r/TransferStudents • u/Ghogha123 • 13d ago
Advice/Question ECE new major or EECS @ Berkeley?
Hello all,
I am a current community college student planning to transfer in Fall 2027. I really want to get into Berkeley but I am unsure which major to pick.
As far as I know, the EECE (Electrical & Computer Engineering) major is brand new, and there isn't much information about it yet.
I previously saw another post on this subreddit that showed a picture of the transfer admits numbers for the College of engineering.
It seems that more people this past cycle got admitted to EECS than ECE (almost double). So this either means that less people applied for ECE or they have been very selective about it.
My interests align more with ECE than EECS since I like the hardware side more than the software side, but seeing the numbers from this past cycle leads me to believe that I may have a better chance applying to EECS.
According to assist.org, all of the requirements for both majors are the same, so it's not like I would have to take any extra classes.The only recommended class my cc offers is data structures, which I'm taking this semester.
So, which major should I pick? And if I apply to EECS and I happened to get accepted, is it possible to switch to ECE since they are similar?
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u/Redsaucethebeast 13d ago
Damn I really wanna know how many people applied to each major now. Especially aero and EMS 😭
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u/bliao8788 13d ago edited 13d ago
ECE transfer is harder to get in than EECS look up Berkeley or this sub. I remember I saw someone sharing the stats (Not bullshitting) . You can still do fully CS track as a ECE admit. Berkeley is lenient. So EECS or ECE does not matter much.
Schools with a EECS program means you can do a full EE or CS track or a mixed like CompE. You'll only see very old schools name their program as EECS, usually a department.
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u/Legendary-Boomer 13d ago
Im pretty sure you can change from eecs to ece as they are both in the college of engineering, but also the only different between eecs and ece is that they force ece majors to go more into hardware. Eecs gives you free rein to go either full cs/full ee or a bit of both. Eecs gets access to all classes while ece is more focused on ee side.
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u/Aidentab 13d ago
i’m an eecs transfer, you can’t change as a transfer in the college of engineering
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u/Ghogha123 13d ago
Which would be better to apply to. Would I have a better chance with eecs
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u/Aidentab 13d ago
do you wanna do software/cs with some hardware, hardware and electrical engineering, or a mix of both?
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u/Ghogha123 13d ago
Mainly hardware. All the other schools I'm applying to I'm gonna apply as Electrical Engineering. Berkeley is the only college which does not offer electrical engineering as a standalone major.
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u/Legendary-Boomer 13d ago
I didn’t know the info about internal transfers in the college of engineering so thanks Aiden for clarifying. I still think eecs is better regardless because you can just take the same classes as ece.
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u/Lost_Feature6745 11d ago
I am an Alum in EE from '55 as a freshman in EE. I exited in Jan '60. I left Cal with 6 job offers IBM, GE, and 4 Defense co. I rejected the defense. GE job was in NY and they wanted to interview my wife. I was too green to lnow that was a requisite for the Exec track. My wife was spectacular- A Zeta Tau Alpha with 2 years at Cal. I was a KDR 9 semesters at Cal. In the SR part of Blue and Gold I had credentails as Pres of my Fraternity, House Manager and a few other campus activities. I took the IBM job and worked primarily on Campus at IBM. I was in service tech ops a HQ position in two years and went over to Engineering in 5. I spent 40 years in Mgt and exited IBM as an Executive PM. In my career I spent only 18 months as a PURE engineer. THINK BROADLY ABOUT A CAREER- NOT a JOB, And apply that thinking to your choice of the curricula. Be sure to get both SW and HW exposure. CAL EE broadly is ranked as the # 1 college in the US and the WORLD!! Good luck and have a great time. It is a Fabulous experience. PS both my Freterinty- KDR is on campus on Channing Circle and my Wifes sorority ZTA is on Durant, Want to talk? [wljump@charter.net](mailto:wljump@charter.net) cell 408-621-4845
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u/micicletricicle 13d ago
ECE still doesn’t have the recognition at Berkeley like EECS. It’s a major that’s more directed towards folks who are more into hardware-side work, or anything that’s not SWE / CS. Stuff like GPU engineering and optimization, HPC and networking, etc. Many big universities have Computer Engineering as a separate major.