Combined Plan FAQs
For general information about EE program requirements please see the General EE FAQs. This page covers questions unique to combined-plan students.
Where do I find the requirements for the EE major program?
This question is answered more fully in the General EE FAQs, but combined-plan students should avoid information for “early starting” students, since it would not likely be relevant.
How should Combined-Plan students handle ELEN E1201?
ELEN E1201 Introduction to EE is a preparatory course taken by first- or second-year students majoring in EE or Computer Engineering. It is not required for combined-plan students to graduate, but it is highly recommended that combined-plan students take a similar course before arriving at Columbia. Unfortunately, many students cannot find a similar course at their previous school, and they have the following options:
• Students who feel ready can jump straight to ELEN E3201 without taking ELEN E1201. The EE Department may offer access to an informal, online version of ELEN E1201 for self-study over the summer to help with this option.
• Students with some circuits background can take the course ELEN E1201 in their first semester in parallel with the follow-on course ELEN E3201. Some have found this option workable.
• Students with little background in circuits may need to take ELEN E1201 in their first semester and postpone ELEN E3201 to the following year. This requires careful advance planning of all 4 semesters, though, and limits choices for technical electives due to prerequisite constraints, particularly for EE majors interested in circuits.
What is course equivalence?
Some combined-plan students find that they have taken courses at their previous school that are very similar to some of the core EE major requirements. In this case the EE Student Affairs office can help get approvals for the earlier course to be used to fill a requirement. But this does not impact the need for combined-plan students to take at least 60 points of credit at Columbia. It effectively allows the course to be replaced by something else, e.g., an additional technical elective to make a transcript look more impressive.
What does a typical EE Combined-Plan course plan look like?
Below is the actual schedule of an EE combined-plan student that is fairly representative. This student had sufficient circuits background to skip ELEN E1201, and took a seventh technical elective to reach 60 points. (If the student had taken ELEN E1201 in the first semester, Probability would have likely been postponed, and there would have only been room for the required six technical electives.)
IEOR E3658 3.00 PROBABILITY
ELEN E3801 3.50 SIGNALS AND SYSTEMS
ELEN E3201 3.50 CIRCUIT ANALYSIS
ELEN E3106 3.50 SOLID STATE DEVICES-MATER
ELEN E3084 1.00 SIGNALS & SYSTEMS LABORAT
ELEN E3081 1.00 CIRCUIT ANALYSIS LABORATO
15.50
ELEN E3701 3.00 INTRO TO COMMUNICATION SY
ELEN E3401 4.00 ELECTROMAGNETICS
ELEN E3331 3.00 ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS
ELEN E3083 1.00 ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS LABOR
ELEN E3082 1.00 DIGITAL SYSTEMS LABORATOR
CSEE W3827 3.00 FUNDAMENTALS OF COMPUTER
15.00
ELEN E4810 3.00 DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING
ELEN E4312 3.00 ANALOG ELECTRONIC CIRCUIT
ELEN E4193 3.00 MOD DISPLAY SCI & TECHNOL
ELEN E3399 1.00 ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING PR
ELEN E3043 3.00 SOL ST, MICROWAVE, OPTICS
EEME E3601 3.00 CLASSICAL CONTROL SYSTEMS
16.00
ELEN E4815 3.00 RANDOM SIGNALS & NOISE
ELEN E4511 3.00 POWER SYSTEMS ANALYSIS
ELEN E4314 3.00 COMMUNICATION CIRCUITS
ELEN E3390 3.00 ELEC CIRCUIT DESIGN LAB
COMS W3136 4.00 ESSENTIAL DATA STRUCTURE
16.00
What are my options to continue on to the MS program?
The two options mentioned in the General EE FAQs apply to combined-plan students as well. The one caveat is that combined-plan students, even if admitted to the Integrated BS/MS program, are still required to finish their BS in 4 semesters as required by the combined plan rules.