Hello, I’ll be a CoE freshman at Cal this year. I’m admitted for Material Science and Engineering, but I’d like to switch majors to either Mechanical or EECS.
Any information you can provide regarding the respective difficulties, career prospects, internship/co-op/research opportunities, and course selection would be massively appreciated!
@HaWeeb that seems like a very broad question. Perhaps you can narrow it down to one of those topics. Say course selection for example. What classes did you have in mind?
https://engineering.berkeley.edu/academics/majors/change-major
Change of major is competitive, and EECS is probably very difficult to get into (although if you want to study CS, earning a 3.3 GPA in CS 61A, 61B, 70 means that you can change to L&S and then declare L&S CS instead).
Regarding course selection, what AP credit do you have? See https://engineering.berkeley.edu/academics/undergraduate-guide/exams for what courses AP credit can fulfill, and https://tbp.berkeley.edu/courses/ for old final exams so that you can check your knowledge on the UCB courses that you may be able to skip with AP credit.
The following are suggested schedules for MSE, ME, and EECS, but they assume no AP credit. If you have AP credit, you may be able to start in more advanced courses and/or free some elective space in your schedule (the extra elective space can allow you to take courses for ME and/or EECS that are not in the MSE course plan).
https://engineering.berkeley.edu/academics/undergraduate-guide/degree-requirements/mse
https://engineering.berkeley.edu/academics/undergraduate-guide/degree-requirements/me
https://engineering.berkeley.edu/academics/undergraduate-guide/degree-requirements/eecs
@ProfessorPlum168 I’m thinking Math 53, Physics 7A, CS 61A, and a R&C course.
@ucbalumnus I thought change of major within the CoE was supposed be fairly easy as long as your GPA is solid?
AP wise, I have:
Calc BC 5
Physics 1 4
Physics 2 5
Microeconomics 5
Macroeconomics 4
Can you comment on the difficulty of EECS relative to ME?
Regarding your AP credit:
5 on calculus BC: you can skip Math 1A and 1B, but note that there is some introductory differential equations material in 1B that you should self-study before taking Math 54. You may want to try the old final exams for Math 1A and 1B to check your knowledge.
Physics 1 and 2: no useful subject credit.
Economics micro and macro: you can skip Economics 1 if you wish to take a course which lists Economics 1 as a prerequisite.
@HaWeeb that’s a fairly challenging course schedule, but not impossible by any means. CoE advising will advise you to only take 3 classes and a DeCal the first semester, but the decision rests upon you and many wind up doing the normal 4 without issues.
CS 61A will be enjoyable (but difficult) because Prof DeNero is teaching it this semester. Yildiz is excellent from what I heard for 7A if that’s who you got.
@ucbalumnus yeah I’m probably only going to use the Calculus credit. I don’t think EECS requires Math 54 though. I forgot to mention, I have taken first year chemistry at a local university, how do I get credit for that?
@ProfessorPlum168 which 3 courses would you recommend, and how do I choose DeCals? For CS 61A do you mean the grading will be strict, or the content will be difficult?
@HaWeeb - for EECS instead of Math 54 you should take EE 16A and EE 16B.
If you requested a transcript now from the university where you took your courses to be sent to Berkeley, the credits should be applied sometime in September.
For DeCals, go to DeCal.berkeley.edu. Usually the full list of classes won’t be available until just before the semester starts.
My kid was able to skip both R&C classes and he is taking a Math 53 equivalent at a CCC this summer so I have no recommendations for your other 2 classes. Personally I feel most Berkeley students are mature enough to handle 4 classes right off the bat, but I’ll leave the decision to you and others. You should talk to an advisor or two about scheduling. A lot of EECS and L&S CS wannabes do take CS 61A and EE 16A together if they’ve skipped both Math 1A and 1B. My kid’s experience was that it wasn’t too bad, both are medium load classes.
CS 61A can be a really fast paced class. The topics, especially once recursion starts being introduced, comes in one after another really quickly and a lot of the topics run way deeper than you’ve probably encountered. You won’t find many professors better than DeNero though. I highly recommend going thru the course materials that is available online thoroughly for the rest of the summer in preparation for the class. First midterm literally will be like the end of the 3rd week. I would say the grading is not that strict for this class, the class is not curved as is the case with many other Berkeley classes, meaning that if you get a 90+ average, you’ll get some sort of A. But just like most classes at Berkeley you’ll have earned your A if you do get one.
