cs1 or aph/ee 9?

pinkbunny101 · 09-01-2009, 10:09 AM

Hi, I will be a freshman leaning towards EE major at caltech and was hoping people here can answer a few of my questions.

Unfortunately, the only programming experience I've had, is learning some IDL for research
and some java for fun. How much programming experience in C language (or any other language) is needed for EE classes, such as EE/CS 51 and EE/CS 52?

Should I take CS 1 first term and then follow up with CS 11 in C later on? Or can I do well in EE classes simply by going through some textbooks on programming and practicing the exercises on my own during the summer?

At this point I find myself choosing to take either CS 1 first term or APH/EE 9 first term, and I don't know which one is more essential to take first. They offer APH 9 (the two-term lab course) to freshman now, and I think if I don't take this freshman year I would have too many courses stacked up in my sophomore and junior years. Plus, I've never had a formal EE lab course before, so this would help me decide whether EE is right for me.

However, I am still worried about my lack of programming experience, and I am reluctant to take CS 1 and APH 9 both at the same time first term. I've been warned about taking 6 classes at one time.

Thanks!

lizzardfire · 09-01-2009, 04:14 PM

Well, APh 9 is required for Electrical Engineering, whereas CS1 is not. No experience in C is required for EE51 or EE52.

I personally don't think CS1 is all that useful for EEs, although they've revamped it, so who knows.

I'm an APh9 TA so I can definitely answer any questions you have on that front, and I'm also a senior in EE.

pinkbunny101 · 09-02-2009, 12:38 AM

thanks for the help!
i also have a few other questions...
1) are EE design projects and labs relatively do-able (not impossible)
for people who have little previous experience? i've never worked with electronics in labs before and am sort of worried.
2) how is the overall workload for EE?
3) are TAs helpful in terms of labs if people get stuck?

pinkbunny101 · 09-02-2009, 01:48 AM

4) how much programming is required that EE majors do in projects and design labs?
is there generally enough time to learn that in the duration of the course?
5)do a lot of people switch out from EE at caltech (change their major)?

lizzardfire · 09-02-2009, 05:39 AM

1) Most people who come into EE don't have previous experience in electronics labs. The labs can be quite difficult, but they will be difficult for most of the people taking them.
2) EE is one of the hardest majors at Caltech. My personal guess is that the only harder major is ChemE. It's very time intensive and a lot of people switch out of EE.
3) Depends on the lab and depends on the individual TA. Don't expect TAs to do your work for you and you'll be fine.
4) Not much in required labs. You'll learn x86 assembly and that's about it unless you want to learn more.
5) Yes.

pinkbunny101 · 09-03-2009, 12:30 AM

again, thanks a bunch for the replies!
i was also wondering
1) how easy or difficult is it get a surf in engineering?
2) can engineering majors try doing surfs in other areas as well, say if someone is also interested in giving bio/cns research a try, is that possible?
3) can you go into greater detail, explaining the difficulties of EE? time intensive = labs generally take longer time than given to finish?
because for some things like proofs in mv-calc i can stare at a problem for a long time and still have no clue where to start. is ee like that? sorry, if this question is a bit vague...

Kamikazewave · 09-03-2009, 01:53 AM

1. Not too difficult. Just start contacting profs early. Might be slightly more difficult frosh year.
2. Yes.
3. I'm not in EE, but from what I gather, EE labs usually just take a long time to complete, and you might spend some time redoing stuff etc. In stuff like math, there are some people who can breeze through sets, but I've never heard of someone doing that in EE. Hope that helps.

I take it you haven't arrived on campus yet. You can find answers to these questions pretty easily once you arrive here, and you'll have events to meet up with profs etc (keep their contact info in case you need them for SURFS

).

You'll still have plenty of time to decide on classes once you arrive at Caltech.

lizzardfire · 09-03-2009, 05:09 AM

EE has a lot of hard classes, and a lot of classes that take a lot of time, and some of these classes fall in both categories. For example, I've had classes that were rated for 12 units (meaning 12 hours a week) that took on average 25 hours a week for me, and I was not anywhere near the slowest.

It's true that very few people breeze through EE.

I mean, I could post pages and pages about EE, but really, it doesn't matter that much, you'll find out when you get here.