<p>I am a mechanical engineering major with an interest in robotics/mechatronics. However, I’m starting to realize that I might not be able to do a double major in EE unless if I want to push my graduation to 5 years (4.5 years is the max for me).</p>
<p>The graduate program at University of Iowa vaguely told me that admissions of non-EE majors will “depend on what EE courses they took”.</p>
<p>As long as the academic requirements (GPA,GRE, etc.) are met, the majority of colleges would accept non EE’s into their masters program given they have certain Electrical Engineering prerequisites. I’d say the miniumum courses in most colleges would be DC and AC circuit Anaysis (typically two different courses), Electronics, Electromagnetic Field Theory, Digital Systems and a first course in Signals and Systems. Then there are prerequisites for what you are specializing in (in your case I assume robotics). So you would probably need at least a first course in Control Systems and a course in Microcomputer/Embedded Systems (Typically 2 courses). </p>
<p>I plan on taking (at University of Iowa):</p>
<p>-Intro to Digital Design
-Electronic Circuits
-Linear System I
-Embedded sys. and software
-Controls System
-Controls Theory (grad level)
-Computer-Based Control Systems (grad level)</p>
<p>Core EE courses that I will be skipping:</p>
<p>-Electromagnetic Theory
-Linear System II
-Communication System</p>
<p>You should have a pretty solid base in EE. You MAY need Electromagnetics though since most grad programs require an advanced course in it. However, you could possibly get permission to skip that prereq once you are grad level. .</p>
<p>Oh, and I’m also suppose to take these courses as well for a bachelor major in EE:</p>
<p>-EE materials and devices (mainly transistor designs/manufacturing)
-Principles of Electrical Engineering Design</p>
<p>I’m not sure if they’re willing to overlook skipping five courses, especially Linear Sys. II (required for communication system and all other signal processing courses, control courses only require Linear Sys I).</p>
<p>You should be able to get away without having the devices course (unless you wanted to study Optoelectronics and Physical phenomena in grad school). What does your Electrical Engineering Design class consist of? Is that just Electronic design (Diodes, BJTs, MOSFETs, etc.)? Depending on the school, you may not need any communication courses for grad school (again, unless you want to pursue that route).</p>
<p>Almost all graduate programs will accept non-majors as students. I have not yet heard of a program in ANY field that actually rejected non-majors. I have been in grad EE programs with non-EE majors, some of whom had no intention of being in EE until shortly before they applied, and they got in!</p>
<p>As to what courses they require, there is no one answer to that! The issue is that the coursework you need depends very much on the specific thrust of your grad research. Specifically, they want you to get to that research as quickly as possible, and if that is substantially delayed by you not knowing what a “transistor” is, then that’s a problem!</p>
<p>You don’t need to take the full EE undergraduate load. You don’t need to take most of it. You need to take those specific undergraduate courses that are required for the grad courses you will take, the courses that actually have the content needed in your research. If you are not doing work on E&M (like antenna design, or computational physics), you don’t need an advanced E&M course - that freshman/sophomore course will be fine. Want to know what courses you DO need? Best thing to do is email some prospective advisors and ask them what courses they want to see - most will ignore you, but some should get back with a list.</p>
<p>And if you don’t have ALL the courses, it’s not that big of a deal. Remember that grad admissions is holistic - there are very few automatic admit/reject criteria. Instead the amount of “remedial” coursework you need is factored in along with your GPA and recommendations and whether or not you like the same basketball team as your prospective advisor. If you are a couple of courses behind where you should be, that is not generally a big deal. If you are a semester behind, you better significantly outpace the competition in most other areas. If you are a year behind, you better walk on water. Or have courtside season tickets to the Lakers.</p>
<p>^ Listen to cosmicfish, he can answer this question better than I can. With that being said, you should be well prepared for robotics with the EE courses you plan on taking (Controls and embedded). </p>
<p>I plan on primarily taking controls/automation EE courses. I am able to take Controls Theory and Computer-Based Control Systems as a mechanical undergrade, but my university’s graduate college WILL NOT count those towards a MS degree and WILL require me to take those again.</p>
<p>They won’t accept graduate level courses that were taken during undergraduate years until after successfully applying for graduate school during the second-semester junior year. And if I’m accepted, only the courses taken during the senior year will count.</p>
<p>If I decide to go into the industry and delay my MS by a few years, then the university graduate college won’t accept graduate-level courses that were taken during the senior year.</p>
<p>What grade are you in now? You should have plenty of time to worry about that later on. Either way, a class or two transfering isn’t a big deal. If your school has a fast track program for a MS you could always do that.</p>
<p>I’m a sophomore.</p>
<p>The 1-year MS program (joint BS/MS) requires the applicant to have a bachelors in the same field. I asked if I could apply for exceptions but I was told it was only given on very rare cases.</p>
<p>
That sounds like a reasonable idea. I would not go overboard, just try to get the basics down for now. A lot of undergrads make the mistake of placing too much emphasis on specific coursework, it is really a smaller part of admissions and success at the grad level than you would think.</p>
<p>
Joint programs like that are kind of a special case, because it is all the same program! I don’t normally recommend that kind of program, because you are usually better served by spending more time on your grad studies. Remember also that your interests may still change - mine did, and many others see the same!</p>
<p>Regardless, don’t get too hung up on being able to double-count courses for grad/undergrad. There is no special prize for rushing through things faster, and taking extra courses is more likely to help you than it is to hurt you. Also consider that as an engineering student you should really be trying for a funded grad degree, and it makes sense to delay coursework until someone else is paying for it.</p>
<p>Well, I suppose I could proceed with the “robotics/mechatronics” technical elective focus area (not bother with a second major or “official” certificate(s)) and then work for a company that has a policy of paying for part of employees’ MS degrees.</p>