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Given my current job at an IT company and my electrical engineering background, which IT-focused master's programs would be a good fit for me, considering I want to avoid core engineering?

21 Sept 2026 · Answered by Soorya Sudheer · 2 min read
Soorya Sudheer
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Your Electrical Engineering bachelor's is not automatically a disadvantage here. UCLA, for example, explicitly lists Electrical Engineering among the common backgrounds of its Computer Science graduate applicants, while your current IT-company experience helps bridge whatever gap remains.

Programs Ranked by Fit With Your Goal

  • MS/MSc Computer Science: the broadest transition, keeping software, cloud, AI/ML, databases and cybersecurity all open as later specialisations.
  • MS/MSc Information Technology: probably the cleanest match if you are already working in IT and do not want a highly theoretical CS degree, covering software engineering, cloud, networks and security together.
  • MS Information Systems: a strong fit if you want IT blended with business, systems analysis or eventual IT/product management.
  • MS Software Engineering or MS Cybersecurity: worth considering as a more focused alternative once you know which specific IT direction interests you most.

What to Check Before You Apply

Admission requirements vary significantly by university. UC San Diego, for instance, expects substantial preparation in programming, algorithms and core CS subjects even from Electrical Engineering applicants, so check each program's prerequisites carefully and be ready to show programming coursework or project work from your current IT role.

My Advice

In my experience, EE graduates already working in IT under-sell their current job as evidence of readiness. Frame your application around specific IT-company work, cloud, software, systems, or data tasks you have actually done, since that experience often carries as much weight as formal CS coursework when a university is deciding whether to admit an EE background into a CS or IT master's.

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