Double Major in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

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LwRower45

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Good Afternoon Everyone,

I was looking around the forum, but I could not find an answer. Is it possible to major in both Electrical Engineering and Computer Science or Cyber while at Navy. I am aware they are in different groups, but I was guessing that probably some of the high level math would be similar and with things such as Calc 1 and 2 and Physics I and II validated, would that be possible?

Thank you for anyhelp or threads you can link me to that I missed.
 
LwRower45 said:
Good Afternoon Everyone,

I was looking around the forum, but I could not find an answer. Is it possible to major in both Electrical Engineering and Computer Science or Cyber while at Navy. I am aware they are in different groups, but I was guessing that probably some of the high level math would be similar and with things such as Calc 1 and 2 and Physics I and II validated, would that be possible?

Thank you for anyhelp or threads you can link me to that I missed.
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The answer is "possibly". First of all, the upper level math is almost certainly the same, it is the many majors courses that are the long poles in the tent.
Some truths that you need to understand:
ALL Midshipmen will take some Cyber courses no matter what their major is.
All Midshipmen will take Electrical Engineering Courses no matter what their major is.

If the issue is that you are interested in both and can't choose between them, take a few breaths as you have plenty of time and you are really really ahead of yourself even thinking about this. I've known very very smart people who had their hands full with getting good grades with just one major at USNA, I've also known folks with AP courses and even on-site college courses who did not validate much at USNA.
 
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I am a PhD EE ... and I won’t bore you with my specialties.

A BS in EE by itself in any program can give more attention to 1 of many specialty areas — Power Systems, Electronics, Control, RF & Signals, and so on .... it depends on the College and where their Core lies. The Naval Academy is blessed in that it covers all these areas well as it relates to BS programs comparatively. Your Junior and Senior years is where you take control of your curriculum.

EEs get a lot of CS core exposure .... Since you will get a lot of core CS courses in your EE program studies, I personally think Statistical Analysis and Predictive Modeling is more exciting than anything else these days. Take some “Hard Core Stat” and R/Python Predictive modeling courses instead of the CS minor.

You will be able to use some Extreme Computing resources with your EE course work .... There is an Explosion of Modeling work these days in Intelligence, Operations Research, Signal Processing (RF and otherwise), and on and on.... because of the availability of tools and the power of our Laptop computers.
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And after this, you might want to do some Deep Leaning (e.g Neural Networks), perhaps applied in the Image Processing space, Signal Space, NLP, and more. But you need to do the traditional Stat and LinReg, and all the Traditional Stat Diagnostics associated with this .... Do the Deep Learning in your graduate work.
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LwRower45 said:
Is it possible to major in both Electrical Engineering and Computer Science or Cyber while at Navy.
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OldRetSWO said:
take a few breaths as you have plenty of time and you are really really ahead of yourself even thinking about this. I've known very very smart people who had their hands full with getting good grades with just one major at USNA, I've also known folks with AP courses and even on-site college courses who did not validate much at USNA.
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^ This ! USNA isn't high school or a normal college. I suspect it's theoretically possible if you are super smart, well organized, and validate some of the core classes...but whats the point ? With a BS from USNA in either major, you are well prepared for any direction you go in life , and double majoring would almost certainly make it necessary to limit other activities at USNA that really make the USNA experience unique.

(As an aside, I feel wholly inadequate now... I struggled through the Computers class (even thought I had it at NAPS as well), and without the review sessions put on by a USMC Captain the night before each Wires exam, I would have struggled with EE as well. (We had a EE professor, Capt Gouge, who put on a review session before exams -- until the powers to be shut him down, the review sessions were very similar to the exams --needless to say, the review sessions were very popular).
 
Yes, CS/EE, CS/CE, EE/CS, CE/CS (you can choose which major is your "primary" and that will change a few of your core classes) were all dual majors that had built-out paths with set requirements across the two departments. Every year there's a handful of mids that show up and validate a semester's worth of credits, and the departments are prepared for them.

Unless you have some serious validations or are willing to forgo summer leave literally every summer, it's probably not going to be possible. I had seven validated classes, and it still came out to 20-22 credits a semester for CS/EE over three years. Very doable with what I had, but if you just have calc and physics, you will probably have to do summer school every summer.

However, I don't think it's worth it at all to sacrifice every summer leave and miss out on good PRODEV cruises for summer school just to scrape a second B.S. I got picked for semester abroad and threw my dual major right in the trash. I did an internship three out of four summers, and definitely would not trade any of those just for a second line of text on my degree. Do the special programs, go on internships, those are worth so much more than the extra classes.
 
I know someone who recently graduated who was a double major in EE/ME. However, that person -- who, BTW, stood VERY high in the class -- was not permitted to do Trident (though the mid really wanted to) b/c of the double major. So you gain some things and lose some things.

Plebes are assigned academic advisors. Suggest you discuss options with that person as well as your upperclass.
 
brewmeist said:
FWIW, I met up with a Dept head at PPW this past summer. I asked him about the advanatges of my Plebe son going for a double major. He (a USNA grad an current CDR) told me that he ranks Trident #1, Masters #2, and Double Major #3.
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I don't recall much about the Trident scholar program ...I didn't hang in the academic genius crowd , but as someone who has been out 30+ years, I would put Master's above both Trident and Double Major. We live in an era where some postgraduate education is expected , both in the Navy and out. In my opinion, it really doesn't matter in what - the Masters is just a piece of paper that says you are smart and did a little more than the masses that have gotten a Bachelors degree. (A lot like the Bachelors degree until the 50-60's, when going college really wasn't an option for most people).

For true academic excellence, I would agree that the Trident program is preferable. As I recall, that allows you to dig deep into your chosen field. I don;t think you get piece of paper that says you are smart like you do with a Masters, but learn more. I would expect that Trident program is a great ticket if you want to apply to other post grad programs.
 
Old Navy BGO said:
^ This ! USNA isn't high school or a normal college. I suspect it's theoretically possible if you are super smart, well organized, and validate some of the core classes...but whats the point ? With a BS from USNA in either major, you are well prepared for any direction you go in life , and double majoring would almost certainly make it necessary to limit other activities at USNA that really make the USNA experience unique.

(As an aside, I feel wholly inadequate now... I struggled through the Computers class (even thought I had it at NAPS as well), and without the review sessions put on by a USMC Captain the night before each Wires exam, I would have struggled with EE as well. (We had a EE professor, Capt Gouge, who put on a review session before exams -- until the powers to be shut him down, the review sessions were very similar to the exams --needless to say, the review sessions were very popular).
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Capt Gouge - Love it!
 
I just to point out that the Computer Engineering major was designed with folks like you in mind! I can’t imagine how stressful it would be to double major here. It’s been done by people who validated many classes, but even then usually it requires taking 20+ credits per semester.
 
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