As the title so vaguely says, I’m currently a CS major in my sophomore year. I’ve loved CS ever since I was little. I made games on Roblox in elementary school which got me into it and then continued to make games and take programming classes in middle school and high school which perpetuated that love.

The reason I’m considering the major switch is because I’m realizing more and more that sitting at a desk typing and plugging into AI all day every day isn’t necessarily for me.

Additionally, when scrolling between the ECE and the CSmajors subreddits, the CS one is constantly depressing with everyone talking about how life/work/jobs suck and how they regret going into CS while the ECE subreddit has more people who are confident in their major and their careers and find a little more fulfillment.

Just curious if anyone has any insight into this major switch and how confident you all feel in your major/career? Additionally, how much of your work is hands on or has you doing things that stimulate you and your brain?

I got into MIT. Very huge, especially as a first gen immigrant. Only problem: my family is beyond the mark for financial aid, but not beyond enough to pay it tuition comfortably. I dont want my parents to work till their 80s or for my siblings to not have financial help for college. I dont want to dox myself, but this college in-state I got into is around top 50 in electrical engineering and has a lot of coop opportunities with a massive turnout. From what Ive heard with some electrical engineers and hiring managers. experience matters way more than technical knowledge. I just want to hear opinions from any other electrical engineers out there. Its been giving me so much stress these past few months. I plan to specialize in microelectronics or go into a generalconsulting firm.

Edit:

Ill give some more context to my situation:

Money: Ive been applying to scholarships since my Junior year. It’s looking semi-ok; I have like 12k in scholarships right now. This would, combined with in-state scholarships, would put me through my in-state university for almost free tuition wise. And while it’s not MIT, it’s still a top 50 with decently high turnouts and pretty good labs/research. As for my family, we currently make 220k/year. Ive contacted MIT’s financial aid office several times, and all they’ve really told me is: “we’ll try to work something out.” I dont know if I’m just unlucky or if my family is passed the mark. I also dont think my parents are financially irresponsible. They do save a good portion for my siblings’ and my college funds. I just dont want to have to wipe a lot of it off in case my sister (sophomore) also gets into a really good but expensive school. The last thing I want for her is to be held back or stress herself to death.

Career: I’m most likely specializing in microelectronics. Consulting is what my dad does, and is why I’m considering it. It’s just on the board in case I end up finding microelectronics not in my path. Im aware of the connections MIT grants, which is what’s pulling me so far towards it. To get my foot in the door with fortune 500 companies is something I’ve dreamed of since I was a kid. That and making bank. I’ve had the fortune to talk with a lot of current microelectronic engineers and some hiring managers for such companies, and they’ve given me a lot of different advice. Though they all horseshoe to MIT’s connections rather than the quality of the education itself, especially when comparing the other university as mentioned above.

Sentiment: This might be cornball, but now that I’ve grown, something doesn’t want me to leave home. If you ask 10 year old me, he’d say he wants to go across the country to get away. But now, I’m conflicted. All my friends and my gf are going in-state or near, and a part of me doesnt want to leave them for a few years. Since when we all get jobs, we might have to move away. Connections at new, high tier schools are amazing, but I dont know if they can beat the connections I have with my friends. The friends who were always there for me when my parents threatened to kick me out (Asian immigrants btw), my girlfriend who helped me get off antidepressants.

At this point, I may as well be ranting, and I know one day I’m going to regret back for not choosing one or the other. It’s just which one I’ll regret less. Thank you guys for giving me advice so far. It means a lot. I’m just scared for the future.

I am a Texas resident who ended up getting the brown scholarship at Texas A&M (full ride) and my major, Electrical Engineering. I also got into UIUC’s Electrical Engineering program out of state where I would have to pay $60-70k a year, but UIUC’s EE is ranked t5 on US News and is a legendary program while A&M is not as good for electrical engineering. UIUC is also in general more prestigious (36 on US News) compared to A&M (51 on US News).

My family can fully afford UIUC without an issue (wont need to go into debt or take out loans or anything) , but I am wondering if I should just take the full ride at A&M. Within electrical engineering, I want to pursue VLSI and Semiconductor design specifically.

