<p>Note, however, that the current high pay levels may be due to the “CS” in “EECS”. Note the pay levels for the CS major in Berkeley’s College of Letters and Science (L&S CS).</p>
<p>But a word of caution is that engineering pay levels and job prospects can be greatly affected by industry and economic cycles. CS majors graduating in 2001 to 2003 faced very poor job prospects during the tech bubble crash. Indeed, the crash may have significantly reduced the number of L&S CS majors, as it is no longer a capped major that current Berkeley students need a high GPA to declare (it used to be). Civil engineering had a hot job market in 2005, but a poor job market in 2009.</p>