<p>I'm a freshman EECS major, so I was in mostly the same position as you new admits a year ago. I'll answer any of your questions about EECS (or life in general, but EECS is easier to talk about :P) at Berkeley to the best of my ability, and if I can't, there are probably some people on CC that can help too. Despite being a freshman, I've taken about the same number of CS courses as most sophomore EECS/L&S CS majors, so if you have questions about taking higher level courses, then I can perhaps help out there.</p>
<p>Hey…how would you compare the EECS dept. to that of…Stanford?? And how big are the classes. Also is it all that much cut-throat competition…? I am soo happy to be accepted at Cal…:D</p>
<p>Stanford vs. Berkeley in EECS: Stanford and Berkeley are both among the top schools in CS. They both have excellent CS programs, and the variety of courses offered are similar. I don’t think Berkeley CS is much worse (if at all!), except for the fact that Berkeley has many more students to serve, and so class sizes are larger than at Stanford. I’m not sure about EE, but I do know that, again, both schools are among the best in EE, and class sizes are smaller since it’s less popular than CS. This brings me to your next question…</p>
<p>Class sizes: The introductory CS classes range from 350-750 students each (~250 for data structures with Hilfinger, a notoriously harsh instructor), while the introductory EE classes are more like 200-300 students. The upper division class sizes vary based on the popularity of the subject and instructor. Algorithms, databases, networking, security, OSes, and artificial intelligence tend to be the most popular of the upper divs, with 200-400 students (though this can vary based on the popularity of the instructor). The next “tier” are the more specialized or less popular courses, such as signals and systems, microelectric circuits, graphics, and machine learning, with 75-100 people. Finally, there are the least popular (or most specialized) upper divs, with 50 or fewer students, including many EE classes, computer architecture, and computational complexity. In practice, you don’t really notice the difference in class size past 150-200 students.</p>
<p>Culture: It is not cutthroat; in most EECS classes, collaboration is allowed, encouraged, and common. Sure, some classes like CS 170 (algorithms) are curved, but even in those classes, it’s common for students to work together. Group projects are common among the upper division courses. People are usually willing to help out (if they have spare time…). If you’re looking for a cutthroat culture, maybe pre-Haas or premeds would suit the description better (though they’re probably not that bad either).</p>
<p>Thanks.
And also …are most EECS freshmen asians?? Just curious</p>
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<p>I remember way back when that engineering majors would take economics and business courses for easy (for them) A breadth courses, much to the annoyance of business and pre-business majors. However, back then, Berkeley was not that hard to get into, so the minimum standard to handle getting into and staying in engineering was significantly higher than that needed to handle getting into Berkeley back then; it may not be that way now.</p>
<p>@quiverfox: Yes, most EECS freshmen (and EECS majors in general) are Asian.</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus: I’m hearing from other STEM majors that econ classes are pretty easy compared to STEM classes for the most part, with Econ 101A-B being a possible exception.</p>
<p>Economics 101A is not difficult for students who are good at solving math problems in the prerequisite math courses.</p>
<p>"Thanks. And also …are most EECS freshmen asians?? Just curious "</p>
<p>Yes, predominantly male Asians (who couldn’t get in MIT, Stanford, or IVYs because of those stupid reasons such as holistic admissions process, fit or diversity excuses). And most of them are extremely bright.</p>
<p>According to you, which is the best residence hall to stay in for EECS incoming freshman?</p>
<p>If it matters, I am Indian and am vegetarian. :)</p>
<p>Also, are the large classes a big negative at Cal? Is it true that Cal only has large classes for the first two years and junior and senior classes have ~ 30 students. Could you please shed some light on how that works?</p>
<p>It depends on personal preference. I like Foothill because it’s close to the EECS and math buildings, it’s relatively quiet compared to the Units so that it’s easier to get things done (the flip side of this is that some people end up feeling like it’s “antisocial”), and many math/science/engineering majors live here. All the dining halls have vegetarian options.</p>
<p>What about Bowles? Is that far from the EECS buildings?</p>
<p>Also, are the large classes a big negative at Cal? Is it true that Cal only has large classes for the first two years and junior and senior classes have ~ 30 students. Could you please shed some light on how that works?</p>
<p>Bowles is farther than Foothill from the EECS buildings, but it’s a difference of a few minutes of walking, and definitely not as far as the Units or Clark Kerr.</p>
<p>Class sizes depend on the popularity of the subject. I wrote a bit above about this:</p>
