<p>I'm a rising junior majoring in ChemE & Material Sciences. This semester I'm taking Electronic Circuits and I really love this class. The lecture is just the advance physics of electricity and magnetism, the lab is so interesting as well. Although I put the same efforts that I put into other classes, I'm still ranked #1 in my Electronic Circuits class (totally didn't expect that). </p>
<p>Therefore, I'm thinking of changing my major to ECE. I had the summer internship at Intel last summer and I love it. I also want to do research on nanotechnology, nanobiotech, bioinformatics as well as materials sciences. What is your suggestions for me? Should I change my major or just stay with ChemE ? =( </p>
<p>Thank you all.</p>
<p>Oh, and I'm comfortable with Physics, Chemistry (both GenChem and Ochem) and Math in case someone said "Good at at Physics = ECE, good at Chem = ChemE" haha.</p>
<p>I went ee because i also liked the beginning electronic circuits class. In fact i liked some of next classes in circuits too and did very well in them. Now I am taking a grad lvl course in ic circuit design and i realized i made a horrid mistake and now have no clue what i am gonna be doing in life. This realization came a month and half into my snr year. </p>
<p>just food for thought…
another thought is that you can’t do circuit design w/out going into grad school. you just wont know enough.</p>
<p>Materials science actually does a lot with circuit design. So does chemical engineering to a lesser degree. You might want to see if any of the professors in your ChemE/MSE department are doing electronics and semiconductor research. They could probably give you some advice as to what fields you could work in. You could also try and get a research position in one of their labs if you don’t change majors.</p>
<p>hylyfe, thank you for your response. I should reconsider the fact that just because I do good 1 a intro class doesn’t means that major is right for me. Anyway, ECE is still soooo appealing to me. According to BLS, ChemE Job outlook is only 6%. Plus, graduates from EECS make much more than ChemEs according to Berkeley’s senior survey <a href=“https://career.berkeley.edu/employers/EmpSurvey.stm[/url]”>https://career.berkeley.edu/employers/EmpSurvey.stm</a>. </p>
<p>TaciturnType, thank you for your response. There are lots of students in my university that want a undergraduate research assistant so it’s very competitive. But I’ll try I will also apply for the summer research program in Nanomaterials. </p>
<p>I wish to pursuit a PhD after I graduate my Bachelor degree. I just wonder if graduate school weight research experiences more than GPA and GRE?</p>
<p>Do you attend Berkeley? Their EECS salaries are largely boosted by the number of students hired to work in the Silicon Valley/Stanford area, which has high living costs. Their salaries are still probably higher, regardless.</p>
<p>If you’re applying for a PhD, you definitely need research experience. I’m guessing you go to a competitive university with well known professors. If you can get a strong recommendation from one or more of them, that could do a lot for you. This thread probably gives a better description of it:</p>
I will also apply for the summer research program in Nanomaterials. </p>