It’s possible that EECS selects for the most competitive students. I also wonder if some students are attracted to EECS because it’s considered an elite program and has the reputation that its students make a lot of money.
My son is on the electric race car team, and the majority of students on that team are either mech E or EECS (mostly students interested in EE, but there are also CS focused EECS majors on the autonomous subteam, I believe). So he hangs out with people in these majors of all class levels, including a few graduate students. But he himself is just a first year student, so his impressions should be taken with a big grain of salt 
Anyway, this thread isn’t about EECS majors, the OP wanted to know about MSE specifically. So… I was just trying to give my son’s impressions of his first year experience so far as an MSE major. It’s been very positive and he loves it!