I hold a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Berkeley. I was in L&S for two years majoring first in physics and later switching to history. My grades in L&S were not great, but I was accepted into the College of Engineering, where I had to take a year of lower division engineering, so it took me 5 years to graduate. My grades in engineering were much better than in L&S.
I have a friend who was the QB of our high school football team, and did not have good grades in high school. He went to SF City College, while I went to Cal. A few years later, I ran into him on the Cal campus, and he was wearing glasses and carried a big briefcase. He was at Cal, studying Electrical Engineering. He ended up getting a PhD in that, and then going to Johns Hopkins for graduate work. He is now a professor of bioengineering at UCLA.
So there are many paths to Engineering at Cal. I would expect that the Engineering Office at UCB would know the best ways to currently get accepted, so my advice would be for the boy to go in person to the Engineering Office and ask to speak with the Dean or an assistant about the different paths and the likelihood of acceptance for him in each one.
Some posters here have mentioned trying other schools. There are advantages and disadvantages to Cal and to other schools as well. Cal will teach theory and how to think logically. Cal is preparing undergraduates for graduate school (sadly, not for their own graduate school, but if you graduate from Cal in Engineering, and because of Cal's reputation, you will be able to get into an engineering grad school somewhere in the country). At Cal, the graduate school is what the Engineering Department is all about. It is what makes money for the University, with all the research grants they attract. And what graduate school at Cal is all about is training students to be teachers or researchers.
Cal's engineering coursework is less tailored to the engineering workplace. When I was first in Engineering, I wanted to study electrical engineering, there were courses in advanced fields, like chip design, but literally no courses in motors, generators, power distribution, electronics, the nuts and bolts of most engineering jobs in the electrical industry at the time. So I went into mechanical engineering. At Cal you will get cutting edge engineering, but you may not be able to find a job doing that in industry.
The best engineers I ever met, with the most practical knowledge, and ability to solve problems, were from schools like Washington, San Jose State, Cal Poly and Seattle U. Guys like that were never out of work. Cal Poly, for example, will give the student a lot of hands on experience in the lab, which is the best way to learn engineering, IMO.
On the other hand, I have been hired a few times simply because I had a degree from Cal. And then I had to learn the engineering on the job. I rarely used anything in the way of specific engineering knowledge that I learned at Cal in an engineering job.
A degree from Cal can be a bit of a drawback as well, because workplace engineering is not Cal's strong suit. My dad had a BA from Cal in Architecture, and had his own Architectural practice for over 50 years. After a few years, and some bad experiences, my dad would no longer hire young Berkeley grads. They could design you a geodesic dome, but they had no idea how to put two pieces of wood together or make an actual working drawing. He had good luck with Cal Poly grads. It is the same in engineering. I have hired Cal grads who are experts on a computer, but don't how to design anything practical, and can't make a working drawing. They certainly can learn all this, but they have to do it on the job, and many employers, especially the small ones, don't have the time or money to teach them.
So your friend's son needs to decide what type of engineer he would like to be, and then decide which school would be best. Cal is best for some, and not necessarily best for others.
:beer:
I have a friend who was the QB of our high school football team, and did not have good grades in high school. He went to SF City College, while I went to Cal. A few years later, I ran into him on the Cal campus, and he was wearing glasses and carried a big briefcase. He was at Cal, studying Electrical Engineering. He ended up getting a PhD in that, and then going to Johns Hopkins for graduate work. He is now a professor of bioengineering at UCLA.
So there are many paths to Engineering at Cal. I would expect that the Engineering Office at UCB would know the best ways to currently get accepted, so my advice would be for the boy to go in person to the Engineering Office and ask to speak with the Dean or an assistant about the different paths and the likelihood of acceptance for him in each one.
Some posters here have mentioned trying other schools. There are advantages and disadvantages to Cal and to other schools as well. Cal will teach theory and how to think logically. Cal is preparing undergraduates for graduate school (sadly, not for their own graduate school, but if you graduate from Cal in Engineering, and because of Cal's reputation, you will be able to get into an engineering grad school somewhere in the country). At Cal, the graduate school is what the Engineering Department is all about. It is what makes money for the University, with all the research grants they attract. And what graduate school at Cal is all about is training students to be teachers or researchers.
Cal's engineering coursework is less tailored to the engineering workplace. When I was first in Engineering, I wanted to study electrical engineering, there were courses in advanced fields, like chip design, but literally no courses in motors, generators, power distribution, electronics, the nuts and bolts of most engineering jobs in the electrical industry at the time. So I went into mechanical engineering. At Cal you will get cutting edge engineering, but you may not be able to find a job doing that in industry.
The best engineers I ever met, with the most practical knowledge, and ability to solve problems, were from schools like Washington, San Jose State, Cal Poly and Seattle U. Guys like that were never out of work. Cal Poly, for example, will give the student a lot of hands on experience in the lab, which is the best way to learn engineering, IMO.
On the other hand, I have been hired a few times simply because I had a degree from Cal. And then I had to learn the engineering on the job. I rarely used anything in the way of specific engineering knowledge that I learned at Cal in an engineering job.
A degree from Cal can be a bit of a drawback as well, because workplace engineering is not Cal's strong suit. My dad had a BA from Cal in Architecture, and had his own Architectural practice for over 50 years. After a few years, and some bad experiences, my dad would no longer hire young Berkeley grads. They could design you a geodesic dome, but they had no idea how to put two pieces of wood together or make an actual working drawing. He had good luck with Cal Poly grads. It is the same in engineering. I have hired Cal grads who are experts on a computer, but don't how to design anything practical, and can't make a working drawing. They certainly can learn all this, but they have to do it on the job, and many employers, especially the small ones, don't have the time or money to teach them.
So your friend's son needs to decide what type of engineer he would like to be, and then decide which school would be best. Cal is best for some, and not necessarily best for others.
:beer: