates the minimum GPA one must possess to be considered for admission into a computer science major. At most institutions, earning the minimum GPA does not guarantee admission.
顿颈蹿蹿颈肠耻濒迟测听– An ordinal rating (from “Less” to “Very”) indicating how difficult it is to transfer into a computer science major.
More Info聽– Links to an institutional webpage providing more detail about how current students can transfer into a computer science major. If there is no additional info beyond what is provided in the institutions “Prerequisites” page, links for “Prerequisites” and “More Info” are identical.
*At institutions where there is no direct admission, requirements for declaring/moving into a computer science major are indicated.聽
Table updated October 2025
For institutions with an asterisk (*), click the + sign for additional information
| Institution | Prerequisites | Direct Admit | Minimum Progress | Minimum GPA | Difficulty | More Info | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 104151 | ASU | Arizona State University - Tempe* | Yes | 12 credits | 3.0 | Moderate-to-Very | Application process is competitive (those meeting requirements are not guaranteed entry) | |||
| 164988 | BU | Boston University | Yes | 12 credits | 2.7 | Less-to-Moderate | ||||
| 217156 | Brown University | No | None | None | Less | |||||
| 110404 | California Institute of Technology | No | None | None | Less | |||||
| 110422 | California Polytechnic State University | Yes | 1 quarter/2 courses | 3.0 | Very | |||||
| 211440 | Carnegie Mellon University* | Yes | 6 courses | 3.0 | Very | Application process is competitive (those meeting requirements are not guaranteed entry) | ||||
| 201645 | Case Western Reserve University | No | None | None | Less | |||||
| 190150 | Columbia University in the City of New York* | No | None | None | Less | CS major offered in both Columbia College, General Studies, and School of Engineering and Applied Science | ||||
| 190415 | Cornell University* | Yes | 2 semesters/10 courses | 2.0 | Moderate | CS major offered in both College of Engineering and College of Arts and Sciences | ||||
| 182670 | Dartmouth College | No | 2 courses | None | Less | |||||
| 198419 | Duke University | No | 3 courses | None | Less | |||||
| 139755 | Georgia Tech | Georgia Institute of Technology* | Yes | 12 credits/2 courses | 3.0 | Very | Application process is competitive (those meeting requirements are not guaranteed entry) | |||
| 166027 | Harvard University | No | None | None | Less | |||||
| 115409 | HMC | Harvey Mudd College | No | None | None | Less | ||||
| 151351 | IU Bloomington | Indiana University - Bloomington* | Yes | 12 credits | 2.3 to 2.5 | Less-to-Moderate | CS major offered in both Luddy School and the College of Arts and Sciences | |||
| 162928 | JHU | Johns Hopkins University | No | None | None | Less | ||||
| 166683 | MIT | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | No | None | None | Less | ||||
| 193900 | NYU | New York University | Yes | 1 course | 2.0 | Less | ||||
| 199193 | NC State | North Carolina State University at Raleigh* | Yes | 12 credits/10 courses | 2.0 | Very | Application process is competitive (those meeting requirements are not guaranteed entry) | |||
| 167358 | Northeastern University | Yes | 2 courses | 2.0 | Less-to-Moderate | |||||
| 147767 | Northwestern University* | No | None | None | Less | CS major offered in both McCormick School of Engineering and Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences | ||||
| 204796 | OSU | Ohio State University - Main Campus* | Yes | - | - | - | Current students are no longer permitted to switch to Computer Science and Engineering; Must be directly admitted to pre-CSE | |||
| 214777 | Penn State | Pennsylvania State University - Main Campus* | No | 29 credits/5 courses | 2.6 to 3.2 | Moderate-to-Very | Application process is competitive (those meeting requirements are not guaranteed entry) | |||
| 186131 | Princeton University | No | 4 - 11 courses | None | Less | |||||
| 243780 | Purdue University - Main Campus* | Yes | 12 credits/5 courses | 2.75 | Very | Application process is competitive (those meeting requirements are not guaranteed entry); Priority is given to eligible students with the strongest grades in CS18000, Calculus, and overall GPA | ||||
| 194824 | RPI | Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | Yes | 2 courses | 3.0 | Moderate | ||||
| 227757 | Rice University | No | None | None | Less | |||||
| 195003 | RIT | Rochester Institute of Technology* | Yes | 1 semester/1 course | 3.0 | Moderate-to-Very | Application process is competitive (those meeting requirements are not guaranteed entry) | |||
| 186380 | Rutgers University - New Brunswick | No | 5 courses | 2.0 | Less-to-Moderate | |||||
| 243744 | Stanford University | No | None | None | Less | |||||
| 196097 | Stony Brook University* | Yes | 3 courses | 3.0 | Very | Application process is competitive (those meeting requirements are not guaranteed entry) | ||||