It would be helpful if your college chemistry course covers CHEM 1A, 1AL, 1B.
If you want to try to determine your interest between MSE, ME, and EECS / L&S CS, you may want to consider some of the following:
In theory, you could take all of the above plus PHYSICS 7A for 16 units. However, that would likely be a very high workload, since all of the courses have labs (a lab can add time commitment almost as much as a regular lecture/discussion course). So you may want to take two of the above and two non-lab courses (e.g. MATH 53, R&C course, other H/SS course that does not have a big term project, etc.).
@ProfessorPlum168 you said “for EECS instead of Math 54 you should take EE 16A and EE 16B“, but Math 54 is not a requirement, did you mean Math 53? And for EE 16A and 16B, I should take 16A in first semester and 16B in second semester right? For the DeCals, do I need to declare it on enrollment day? How did your child skip both the R&C courses, did he have AP credit or equivalent uni/CC course credit already? Finally, is this the correct link for the CS 61A materials? https://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs61a/reader/vol1.html
@ucbalumnus I’m pretty certain I don’t want to do MSE, and I’ve done 3 CAD courses in highschool so I think I have an idea of what ME will be like, so I just want to try CS. In your experience, is it better to do 3 courses and a DeCal or is 4 courses not too bad?
@HaWeeb he was able to skip the R&C classes because he’s in L&S and he got a 5 in AP Literature.
For all CS majors, the 2 EE 16 A/B classes are a replacement for the Linear Algebra class Math 54.
The DeCals you can pretty much enroll at any time. I’m not sure how many will even be available when it is your turn to register.
@ProfessorPlum168 I’m afraid I’m a little confused, EECS’s math requirements are Math 1A, Math 1B, Math 53, and then CompSci 70. ELENG 16A and 16B are under the Engineering courses. https://engineering.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/docs/eecs-worksheet-2019.pdf
@HaWeeb back a few years ago the EECS department was getting too many people using different classes to apply for Linear Algebra credit. So they streamlined it such that the EE 16A and EE 16B classes, which are Systems Design classes with a lot of applied Linear Algebra content, would be the one used for the Linear Algebra requirement.
If you took Linear Algebra at a different school they may take it to replace EE16A, but you would still need to take EE16B plus be responsible for learning on your own an circuit design stuff that you would have missed in EE16A.
That worksheet that you posted shows the 2 classes in a Engineering bucket, but the 2 classes are more like a half math class/half circuit design class.
https://cs61a.org/ has the CS 61A materials.
In terms of number of courses and workload, my experience was that about 5-6 regular (3-4 unit) “courses” in a semester was doable, but any course that has both a lecture/discussion component and any of the following counts as two “courses” for this purpose: lab, large term project (including humanities and social studies courses as well as engineering courses), computer programming assignments (and probably art studio and music performance). Any course on a subject that you find especially difficult could also be higher workload, so you may want to count that as two “courses”.
Also, note that some departments offering R&C courses have pages giving the instructors’ themes and reading lists. You may find R&C courses more enjoyable and easier if you choose those where the reading lists look more interesting to you. For example:
https://english.berkeley.edu/course_semesters/44
https://history.berkeley.edu/courses/undergraduate (not yet updated to fall 2019, since it shows spring 2019)
http://sseas.berkeley.edu/courses (the R5A courses)
@ProfessorPlum168 ah ok, so basically I have an extra math course to take lol. Thanks!
@ucbalumnus thanks for the link! For R&C courses, do I just Google the course name + “reading list”?
Here’s the full list of the R&C Part 1 classes offered for Fall:
You can try that, or looking at the department web pages for the departments offering the R&C courses. However, not all departments have reading lists for each section of R&C courses.
@ProfessorPlum168 thanks!
@ucbalumnus ohh I see. You said “any course that has both a lecture/discussion component and any of the following counts as two “courses”, but don’t all courses have both lecture and discussion sections?
Most courses have lecture and/or discussion; some of these also have lab. A few courses are lab only. There are also a few other categories like independent study, field work, etc…
So would a lecture + discussion + lab course be considered 2 or 3 “courses”?
And which 3 or 4 courses would you recommend me take for EECS?