Change of Major within the College of Engineering

Engineering students who wish to change their major within the College of Engineering must contact the chairperson of the department in which they are interested. The Chair will arrange for the review of the student’s academic record and notify the student of the decision. The department will then notify the College of the change for its records. Students who are unsure of which major they would like to enroll in should arrange to meet with their academic advisor to discuss their options.

By university rule, a student who uses his/her PIN to register for courses that do not count toward a degree in Engineering will be notified by the Associate Dean of an inappropriate schedule. The student in this case will be dismissed from the COE at the end of the semester in which the discovery is made. That is, there can be an unconventional “try out another major” semester for a student, but (s)he will need to apply and be accepted in another college at Villanova to remain at Villanova. The normal procedure for a student who wishes to change a major from Engineering is to speak to a representative from the college of interest, then, if truly interested, apply and be accepted in the other college. The reason for this rule is clearly the negative impact on the tuition payer, coded college, university, and other constituents (even the student) when a student is not taking courses, as advised, to obtain an undergraduate degree in four years or less.

Change of College within Villanova University

Engineering students who wish to change their major to an area outside of engineering must apply for admission to the dean of the college offering that program.

Students who wish to change their major to Engineering from another college within the university, must contact the office of the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs in the College of Engineering. The procedure is to apply to Engineering by sending an email to the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs. In this note the student should indicate the major (Chemical, Civil, Computer, Electrical, or Mechanical) of interest. We will acknowledge receipt of the student’s request to transfer at the end of the month in which the request was received.  We will request the student’s file, consider his/her record, and notify the student of our decision by early December (in fall) or late April (in spring).

Note to incoming freshman students: To be fair to those who have applied to Engineering as high school students and were not accepted, we regret that we cannot accept a student who was accepted by another College and wants to transfer immediately to Engineering on entering campus in August. Since the acceptance criteria for each College clearly differ (Engineering looks for outstanding performance in HS science and math, whereas A&S, Nursing, and VSB may not, for example) all of us recognize a possible unfair advantage to this. Most importantly, there is not enough time for Engineering to consider the application and work through the acceptance process in the normal way without rushing to judgment.

Students in this situation can apply to Engineering as an internal transfer student in the fall (see the above procedure). We will consider their application based on high school record and performance at fall midterm, and advise them of our decision by early December. If accepted, they could start Engineering in the spring, or wait until the following fall.

VSB students wishing to transfer to Engineering, in particular, may use the opportunity to begin to build on a business minor, assuming they are accepted by Engineering. Other minors are possible for students wishing to transfer to Engineering from A&S or Nursing.