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<p>Class sizes of ~30 are fairly rare in CS classes, but relatively common in upper div EE classes (though it may be more like 40). Math upper divs, on the other hand, usually have class sizes of 30-40; they do this by having several lectures rather than one lecture for everyone (except for 110).</p>
<p>I personally do not mind large classes, but I’m not really bothered by a lack of personal attention, so your experience may vary. With large classes, help is definitely available to those who seek it, so I don’t feel like having large classes is such a disadvantage. There is an online discussion forum called Piazza that most EECS classes use, and instructors and/or GSIs (what we call TAs) are usually around to answer questions if students can’t. In addition, the instructors and GSIs are fairly accessible, and you can always head to office hours if you want some one-on-one help or just want to talk.</p>
<p>Class sizes can be estimated by looking at the schedule:
[Home</a> Page - Online Schedule Of Classes](<a href=“http://schedule.berkeley.edu%5DHome”>http://schedule.berkeley.edu)</p>
<p>However, class sizes may be adjusted as students register due to higher or lower demand for specific courses. Recently, CS has gotten a lot more popular than EE, and that is reflected in the sizes of upper division CS versus EE classes.</p>
<p>So the three colleges I’m trying to decide between for CS are UW, Cal and Brown. For UW i have in-state tuition and a half-tuition scholarship for 2 years (so about 20k), but for Brown and Berkeley I have to pay the full 50-60k. Would the “name” of Berkeley and its strength in CS make it worth the extra money over UW and Brown (which obviously doesn’t have the same strength, but has the whole name-recognition-Ivy thing going for it for jobs)?</p>
<p>I wouldn’t choose Brown over Berkeley for CS, but that’s just my preference, and for the same price, it’s a bit of a toss-up. Berkeley CS is the among the best in the nation, but if you want more personal attention, Brown may be the way to go if you’re choosing between the two.</p>
<p>I hear UW has a really good CS program as well, and I don’t think Berkeley or Brown are worth the 30k/yr more. In your situation, I would choose UW. (In a similar situation, I declined CMU for Berkeley because I live in CA, making CMU 20k/yr more expensive.)</p>
<p>I am leaning towards Foothills but the cost seems a lot more than Units 1 and 3. Is a quad room too crowded? Do you ever hear your friends complaining about living in quads?</p>
<p>Also, what exactly are Lower Div. and Upper Div. classes? Are they like Math SL and Math HL, or do they refer to the year (freshman math and junior math)? Or something else?</p>
<p>Lower division = nominally frosh or soph level. At Berkeley, these are courses numbered from 1 to 99. These are typically more introductory courses in their subjects.</p>
<p>Upper division = nominally junior or senior level. At Berkeley, these are courses numbered from 100 to 199. These are typically more advanced courses in their subjects.</p>
<p>You are not restricted to taking courses matching your class level. For example, advanced frosh may take upper division courses in the subjects they are advanced in, while seniors looking for breadth electives may take lower division introductory courses. Undergraduates sometimes take graduate level courses as well (numbered 200 to 299 at Berkeley).</p>
<p>Do you know how difficult it is to double major EECS with something like bioengineering? </p>
<p>Do we go into berkeley with our “declared” major? Could I switch (from bioengineering to EECS) before the year starts if I wanted to?</p>
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I honestly don’t know how bad quads are; few (if any) of my friends live in a quad. I hear that the quads in Bowles are pretty spacious, and I would assume that would be the case for quads elsewhere (including Foothill) as well. Hopefully someone else can chime in.</p>
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It’s going to be a tight squeeze; you may want to minor in one of them instead. I did the math for an Engineering Physics + EECS dual major and the results indicated that one would have to take only major requirements and thus have no room to explore outside of just the required classes. It looks like it could be the same with BioE because of the lack of overlap (besides math, physics, and CS 61A).</p>
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Yes, you go into Berkeley as a BioE major (in your case). You must complete two semesters here before applying to change your major to EECS. Have a look at this page: [Change</a> of Major ? UC Berkeley College of Engineering](<a href=“http://coe.berkeley.edu/students/current-undergraduates/majors-minors/change-of-major.html/]Change”>http://coe.berkeley.edu/students/current-undergraduates/majors-minors/change-of-major.html/)</p>
<p>One of the rumors about Cal is with state cutbacks it is difficult to graduate in 4 years because classes are over enrolled. Have you been able to get into the classes you wanted for EECS major? If you look back, what high school classes or experiences best prepared you for EECS at Cal? Thanks.</p>