| 228723 | TAMU | Texas A&M University - College Station* | Yes | 26 credits/7 courses | 3.5 | Very | Application process is competitive (those meeting requirements are not guaranteed entry) | |||
| 228778 | UT Austin | The University of Texas at Austin* | Yes | 24 credits/3 courses | 3.0 | Moderate-to-Very | Application process is competitive (those meeting requirements are not guaranteed entry) | |||
| 110635 | UC Berkeley | University of California - Berkeley - College of Computing, Data Science, and Society* | Yes | 1 semester/2 courses | 2.0 | Very | For students who did not select CS as a major on their initial application, a comprehensive review will be required. | |||
| 110635 | UC Berkeley | University of California - Berkeley - College of Engineering* | Yes | - | - | - | Students accepted into colleges other than the College of Engineering will not be allowed to change to the College of Engineering to declare the EECS major | |||
| 110644 | UC Davis | University of California - Davis* | Yes | 7 courses | 3.0 | Moderate-to-Very | Application process is competitive (those meeting requirements are not guaranteed entry) | |||
| 110653 | UCI | University of California - Irvine | Yes | 9 courses | 2.7 | Moderate-to-Very | ||||
| 110662 | UCLA | University of California - Los Angeles* | Yes | 2 quarters/3 courses | 3.7 | Very | Application process is competitive (those meeting requirements are not guaranteed entry) | |||
| 445188 | UC Merced | University of California - Merced | Yes | 2 - 9 courses | 2.0 | Less-to-Moderate | ||||
| 110671 | UC Riverside | University of California - Riverside | Yes | 8 courses | 3.0 | Moderate | ||||
| 110680 | UC San Diego | University of California - San Diego* | Yes | 8 - 12 units | 2.0 | Very | Application process is competitive (those meeting requirements are not guaranteed entry) | |||
| 110705 | UC Santa Barbara | University of California - Santa Barbara* | Yes | 7 courses | 3.0 | Very | Application process is competitive (those meeting requirements are not guaranteed entry) | |||
| 110714 | UCSC | University of California - Santa Cruz* | No | - | - | - | Students are only able to declare a computer science major if they were admitted to UCSC as proposed computer science majors | |||
| 126614 | University of Colorado Boulder | Yes | 3 courses | 2.7 | Moderate | |||||
| 144050 | University of Chicago | No | None | None | Less | |||||
| 134130 | UF | University of Florida* | No | None | None | Less | CS offered in both the College of Engineering and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. | |||
| 145637 | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign* | Yes | 2 courses | 3.5 to 3.67 | Very | Mathematics & CS, Statistics & CS, and CS + X majors offered in College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; Cannot transfer into CS in College of Engineering | ||||
| 163286 | University of Maryland - College Park* | Yes | 3 courses | 3.0 | Very | Application process is competitive (those meeting requirements are not guaranteed entry) | ||||
| 166629 | U-M | University of Massachusetts - Amherst* | Yes | 2 courses | 3.0 | Very | Application process is competitive (those meeting requirements are not guaranteed entry) | |||
| 170976 | University of Michigan - Ann Arbor* | No | 24 credits/5 - 7 courses | 2.0 | Moderate-to-Very | Application process is competitive (those meeting requirements are not guaranteed entry); CS offered in the both the College of Engineering and the College of Literature, Science, and Arts | ||||
| 174066 | University of Minnesota - Twin Cities* | No | 5 - 7 courses | 3.0 to 3.2 | Moderate-to-Very | Application process is competitive (those meeting requirements are not guaranteed entry); CS offered in the both the College of Science and Engineering and the College of Liberal Arts | ||||
| 215062 | Penn | University of Pennsylvania | Yes | 8 courses | 3.0 | Moderate | ||||
| 215293 | Pitt | University of Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh Campus* | Yes | 24 credits/5 courses | 2.75 | Moderate-to-Very | Application process is competitive (those meeting requirements are not guaranteed entry) | |||
| 123961 | USC | University of Southern California* | Yes | 1 semester/3 courses | 3.0 | Moderate-to-Very | Application process is competitive (those meeting requirements are not guaranteed entry) | |||
| 234076 | UVA | University of Virginia - Main Campus* | Yes | 8 courses | 2.0 | Moderate | CS offered in the both the School of Engineering & Applied Science and the College of Arts & Sciences | |||
| 236948 | UW | University of Washington - Seattle Campus* | Yes | 30 credits/8 courses | None | Very | Application process is competitive (those meeting requirements are not guaranteed entry) | |||
| 240444 | University of Wisconsin - Madison | No | 3 courses | 2.25 | Less-to-Moderate | |||||
| 233921 | Virginia Tech | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | No | 5 courses | 3.5 | Moderate-to-Very | ||||
| 179867 | Washington University in St Louis | No | 1 semester/10 courses | 3.0 | Moderate | |||||
| 130794 | Yale University | No | None | None | Less |
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