<p>
Most of the top EE programs prefer to have students right out of undergrad (i.e. BS holders, not MS holders). A lot of stellar MS holders get rejected, even those that are as good as the universities’ own BS-holding admits who’ve progressed past MS stage. Why? Perhaps they prefer to catch them young and mold them. I don’t know. But this is the reality, and not just with Berkeley. Stanford seems to be the only major exception as they take in a lot of both BS and MS holders (and then weed out the weak ones with qualifying exams).</p>