I just talked with my advisor, and he asked whether I wanted to pursue a double major that combines Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering into one program, or a dual degree where I’d earn both a BSEE and a BSCOE as two separate degrees. Both options will take me the same amount of time to complete. Which do you think I should choose?

I'm currently going into my 2nd year of uni and don't have much to my name. I want to really step up and get work going, meaning personal projects, self taught content etc. to get myself prepared to apply for internships at any company possible (even high-end companies like NVIDIA or Arms Holdings, cause it doesn't hurt to try).

I mainly want to set myself up for a good future and do something that I will enjoy as well, and this seems like a good route. However I know that this route is very selective and so i want to make myself a good competition. I've researched things to learn and projects to do to try bag an internship from one of these companies but would like to hear from people who were actually successful.

What did you do to successfully get a Hardware Engineer (FPGA/ASIC) type internship? What do you think made you stick out from other applicants? Thanks for any advice.

I don’t care what that laptop reviewer on YouTube said, you are not going to be running rtl simulations 24/7, and when you do have to do intensive stuff like that, chances are it’ll be on a VM anyways. 99% of what you use your laptop for is looking at problem sets, making Microsoft office documents, light coding, and running non-intensive programs.

Things like the weight, the screen, the keyboard, how light it is, how quiet it is, and battery life matter a lot more. It’s your choice, but I personally would not want to be that guy bringing in the Alienware that sounds like a jet engine who always has to sit at the edges of the lecture hall so he has access to an outlet at all times.

Hello guys, I picked electronics engineering for my college program because I fell in love with electronics and creating circuits and manufacturing my own PCB's. I am a bit scared because I am a freshman going into an Engineering college in my country and I see a lot of people say "ECE is hard" or "ECE is not worth it" is it true? So if you have a tip or notes I should know please let me know. Thank you!🫡

Hi, I'm currently a high school senior. Throughout high school, I focused on CS: making APPs, doing hackathons, etc. But recently, AI has really been scaring me, and I'm thinking about applying as a different major. I've been thinking about applying as an ECE major for some schools but there's one major issue: I'm really good at math but don't like physics too much. Math comes pretty easily to me, but I honestly struggled with physics quite a bit. If you're familiar with the American system, I barely got a 4 on AP Physics 1. I guess the main issue is that it's not very intuitive for me. Could I still do engineering in college if I'm not the best at physics or should I do a different major? How many physics classes would I have to take?

Hi everyone. I'm currently a 1st year ECE student in my summer break. A month of my break went to waste and i have a month more left. What can I do during this time? Please give me any course or any suggestions as to what I can do to make this month productive!!

Hi I’m a 3rd year electrical engineering student, I didn’t have a real passion for engineering, but I had the highest grades before starting college, so I chose it thinking I could handle it and that it would guarantee me a good future ..

I was a decent student as a freshman, but then everything changed, I got three C’s at once, then two D’s, and now I think I’m going to fail two classes already ..I feel completely burnt out!

I have no idea what I’m supposed to do anymore. I hate this place, and I feel humiliated every time I step onto campus. I can’t deal with constantly failing and feeling dumb, I mean, in such a competitive environment, I can’t help comparing myself to others, and it makes me feel like I don’t belong here at all..

What should I do? how can I keep going in a place I genuinely hate and that makes me feel this bad? should I keep going?

I’m a Computer Engineering student who can graduate next semester if I take 16 credits. However, I’m considering delaying graduation by about a year so I can spend more time doing undergraduate research and participating in an engineering team.

My main reason is that my degree has felt very theoretical. I want to work in hands on hardware designing, building, testing, and troubleshooting but I feel like I’m graduating without enough practical hardware experience and with some gaps in my EE fundamentals. I’ve had several engineering internships, but not much of the hardware design/build experience I’m looking for.

The downside is that I’d be spending another year in a place where I’m honestly pretty unhappy and ready to leave.

Alternatively, I could graduate next semester and pursue an ECE master’s while working. I’m already planning on getting an ECE master’s partly to strengthen my EE/hardware background.

For those further along in engineering: would the extra year of research + engineering team experience be valuable enough to justify delaying graduation, or would you graduate and try to build that experience through industry and a master’s?

