Starting Fall 2025, Berkeley is planning to offer a new Electrical and Computer Engineering Major.
Thus, the arc of CS enrollment bends inevitabily towards specialized majors: CS, EECS, and now ECE. With this change, COE can even more tightly manage enrollment and offer more specialized pathways optimized to student interest.
CS 61B - Data Structures is not a specifically required course but an approved ECE major breadth
CS 70 - discrete Math is not a specifically required course but an approved probability course
Math 51 and Math 52 become required lower div courses replacing Math 1A and Math 1B
EECS 16A and EECS 16B stay as required courses similar to EECS
The technical electives as expected focus on a lot of key EE courses
All in all its definitely a more focused major but I suspect people will stay want to take 61B even if they have mild interests in a CS career and I think may b very thankful they don’t have to take the annoying CS70 class.
@tamagotchi Curious to hear what EE oriented folks at Cal feel about this development.
hey do you know if it is possible to switch into this major. I got into berkeley for applied in letters and science. I did apply EE to other colleges, like UCSB and UCSC and got in, so I definitely do have an interest.
This major wasn’t on the application form so I’m just wondering if I could switch into it.
I don’t think anyone knows for sure but you should set up a counseling appointment and get info direct. My guess is there’s probably only a slim chance they would allow a change of school to transition to ECE because they still require 61A and 61C which are the same lower divs everybody is trying to get in on.
Perhaps the motivation is to allow students interested in EE not to have to compete for admission to the EECS major with the huge number of applicants focused on CS.
Math 1A and 1B have been renumbered by the math department as Math 51 and 52.
I think the suggested plan is probably not very applicable for a lot of COE kids. A significant chunk of them come with AP Calc credits which means they can waive Math 1A/1B - Math 51/52. It’s also pretty common to see PHYS 7A and 7B waived. So, while the suggested course plan tends to provide a very conservative approach for the median student they will likely take 16A/16B either freshman or sophomore year.
EE 16A and 16B list a prerequisite of Math 54, which is listed in semester 4. However, Math 54 can be taken after Math 52 (former 1B), so it can be moved to semester 3 to enable taking EE 16A and 16B in semester 4 in order to give more flexibility taking upper division EE courses in semesters 5-8 (instead of 6-8).
Of course, if the student has AP calculus credit, then the student can start in a course more advanced than Math 51. If the student comes in with a 5 on AP calculus BC, then starting in Math 54 is possible (but may require self-study of some introductory differential equations material), allowing EE 16A and/or 16B in semester 2.
Looks like the program is flexible enough that even taking EE 16A and 16B in semester 5 should still allow a student to graduate in 8 semesters.
UCB CoE allows waiving Physics 7A with a 5 on AP physics C mechanics, but does not allow waiving Physics 7B with high school exam credits, and does not allow IB or A-level physics to waive any physics courses, according to Exams - Berkeley Engineering . Taking calculus-based physics at a college while in high school would be accepted if articulated on https://assist.org .
I know there are accelerated course plans and students come with lot of credits. Just wondering why EECS four year plan has 16A/16B in freshman year while the new ECE majors has it in junior year.
My conjecture was that these courses do not do enough to interest students to go for EE and instead steer students towards CS track. So the department is trying to find ways to increase enrollment in EE by possibly pushing these courses to later years.
It seems that EE 16A and 16B now list Math 54 as a prerequisite, whereas it previously did not (and taught the needed linear algebra in the first part of 16A). Perhaps they have not updated the EECS major course plan to reflect that, but made the new ECE major course plan with that in mind.
It may be more like they want to get some EE students who would otherwise not be admitted into EECS due to fierce competition for admission to the EECS major by those focusing on CS. EE upper division courses have fairly small enrollments, so there is presumably some capacity there for more EE focused students.