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Electrical Engineering

Colleges offering this major Rankings Trends

What you'll do in college

ECE blends physics, math, and computer science. Early classes cover circuits, signals, electromagnetism, and digital logic; later you'll choose tracks like chip design, embedded systems, communications, control systems, or machine-learning hardware. Labs are central: you'll wire up real circuits, program microcontrollers, build amplifiers, and probably blow out at least one component.

Expect more math and physics than a pure CS major, but also more direct contact with the physical world. Senior design projects often involve actually building something—a robot, a wireless sensor, or a custom processor.

What you'll do after college

Grads work on the things that make modern life possible—designing chips at Apple, NVIDIA, or Intel; building wireless networks; developing sensors and robots; working on power grids; or programming embedded systems for cars and medical devices. The day-to-day mixes simulation, lab work, and meetings with manufacturing teams.

Pay is competitive with software engineering, and the field is much harder to outsource because so much of it touches physical hardware. Many grads earn graduate degrees, especially for chip design and research roles.

Famous graduates

  • Steve Wozniak — Co-founder of Apple; B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from UC Berkeley
  • Eric Schmidt — Former CEO of Google; B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University
  • Henry Samueli — Co-founder of Broadcom; B.S. in Electrical Engineering from UCLA
  • Jensen Huang - Co-founder of NVIDIA; B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Oregon State University
  • Lisa Su — CEO of AMD; B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from MIT

Selectivity vs. earnings

By acceptance rate

$109,319
1,212
100–80%
$103,500
2,430
78–72%
$104,743
2,456
70–55%
$107,472
2,465
55–42%
$109,733
2,392
42–21%
$135,519
1,211
21–0%
Acceptance rate · bar = degree-weighted adjusted 5-year earnings

By SAT median

$100,345
982
400–1110
$104,506
1,909
1110–1215
$106,543
1,947
1215–1285
$112,426
1,896
1285–1380
$111,767
1,958
1385–1475
$134,754
972
1475–1600
Median SAT · bar = degree-weighted adjusted 5-year earnings

Majors in this category

Major Colleges Degrees ▼ Male/Female Intl 5yr Earn
Electrical Engineering 376 14,661 84% / 16% 10% $107,267
Electrical Engineering 349 12,943 85% / 15% 9% $103,667
Electrical and Computer Engineering 26 1,646 79% / 21% 12% $132,855
Electrical Engineering with Computing (Course 6-5) 1 58 59% / 41% 3% $184,536
Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering 1 9 78% / 22% 0%
Electrical and Electronics Engineering 5 5 80% / 20% 0%