<p>I declared my major on my applications as EE, but now I'm not sure if I even know what I'm doing? Looking at the flow charts for an EE major, it seems like it's mostly programming, but that's not what I want to do. I was thinking more of a specialty in electromagnetics. Did I just not realize that being an EE major meant programming? I never really had an interest in it, I always thought that CS majors did the programming (or, you know, computer programming majors). Does it depend on what subspecialty you do in undergrad or is it all pretty much the same? </p>
<p>What school? EE has some programming, but the vast majority of my undergrad classes were in other areas. I think the only required programming courses were on in C++ and another in binary logic, and the latter was integrated with a lab where you actually built the logic circuits.</p>
<p>I specialized in E&M as an undergrad, but most schools don’t go very deep in that area, so you may want to look at E&M combined with something else, like optics, or remote sensing. </p>
<p>If you’re interested in that side of it, you should also consider the physics route. EE and Physics are actually quite similar (many cross fields in grad school), but EE focuses more on circuits while physics does more of the electromagnetics.</p>
<p>Programming is an important skill either way, and you should expect to take a fair number of CS classes because it’s the best way to do computation.</p>
<p>@cosmicfish I’m really hoping to go to GA Tech, since they’re the best in women’s engineering, but U Alabama is my next in line if I can’t afford GA Tech, since I would get such a big scholarship from UA. I’m not necessarily opposed to programming, I just don’t want to finish undergrad and have the only jobs available be where I’m doing nothing but programming all day. Where did you go? I was looking at doing optics since I can choose two subspecialties. I also think microcomputers would be fun, that’s what my father did. </p>
<p>Looking at GT’s curriculum, I see only a two programming courses on the required list: CS 1371 and ECE 2035 or 2036. All the rest are real EE courses - admittedly, some of them (like signal processing) are primarily or entirely done on the computer, but really just as a method of executing the algorithms. No new programming, just new math! Trust me, I know a few GT EE grads, they do NOT do programming all day, they are some excellent, excellent hardware engineers.</p>
<p>I did my undergrad at PSU (focused on E&M and Remote Sensing), my masters at Johns Hopkins (focused on E&M and antennas), and am working on my PhD at UIUC (focused on optical remote sensing) (ha ha).</p>
<p>@cosmicfish that is very impressive…I want to go to JHU, I would go in a heartbeat. Every time they send me a letter I get sad because Maryland is one of the states my parents told me I absolutely may not go to school in. Maybe for graduate, though. Thank you so much for the clarification, I really appreciate it. </p>
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<p>@PeterW It’s because of the government, they don’t trust what happens up in the VA/MD area. I think it’s absurd. I could realistically go wherever I wanted, but I would like to have their support. UA isn’t exactly top notch but I would get a big enough scholarship that they couldn’t argue with me wanting to go there. I’m not sure the same would go for University of Maryland. </p>
<p>Wow. Just… wow.</p>
<p>@cosmicfish I had the same reaction when they told me that. Apparently their opinions are worth more to them than the quality of my education. I guess everyone has their priorities.</p>