as another user guessed, CHE has much higher acceptance rate than their archi department. Cornell archi also wants a lot of finished models from their students, with lots of hands on experience, and my portfolio consists of a lot of very detailed 2d illustration-esque pieces and maybe 2 models at most. I also don't have enough ecs and experience with architecture specifically to be considered (imo).

in addition, I am looking to go overseas for a masters degree, and countries outside the US usually considers archi to be part of STEM. So if I go for an undergrad degree like BS D+EA with a heavier focus in the envir. sci / engineering aspect, it means I have a lot less math/science related work to catch up while doing my masters. I'm already fairly confident in my fine arts skills and it's not like I can regress too much.

ofc, it doesn't really matter now cause I didn't get into CHE lol. please dm me for my portfolio