<p>Hi everyone, I was admitted as a Chemical Engineering Major under the department of Chemistry. My question is: How difficult and competetive is the engineering program? Can you get by with just good intuition, or do you really have to bust your ass to get good grades? Do the classes focus on solving a wide range of problems with a few principles, or do they focus on memorizing and fact recall? Any shared experiences would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Also, since chemical engineering is under the chemistry department, is the program focused on excessive organic chemistry? To me, physics is more satisfying and enjoyable than chemistry. If I want to switch to the prestigious EECS program, how difficult will it be?</p>
<p>I don’t know about Chemical Engineering, but I can tell you that for EECS … very very very competitive and difficult.
Also transfers/switching majors are pretty hard (especially for CoE). There’s a whole list of tedious things that you have to do before you can transfer. Especially for EECS - the most popular major on campus - it will be extremely hard to get in from CoC or other colleges (although it’s somewhat easy if you’re already in CoE). So I don’t recommend it, it’ll be a nightmare…</p>
<p>@Fasttrack: what’s so difficult about EECS? is it the math and physics involved? do problem sets and projects take forever? in high school, I’ve had relatively easy teachers for math and physics, so will I get screwed? I’ll begin EECS this august as a freshman, so any thorough description of the major is welcome.</p>
<p>Everything about EECS is hard. The class size is in the hundreds, so you won’t be getting that much attention from the professor. If you go to his/her office after class, there’s usually like a waiting line. The materials you learn in EECS is hard, as well as the midterms. You would have to study every day. You must understand the material to even pass the class, so not studying is not a option. You better be prepared to study your ass off here. The topics are covered more indepth here, and there is a lot more theory than just number crunching. Be sure to understand HOW things work, and WHY they work that way. If there is one thing you don’t get, you WILL get behind in the class, and that will screw you up even more. If you just memorize formulas, and learn how to plug it in you will be extremely screwed. Do your homework, review your homework, and review your homework once again. Do all your worksheets, go to office hours, and definitely ask for help from more than one person. The workload will be difficult, and I recommend you get classes in the late morning or afternoon (you will need the sleep in the morning!)
Right now, I’m doing decent in EECS, but I basically have no social life. But if you manage these, then you will be rewarded. However most people I know usually drop out of EECS after a year or two.</p>
<p>what about other engineering majors like ieor or meche?</p>
<p>Class sizes being in the hundreds really only applies to the first few courses btw.</p>
<p>edit: If 61A isn’t a cakewalk for you, don’t do eecs.</p>
<p>man, this thread scares me… i am a fall transfer EECS major. </p>
<p>Fasttrack, which is more difficult, the lower division classes or the upper division classes?</p>
<p>i hope i can survive.</p>
<p>The CS classes you have to take shouldn’t be all that difficult assuming you can already program.</p>
<p>i think i will lean toward the hardware side… i don’t see myself being a good programmer.</p>
<p>how are the upper division EE classes, let’s say compare to Modern Physics?</p>