<p>I'm a junior in high school, and I've had several people recommend electrical engineering to me as a college major. I've looked over the sample curricula at the universities I'm looking at, and I like the topics covered. However, I have no experience with circuitry, wiring, hardware, etc. I have some experience in programming, but very little.</p>
<p>Engineering is definitely the field I'm interested in, but I can't decide if I'll like EE. Will I need some prior experience to succeed in EE, or should I start looking at another major?</p>
<p>It can be hard to tell now.</p>
<p>Did you like math, physics, and computer science courses, if you have taken any?</p>
<p>I haven’t taken any computer science courses (my school doesn’t offer any), but I’ve enjoyed the math and physics courses I’ve taken very much, and I’m taking AP Calc AB this year and AP Calc BC and AP Physics C senior year.</p>
<p>If you are a junior two years ahead in math, shouldn’t you be able to handle calculus BC in one year (instead of two years)? Or does your school purposely spread calculus over two years (AB one year, BC starting where AB left off the next year)?</p>
<p>My school purposely spreads it over two years: AB junior year, BC senior year. And this is only possible if you’re a year ahead in math, which I am.</p>
<p>You are two years (not one year) ahead in math, as indicated by reaching calculus as a high school junior (most students do not reach calculus until they are freshmen in college). When I went to high school, this was a rare event – one student every few years did that (and less than 10% of the class was one year ahead). The only calculus course was BC in one year (and many students got A grades in the course and 5 scores on the BC test); the students in that course were assumed to be the best students in math and easily able to handle calculus at the same pace that college freshmen are expected to handle it.</p>
<p>Why would you need to bump something that’s been commented on 25 minutes before?</p>
<p>just so i get notified when more people comment. back off</p>
<p>Why do you need experience in the field you want to study?
You don’t need any stellar experience in any of the things you mentioned above, just take the necessary courses in HS (e.g. math and physics) to prepare for college.
Also, the course curriculum for most engineering majors are the same for the first couple years, except for a couple classes. That should give you enough time to decide whether or not EE is right for you.</p>
<p>I understand that I probably don’t need to have experience in the field, but would it help? It seems that a lot of computer science majors know a few programming languages when they apply; math majors have probably taken the highest levels of math available at their high school; and so on. But electrical engineering (and maybe all the engineering fields, come to think of it) isn’t taught in high school, only math, physics, and computer science. Can I really succeed in EE if I have no idea how circuits work?</p>
<p>It certainly would help to have some knowledge about the field you are about to study, but it won’t be a detriment the other way around. Schools don’t assume students all have some degree of exposure to the subject they are studying. If you decide to go with EE, you will learn about circuits from the ground up, so don’t worry about not knowing how circuits work.</p>
<p>EE is only worth it if you do it at a top school (MIT, Berkley, Caltech, etc.) otherwise CS/CompE is the best all around engineering.</p>