<p>I applied to Berkeley as an L&S Physics major, and was admitted. I had considered very strongly double majoring in L&S CS, but now I think that I've done more CS, I really like it, about as much as Physics, and after a lot of research, EECS seems like a much better program for my interests. So I have a few questions:</p>
<p>1) Is this doable?
2) Based on the prereqs, this is my general idea so far for classes for Freshman and Sophomore year: </p>
<p>Sem 1: Math 53, English R1A, CS 61A, Physics 7A, EE 20N
Sem 2: Math 54, English R1B, CS 61B, Physics 7B, EE 40
Sem 3: Math 55, CS 61C, Physics 7C, CS 70...
Sem 4: </p>
<p>Aside from the blanks, is this a good schedule? And do you have any other recommendations?
3) When should I plan to apply?</p>
<p>That is an absolutely miserable looking schedule. It’ll put you around 20 units. You really shouldn’t take more than 16 your first semester, and you most definitely shouldn’t be taking 4 STEM classes together. I would suggest postponing a tech class or two. Even 3 STEM classes can be a real handful… it’s often suggested that new students only take 2 in their first semester. I’d seriously recommend dropping something. If you still think classes are easy after that, go ahead and take more in spring. But I think you’re underestimating the difficulty of classes here.</p>
<p>Remember that L&S CS is impacted, and EECS is even more impacted. That means you need to keep a pretty good GPA for L&S, and a really good GPA if you want to get into EECS. I’m not sure if they’ll let you do a double major across two colleges, and in terms of policies I feel like L&S CS is a much better fit for a double with L&S Physics. Unless you’ve got a really good reason for needing EECS over L&S CS, I would suggest going for the L&S one. Assuming you’re into CS and not EE, the programs are essentially the same, and you’d be taking the same upper div classes in either case.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply @failure622! You make a lot of good points. My reasons for considering EECS are that L&S only offers a BA, which can be somewhat discriminated against in the job industry, and that some of the subject matter complements L&S Physics, whereas L&S Phys and CS seems to be pretty distinct. </p>
<p>To be honest, doubling in EECS and Physics (especially when you’re not in CoE already) is only a good idea if you want your life to be a living hell for the next four years. Both have an extensive list of pre-reqs and the schedule laid out is probably more difficult than any schedule I’ve seen at Cal. If you REALLY wanted to double major, then I would recommend you just gun for the CS L&S major (no one cares about B.A. vs. B.S.). EECS is essentially a double major in and of itself so going for Physics is like triple majoring in three harsh, quantitative subjects. </p>
<p>Not true, if your emphasis is on CS. EECS does allow for taking more EE and fewer CS courses than L&S CS does, though.</p>
<p>However, changing into EECS is very difficult. In addition, doing simultaneous degrees between an L&S major and a CoE major means fulfilling the breadth and other requirements of both L&S and CoE as well as the requirements for both majors. It is a lot less hassle to do two L&S majors.</p>
<p>Also, you do not need to take both Math 55 and CS 70.</p>
<p>You have to consider what your meaning by “doable”.</p>
<p>I don’t know you, and don’t know what your intellectual capabilities are, but double-majoring in physics and EECS, two totally different subjects that both require enormous hours of effort to learn, is quite frankly not something that could be accomplished by 95% or more of the entire student body. There are only 36 currently enrolled triple majors in Cal, out of over 25,000 undergrads, just to give you a picture, which came from the Daily Cal. So if your asking “doable” means that a wide majority of people could do it, the answer would be NO.</p>
<p>I am not saying you are not capable of doing this, but you are asking about something that is so rare and difficult, the success rate is not even measurable by you asking us if you could do it, there’s no statistic for it.</p>
<p>@Jweinst1 EECS is considered one major, not two. So, EECS/Physics would only count as a double major. Personally I’m not an EE person, I can barely do basic circuits, and I chose to focus mainly on CS. Other students hate the CS aspects and focus on EE. But after the basics (CS61ABC, CS70, EE40, EE20) they don’t force either subject on you. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’d be two completely different sets of breadth requirements, while the L&S CS program would match up much better since they’re in the same college.</p>
<p>If the number of requirements is a problem, OP could also look into doing a minor instead.</p>
<p>This is such a common misconception on this forum that I genuinely think someone should put up a sticky here indicating how misinformed it is to think that CS majors have some strange disadvantage in the software industry due to the sole fact that they receive a BA instead of a BS.</p>
<p>Why would you want to take SO many more prereqs for a degree that will give you virtually no real advantage over a BA? Nevermind, that transferring into the CoE, especially for EECS, is even more difficult than getting into Berkeley in the first place. Taking CS is pretty much perfect in your scenario.</p>
<p>The ONLY situation in which I see EECS as a better option is if you want to do a lot of EE, rather than CS. And even then, it sounds like you’ll have a ton of work cut out for you.</p>
<p>Although EECS is a single major, the combination of EECS + Physics, would give a total required unit total that is only 3 units less than someone doing physics and two other distinct majors all within L&S. This is primarily due to the totally separate set of breadth requirements in the CoE. What I did was take the physics major, economics, and integrative biology, and compare the unit total of those with the EECS + Physics combo.</p>