Hello!

I'm between University of North Dakota and Arizona State University for an online BS in ECE (2nd bachelors). From the course lists, I like UND's curriculum better. It's very comprehensive and they offer many of the kinds of courses I'm interested in, along with hands-on learning, which ASU does not. However, they don't have any syllabus online so I'm not exactly sure what the actual course content is.

As for ASU, I've heard many good things from people who graduated from the program. ASU also seems to be more intentional about their approach to online education, have lots of info available online (such as actual course syllabi), and seem more attractive to employers. The program also takes less time.

I'm wondering if anyone has attended either of these programs and if they can talk about their experience with them?

P.S. My end goal is a career in R&D involving analog/mixed-signal circuit design, embedded sys, and/or power electronics.

I'm 22M. This year graduated Electrical and Electronics Engineering. After graduation got 2 offers. Fully funded ECE PhD at Top5 US University and self-funded MS Management at TUM (English program but I know native level German).

PhD research topic is alright (won't get more interesting than this) its related to computer vision, deep learning. I personally dont love engineering. I see it as a way to make good money because I have a talent(?) for it. Management sounds more like my thing as I'm more people oriented, am good at communication and dont like loneliness. That being said I'm ambitious and don't wanna be stuck in some mid level German company doing some meaningless project management or analyst BS.

Friends who graduated TUM MS Management aren't having the best time finding jobs but my data points are likely to be biased. Ideally in the long run I would wanna start my own company or work in big tech (ideally product management) and maybe quant.

Before I'm told I gotta be passionate to do a PhD I should also probably mention the way I see the PhD. I see it as a job that lets me get a future career leverage credential while also being able to afford living without going into debt for CoL and tuition cuz of the PhD stipend. So, I see it as something tolerable.

Would you say a PhD makes more sense in my situation over the MS Management program?

I really need some outside opinions about my situation, so I really appreciate your time and input. Thank you.

The terminals a and B were originally opened btw. They closed it to find Norton current. My only problem is the current in the second loop: why is it isc-2vx in one place but isc+0.003 in the other question even though both questions are identical? Both methods matched their respective answers. Any help will be appreciated! I have basically found all the other things like Norton resistance in these questions but this loop current is the only thing keeping me stuck.

Hello, I’m going to college soon for electrical engineering and have been debating also doing a minor in CS, I’m interested in doing embedded and from what I know a minor IN CS would help with that, any thoughts?

Also what other skills should I be practicing during college to help me get jobs in embedded?

I am currently deciding on a career path, and my top choices are Computer Science—with plans to work in scientific programming—and Semiconductor Engineering. My concern regarding the latter—and the reason for this post—is that it might lead only to a lifelong, routine job at a tech company. What advice or insights can you offer on this?

Pretty much the title. What university do you recommend out of these 3 for RF/Antenna and Integrated Circuits for PhD? I wanna work as RF/Analog IC Design Engineer or similar after graduation.

1) University of California-Davis

2) University of Colorado-Boulder

3) Texas A&M

Thanks.

I recently got the ability to get a ton of them for cheap but are they kind of outdated/more a hobbyist thing? (I couldn’t find much but hobbyist type stuff on Google, Reddit or YouTube).

I believe they are the getting started in electronics book and a bunch of the engineers mini notebooks. (pre college)

Are hardware hackathons as prominent as software ones? I am a 2nd year student interested in RTL design/VLSI. I was wondering that hackathons can be a good exposure. But I have a hard time finding them. On campus mostly software ones take place.

Can someone suggest how to find where these hackathons take place and how to know which are worth giving your time to? Also, many companies specific hackathons happen too so how to get details regarding it?

Hi everyone,

I’m a freshly graduated Electronics Engineering student here in the Philippines, and I’m planning to take the ECE board exam this coming October. I wanted to ask for some guidance from those who have already taken the exam.

I’m honestly a bit overwhelmed with where to start and what to prioritize. I know the coverage is pretty broad, so I’d really appreciate any advice on:

• What subjects/topics should I focus on the most?
• Which areas usually come up a lot in the exam?
• Any recommended study materials, books, or review centers?
• Effective study routines or schedules that worked for you?
• Tips for retaining concepts (especially problem-solving subjects like Math and Electronics)

Right now, I’m trying to build a solid study plan, but I don’t want to waste time studying the wrong things or going too deep into topics that don’t usually show up.

