Change of College/Major (Junior Transfer)

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
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<p>Hey everyone....I am in desperate need of help as it will probably decide what I do for 2 years at Berkeley.</p>

<p>I am a transfer student to the College of Chemistry as a ChemE/NE double major. I wanted to major in this field because I wanted to learn about producing electrical energy through nuclear reactions. I have my personal statement to prove this. Unfortunately, while I was at my CC, I wanted to major in Nuclear Engineering but my CC counselor mentioned that NE's don't really have many job opportunities and she mentioned me to double with ChemE. I took her advice and never really researched myself for any other available degrees. </p>

<p>However, as I came to my CalSO, I had found out that the College of Engineering offers a double major in EECS/NE which combines the traditional EE program with NE. It says that they focus mainly on electrical generation. Since I did not know about the various double majors offered (it is not listed under assist.org), I had no clue that EECS/NE was offered when I applied. Also, I did not know which UC I would end up at so it was not like I was looking at every Engineeirng Announcement for every UC I applied to. Therefore, I had tried to talk to McLaughlin Hall to petiton before the semester because I have completed all of the lower division requirements for EECS/NE and can graduate on time if I don't have to take any ChemE courses this semester. Unfortunately, they are telling me that I would have to petiton on February 15th of next year in which I would have to satisfy ChemE/NE and EECS/NE requirements in 1 year (so I cannot delay graduation if petition is successful). </p>

<p>Yet, the bad news is that I would have to take EECS 40 instead of EECS 100. If my petition is not successful, then I would be 1 unit short for the engineering requirement and I would have to take a whole other course to satisfy that missing unit. Also, my advisors mentioned to me that junior transfers are almost never able to change their college/major once admitted. She mentioned that I would be taking a HUGE RISK if I try to petition for a college/major change since I cannot delay graduation if I do pursue EECS/NE. Therefore, if you were in my position, what would you do? Please, I am in desperate need of advice. Thanks for reading my concerns.</p>

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<p>bump.......</p>

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<p>I think for one that you will get where you want to be with your Current major... you can specialize in grad school.</p>

<p>EE-CS 40 Does satisfy both Requirements, so take that one. I doubt you will get EECS later, though. I do not, however, see this as life or death for you.</p>

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<p>thanks chemeng. Is it true that EECS will just reject me because I am a junior transfer? Also, if I do have a BS in ChemE, can I go to graduate school as an EECS major? It makes more sense to have a BS in EECS than to have a BS in ChemE.</p>

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<p>Well, look. I know a guy who's doing MIT grad school in Civil Engineering, but his undergrad was in biology. Yeah, that's right, biology. Granted, that biology degree was from Harvard, but still, it's a quite extreme change of pace, you must agree. I know plenty of other people who switched from one engineering discipline to another as they progressed into graduae school. </p>

<p>Personally, I think you should just continue with the program you are in. The fact is, the choice of your major really doesn't matter all that much in terms of getting a job. Seriously. What companies care about is your work experience (as demonstrated by things like co-ops and summer internships) and your overall knowledge base, rather than on what specific degrees you have. And the truth is, a lot of what you need to know to do a job, you don't have to learn in a classroom. Instead, you can just get the books and read them yourself. </p>

<p>Your choice of major matters a bit more when you're talking about graduate school, but even then, not as much as a lot of people think it does. Again, plenty of people change disciplines. True, not a lot of people change so radically as to move from bio to Civil Engineering, but a switch from ChemE to EE is quite feasible.</p>