Transfer Students

Ohio State’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions is the primary resource for the application process and handles enrollment for undergraduate students into the College of Engineering. The College of Engineering does not review applications for admission to the university.

Learn more about applying to Ohio State

Transfer students

All transfer students must indicate one of the 14 Engineering majors on their undergraduate admission application to The Ohio State University. All incoming transfer students are enrolled in the pre-major program regardless of prior academic experience. Ohio State’s engineering curriculum is highly sequential, and in many situations cannot be condensed. Most transfer students in the College of Engineering should anticipate completing three to four years of coursework at Ohio State regardless of prior academic experience.

Students interested in: Aerospace Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering (ENG) / Computer and Information Science (ASC), Mechanical Engineering, must indicate one of these majors on the Common Application. The college is unable to accommodate students changing into these programs.

Before you transfer, focus on completing critical sequential coursework listed below. Please use the Transferology website as a resource for determining transfer equivalencies.

Students should remain at their previous institution to complete these admission requirements to be admitted into one of these pre-majors as a transfer student. Students that transfer to Ohio State into a different academic program will not have the opportunity to change into one of these programs after starting at Ohio State.

As pre-majors, students will:

complete foundational coursework that includes the Fundamental of Engineering course sequence, calculus and, for most majors, physics and/or chemistry.
select and apply to three majors of interest during the semester that eligibility courses are completed, which can occur during the second semester of enrollment or during the second year.

All admitted transfer students enter the College of Engineering as pre-majors. Enrollment is competitive. For students transferring from another institution of higher education:

If you have fewer than 30 semester credit hours, you will be considered under the criteria for new students in Engineering as described in the previous sections.
If you have more than 30 semester credit hours and a GPA at your previous institution of 3.0 or higher, and have completed college-level calculus, you will be directly enrolled as a pre-major in the program of your choice. You may not enter as an undeclared pre-major.
If you have more than 30 semester credit hours, but do not meet the 3.0 GPA OR credit for Math 1151 or equivalent, you will be enrolled in Science, Technology and the Environment Exploration.

Note: If you are admitted, but do not meet the above listed criteria at the time your application was reviewed you will be admitted to the University Exploration Program. If you will meet the criteria after your final transcript is received and math credit is evaluated, then you can be enrolled as a pre-major into the College of Engineering. You will need to contact Undergraduate Admissions (614-292-3980) after we receive your final transcript and/or math credit evaluation. 

Admission information and criteria for transfer students

International transfer students will be reviewed as an engineering pre-major of the student’s choice based on the criteria listed below. International students may not enter as an engineering undeclared pre-major.

If you have fewer than 30 semester credit hours, you will be considered under the criteria for new students in Engineering.
If you have more than 30 semester credit hours (or the equivalent), then you must have:  
A minimum GPA of a 3.0 or higher from previous institutions, and

Earned a score of L (Calculus level) on the Math Placement Exam or have completed college-level theoretical calculus (business calculus coursework does not qualify).

International transfer students admissions information

The Application to major process

Students interested in pursuing one of the pre-major programs or wanting to switch their major will need to submit an application to major. Students will select and apply to three majors of interest (ranked in order of preference), during the semester that eligibility courses are completed, which generally occurs during the second semester of enrollment. The process requires students to verify their coursework and respond to a few short essay prompts (about 250 words each). Students will address their interest in the three selected majors, their experiences working with teams, and their life experiences influencing their desire to pursue engineering.

Once final grades are available at the end of the semester, applications will undergo a program review. Applications will be reviewed in the order of the their preferred major choices. For example, if a student's preference is Mechanical, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, their application will be reviewed by Mechanical first, followed by Electrical and Computer Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering if necessary.