Also, if you have any personal experiences, mistakes to avoid, or “I wish I knew this earlier” tips, I’d really appreciate hearing them.

Thanks in advance to anyone willing to share 🙌

I am in my first year of studying ECE in my university and I am so lost. I am doing very well with my studies but I cant figure out the real deal behind our job circle. I have tried to join a cybersecurity research lab that is associated but everything feels so complicated. I have seen others join in similar labs that have more to do with the electrical side. I am just so lost in what to do, where to study further knowledge or what the job market requires. I would highly appreciate any type of tip you have or advice that you can share. Take care everyone!

I have been looking for a laptop for computer engineering and am wondering if something like the dell 14 plus is a good fit.

Hey everyone, I'm looking for advice on what schools to apply to. I am mainly interested chip design/verification, but am open to anything. I am already admitted to my home institution's MEng program, so that is my main backup. I am interested in both MS, MEng, and PhD programs.

I'm a rising senior at a mid tier state school with a >3.9 GPA, some non-ECE but still engineering related research experience, and a co-op internship at a large aerospace company. I'm a US Citizen, no visa requirements.

My current list is as follows:

• University of Washington
• UC Berkley
• UCLA
• UCSD
• Purdue
• Georgia Tech
• UIUC
• U Michigan
• UT Austin
• USC
• CMU
• MIT
• Stanford
• Caltech
• Duke
• Cornell

I am aware most of these schools are very competitive or may not offer MS only programs, my backup is my current school which I am already admitted to, hence the list being mainly reaches. I am looking for schools I may have missed in this list, or schools not worth applying to for whatever reason. Thanks!

I am planning on doing a 1 year masters (with possibly a few exceptions) post my 4 year BS in computer engineering at purdue. I was wondering out of these options which is the best for me negating price (I will have saved up money, or receive full financial aid like I am now, fully willing to pay for better choice).

Also key things to note, I am a 3.99 GPA junior who has internships at two big tech companies and will return to 1 hopefully. If everything goes to plan, I really don’t see why I shouldn’t be able to at least get a job there if not at quant finance. I am a student focused on computer architecture. I care about research opps only for learning but not at all for post academia because I def plan to do industry engineering. I will have already done most of computer architecture courses at Purdue by my bachelors and also want a big name boost for big tech asic design and quant finance fpga (already interviewed for a few firms and think I can land one even with purdue, but just to make my life easier). Again, consider all of this when people say some degrees are too short. I’m really just doing a masters to boost my resume not for job search but for starting salary and opportunities down the line. Also if you recognize me from this don’t dox lol. I’ll list everything in the order I believe they should be considered:

1 year UCB Meng EECS (is Meng worse than MS as seen by industry? Ik kind of a dumb question)

1 Year Cornell Meng ECE

1 year (4+1) MS Purdue ECE

1.5 ish year Stanford MS

1.5 year CMU MS

1 Year Umich Meng

No masters at all for a career in computer architecture (pref design or architecture or quant fpga)

Those are all of my options^^^. Any other Masters program I’m forgetting or should consider??? Also lmk if my timelines are incorrect above

Oh also if I do get research and write good essays, how hard is it to get into these programs considering rest of my profile. Ik research not too important for coursework only

Thanks and I hope my prestige chasing is more understandable than pretentious. Also I would have already taken the most important ECE masters courses offered at purdue.

Edit: huge thing that pertains to the option of no masters degree at all. Does prestige not mean much for moving around big tech or going to quant finance after work experience? Does a masters not mean much for moving around big tech or going to quant after work experience? How hard will it be to promote in either industry? Answer this in the context of ASIC vs. FPGA (kind of already expect fpga to be more lenient)

Just yesterday I was elected and I need some advice on how I can improve the organization. Workshop ideas, suggestions, what my responsibilities really are because the outline they showed me was pretty vague, and how I should go about completing them. Any advice is greatly appreciated. If you've held the position or anything like it please share your advice.