<p>Why is EE such a popular degree for engineering students, in spite of having a reputation for being very difficult?</p>
<p>In UCLA for example EE has 497 (this is also the largest discipline in UCLA engineering) students enrolled while Chemical (comparable to EE in terms of difficulty) has 264</p>
<p>I wonder what is the reason for this</p>
<p><a href="http://www.seasoasa.ucla.edu/ucee_a.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.seasoasa.ucla.edu/ucee_a.html</a></p>
<p>It might be the demand for EEs. Statistically, the highest number of engineers are EE, MechE, and CivE. These are certainly the most popular engineering majors at my school.</p>
<p>I think because the name sounds cool to some people. Many people of course want to do engineering but have no idea what it's about.</p>
<p>It's because EE is cool. Look at some of the projects done by electrical engineering students. As a computer science major, I sometimes envy my EE friends due to their intense knowledge of the inner workings of hardware and electronics.</p>
<p>EE is tough, but you can do a lot of cool things with an EE background. Life works that way.</p>
<p>There are a lot more jobs in EE and ME. Plus they are the most broad engineering majors - hence they have more students.</p>
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Why is EE such a popular degree for engineering students, in spite of having a reputation for being very difficult?
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<p>Well, it's not like the other engineering disciplines are a walk in the park. Some people would assert that ChemE is actually the most difficult of all disciplines, something which you alluded to yourself. While I don't want to get into a brouhaha about what's the most difficult, suffice it to say that every engineering discipline is hard. It's not like majoring in engineering is going to be like majoring in Phys Ed (which is basically majoring in Gym), or in "Leisure Studies" (yes, believe it or not, that really is a major at some schools). The point is, if you fear difficulty, but want to stay in engineering, it's not like you have any real place to hide. </p>
<p>However, as far as why there are so many EE's, I agree with the posters here that it has a lot to do with demand. The electronics industry, especially because of the rise of computers, employs more people than do the other industries. Note, that's not to say that the field has the best pay. ChemE's get paid more, on average, than EE's do. However, the variation in pay is also larger, such that a top EE can probably get paid more than a top ChemE (but a mediocre ChemE will get paid more than a mediocre EE).</p>
<p>EE has had the most growth, advances, and applications. It can be argued that more has happened in the field of EE since 1925 than in the other fields. Product cycles that are largely EE developments turn over in 18 months now, or less.</p>
<p>We did have cars in 1925. If the car was subject to the advances of EE over the period, a car today would fit in your pocket, run for 4 years without refueling, and cost less than $20 to produce. Sort of. ;)</p>
<p>I don't know we went from propeller driven wood and canvas airplanes to the space shuttle in that same time. :)</p>
<p>Money? They have a fairly high pay scale.</p>