<p>Thank you for taking the time to read my post. Prior to wanting to become an electrical engineer, I was set on getting a degree in the business field. After a lot of research, I realized that its not for me. At the moment I'm getting ready to enroll into American River College (California). I'll be taking general education courses there and prerequisites for my transfer. I don't exactly know what path I should take though. How hard is it to get into Stanford, California Institute of Technology, and U.C. Berkeley? I realize that Stanford is the hardest of the three, and that U.C. Berkeley is the easiest. Are Stanford's expectations realistic however? Is it a realistic possibility that I'd be able to get accepted from a community college?</p>
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<p>Q: Is there a major difference between bachelors, masters, and doctorates in engineering? I know that in the business field, you usually get a bachelors, get some experience, and than go back for an M.B.A. Is it similar in the engineering field or do you go for a doctorates from the start?</p>
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<p>Q: What's the biggest difference between electrical engineering, electronic engineering, computer engineering, computer science, and EECS? Personally, I'd like to work with hardware. I wouldn't be too interested in digital engineering (software). I can see myself designing motherboards, circuit boards, etc..</p>
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<p>By the way, should I get the prerequisites done to transfer directly into an engineering program; or should I try transferring after my sophomore year, and complete the prerequisites at whichever school I'm attending, and THAN begin the engineering program there?</p>
<p>Caltech is very small and very difficult to get admitted to. Stanford took only 31 transfer students last year, but 18 of them were from community colleges. Berkeley, like other UCs, is relatively friendly to community college transfer students, but is still very competitive to get admitted to.</p>
<p>For UCs and CSUs, you should take the prerequisites for your major as listed at [Welcome</a> to ASSIST](<a href=“http://www.assist.org%5DWelcome”>http://www.assist.org) and then transfer at the junior level. Most prefer, or only take, transfers at the junior level, not the sophomore level.</p>
<p>Of the possible majors, computer science is usually more hardware focused than computer engineering or electrical engineering. EECS at Berkeley does give you wide latitude in choosing upper division courses of the areas you are interested in, although the lower division requirements include both EE and CS courses.</p>
<p>For degree levels, you do your bachelor’s degree first. You might go on to graduate study immediately, or after working in industry for a while.</p>
<p>Thanks for your reply. I’m under the impression that electrical engineering is a broad field. Will I be able to go into computer engineering, circuit designs, power engineering, and so on with a degree in electrical engineering? By the way, the main concern I have is that I won’t be able to transfer my junior year. I need to take plenty of math courses and get it memorized. Will universities automatically reject me if I try transferring after senior year (for example)?</p>
<p>If you take only courses at community colleges, you won’t be able to transfer at higher than junior level, since community colleges do not have upper division (junior or senior level) courses. So even if it took you three or four years to complete all of the lower division courses for your major at community college, you would transfer to a four year school as a junior.</p>
<p>EE is a broad field, covering power engineering, signals and communications, electronics, integrated circuits, and computer architecture. You would need to take some courses in the areas you are interested in working in to have the best chance of getting a job in those areas and succeeding in it. But you typically do not have to make the decision until you take upper division courses at the four year school.</p>
<p>Hmmm, I see. I understand that if I transfer to a university after 3-4 years that I’ll still have to take 2+ years to get a bachelors. I’m just wondering if doing that is looked down on. Will it hurt my chances if I don’t get all the requirements within 2 years? I think that I’ll most likely try to transfer into Berkeley. If I do end up getting a bachelors in EECS at Berkeley, will I be able to work, get some experience, and than go back for a masters at another university? I know that’s how it works with business majors; I’m not sure if this applies to engineering majors as well though.</p>