<p>I know that the College of Engineering admits students to the specific degree program. (I knew nothing about it until they admitted me, and I wrote Mechanical Engineering for the application.) If I want to change my major to EECS (I have read this site Change</a> of Major — UC Berkeley College of Engineering), do I have to "pretend" that I'm majoring in Mechanical Engineering for the 1st semester, after which I'll apply for a change in major.</p>
<p>Does anyone know about the chances, given that I would keep good enough grades? In addition, what courses do freshmen take for the first semester? Only core courses required for all UC Berkeley CoE students or lower division courses specific to the major? If the chances are high enough and I am not forced to take lower division courses specific to Mechanical Engineering. I think I'll be fine.</p>
<p>I applied and was accepted as a Bioengineering student last year, but in January of this year I applied for a change of major to EECS and it was approved in a couple weeks and I officially become an EECS student in early February. Basically as long as you’re in the College of Engineering and you’re GPA isn’t low (I’m defining low as a technical GPA lower than a 3.0), then you should have no problems having your change of major approved. Just make sure you take EECS lower div courses in the Fall when you come here and do well in them (A’s and B’s, preferrably A’s).</p>
<p>PS: I’m a freshman in his second semester at Cal</p>
<p>Math and Physics courses are common among various engineering majors. However, EECS majors should take CS 61A and 61B starting first or at latest second semester (these courses are not required for other engineering majors, which require Engineering 7 instead).</p>
<p>The first semester has only one course that is not fully consistent with both majors, allowing you to start as a Mech Engineering student and transfer to EECS. </p>
<p>Chem 1A which is highly suggested for Fall semester serves as one of the approved courses to fulfil the EECS science electives requirement, thus it counts. </p>
<p>Both programs strongly suggest taking Math 1A and the Reading and Composition A class in Fall. </p>
<p>The only difference is that ME suggests E10 as your remaining Fall course, while EECS suggests CS61A. E10 is not a pre-req for many other courses, as far as I can see (not being that familiar with CoE), while CS61A is a pre-req to several other early CS courses in the EECS stream. </p>
<p>Thus, you have two relatively safe choices for Fall semester if you will enter as ME but transfer after the first semester - take CS61A for sure, but you could either take R&C A, postponing EE10 until later, or take E10 and postpone R&C A until later. perhaps some CoE students can comment on the relative sanity of Math 1A, Chem 1A, CS61A and E10 compared to Math 1A, Chem 1A, CS61A and R&C A for the first semester. </p>
<p>However, as your technical coursework GPA will be a factor in whether the change of major is approved or not, the option that involves R&C A as the fourth course, a non-technical one, permits you to prioritize your studies and resulting grades in the other three.</p>
<p>The OP did say in another thread that s/he has a 5 in AP Calculus BC (i.e. can skip Math 1A and 1B and go to Math 53 and/or 54) and a 5 in AP Chemistry (credit for Chemistry 1A). The OP will also be taking AP English Literature and Physics C. The OP also has various AP credit that will count for two lower division humanities or social studies for engineering majors’ breadth requirements.</p>
<p>So if the OP comes to Berkeley for engineering, the first semester will likely be:</p>
<p>Math 53
Physics 7A (or 7B if s/he gets a 5 on AP Physics C Mechanics and chooses to use it)
CS 61A (assuming intent to switch to EECS)
R&C A (or B if s/he gets a 4 on AP English Literature) or E10</p>
<p>So there will be breathing room between ME and EECS. However, in the other thread, the OP also mentioned trying to double major with Business, which would eliminate the breathing room in the schedule, if it is even doable.</p>