Computer Engineering v. Computer Science


Recommended Posts

I'm a high school senior, trying to figure out what to do with life, and I'm not sure whether to go with a major in CE or CS.

I'm interested in web and computer programming, but the physics behind computer hardware also interests me... and as I understand it, CS is more software oriented, CE is more hardware.

This leaves me in a weird position where I don't know which major to go with, so I figured I would ask the Neowin community...

I'll be attending the University of Nebraska- Lincoln if that makes any difference...

Thanks

  Quote
CS is more software oriented, CE is more hardware

You got that right

Well I took Computer Science because I loved computer games (I know it's wrong, but since then I started to love making programs, web applications, etc). I'm not so much into tinkering electronics (I always hated those subjects about electric currents, AND-OR-Gates, etc)

So I guess it depends on what you really like lol sorry not helping much..

Depends on how deeply you wish to know how a computer works..

You will learn alot of the fundamentals even from taking Comp science but to go deeper I.E. Logic gates, silicon/circuit design, etc Engineering maybe your forte...

One disappointment of studying at University for me though is that the one I attend, they barely teach anything that I dont already know (Apart from ASP/ASP.NET, Writing in "Plain English") :p

I attend West Virginia University and I have friends who study both CS and CE, you are correct that CS = software and CE = hardware. FWIW (from a microbiology grad student) from my experience in talking to them and knowing what courses they take there does seem to be some overlap between the two curricula.

If you want to get an idea of what the differences between the two majors are try looking up the course catalog on their website. You can actually see what courses are required by the university to achieve a degree in the particular major, see which one has courses that seem more interesting to you.

Here is the link for their course catalog

I also went for CS since I couldn't stand the hardware stuff (although I did have a good time building stuff with an HC11). In university I learned (or "mastered") C/C++, and other languages. Unfortunately my current work is all Java based but I still like it :) (not a bad language, it was really easy to pick up but I enjoy programming in C/C++ a lot more).

I've heard some people who took CE complain about the fact that they don't learn enough software programming but I can't really comment on that

I started out in Computer Engineering and then switched over to Electrical Engineering this year since I'm not a big fan of programming. At the University I attend, Computer Engineering is considered a mix of Software and Electrical Engineering.

In the long run, I think CE would be a better choice for the sake that you can become a certified Engineer and there isn't as many people in that field. Less people equals more demand in that area. If you can do Software Engineering though, do that. That is even more in demand.

My only advise would be to go on the University's website and download the most recent curriculum. On there each major should be broken down to what classes you will take and when you take them. Then you should be able to get a description of what you will be doing in each class. This is very very important because a lot of people switch their majors in college and then get behind in classes when they switch. Save yourself the money and frustration and make sure you are 100% sure of what you are getting yourself into.

Also, I hope you like programming as you will be eating and sleeping it for the next 4 years. :D

Here's my University's CE cirriculum. Description of classes is at the end:

CE is on page 123

I started out as CS major before transitioning to CompE. The fact that the avg starting salary was about $12k higher at my shcool helped but it was more to do with economy back then.

Main difference you'll have to endure off the bat is way more math in the core curriculum. I had to take Cal 3 & 4 along with DiffEQ after I switched. Also you have to take cal based engineering physics which is no walk in the park compared to Chem or what ever other science core CS allows you sub for.

Can't say I regretted it. I got the pick of the Co-Op offers and even though my GPA took a hurting it payed off in the end. With CS you're pretty much pigeonholed into the codemonkey lifestyle if stop at undergraduate and R&D/Academia if you continue on.

Btw, I'm not a fan of the Big12 but I do pull for the huskers when they're playing. ;)

Edited by 9UnknownMen
  David R. said:
I'm a high school senior, trying to figure out what to do with life, and I'm not sure whether to go with a major in CE or CS.

I'm interested in web and computer programming, but the physics behind computer hardware also interests me... and as I understand it, CS is more software oriented, CE is more hardware.

This leaves me in a weird position where I don't know which major to go with, so I figured I would ask the Neowin community...

I'll be attending the University of Nebraska- Lincoln if that makes any difference...

Thanks

There is nothing weird about that!

Have you looked at the curriculum of those courses at that School in any detail yet?

Do that first, then look at the future jobs prospects... if both subjects interest you equally (and you don't want to do the double major option) then you might as well go with the one that leads to more $$$ at the end..

I faced this dilemma 3 1/2 years ago when i was a senior in HS.

The university i go to, is basically a mix of comp sci classes + electrical engineering.

Then during the late junior to senior year, the university takes all that theory junk and put it into practice.

(such as electives on ASIC/FPGA)

well, i made my choice because i really like programming (I think i learned to like it during college, you probably will have to do the same) and my curiosity into electronics was insatiable. Thus i chose CompE as my major, but so far im debating whether i should just double major (CS and EE), because stuff like energy aren't included in CompE (And apparently energy will become a major industry in the next 10 years).

Then again if you dont know anything about CS or CompE it may dissuade you to stay in that major as u progress through college.

Keep in mind there is no rush to choose your major. I have friends that were undecided, and ended up happy in their overdue chosen majors.

Thanks everyone. Just getting so many insightful responses in a short time makes me feel much more confident.

  Mystic said:
No way! I'm currently attending there and I'm a freshmen. I'm in the business college right now (CBA) for management, but next year will start my focus in MIS (management information systems). Not sure what advice to offer you, just thought I had to post. :p

Go Huskers!

  Anaron said:
What about a double major in Computer Science and Computer Engineering? :yes:

That's actually very interesting... I'll see how viable it is, but I'm amazed that I didn't think of that before. The quick look I've taken at the curriculum seems like if I go that route I'm only a few credit hours from a math major too... triple major FTW?

  Edge00 said:
If you want to get an idea of what the differences between the two majors are try looking up the course catalog on their website. You can actually see what courses are required by the university to achieve a degree in the particular major, see which one has courses that seem more interesting to you.

Here is the link for their course catalog

Thanks for the link. I've had a little trouble navigating UNL's website, and that was one of the elusive items. I must have just been way off in my navigation attempts.

  9UnknownMen said:
Btw, I'm not a fan of the Big12 but I do pull for the huskers when they're playing. ;)

The Gator Bowl was pretty exciting... a little too exciting, maybe.

Right now I have a pretty decent scholarship offer from the College of Engineering, and I don't want to lose that by transferring to the College of Arts and Sciences for a CS degree... That makes double(triple) majoring even more appealing. Has anyone else attempted double majoring CS and CE? Is it extremely difficult?

  David R. said:
I'm a high school senior, trying to figure out what to do with life, and I'm not sure whether to go with a major in CE or CS.

I'm interested in web and computer programming, but the physics behind computer hardware also interests me... and as I understand it, CS is more software oriented, CE is more hardware.

This leaves me in a weird position where I don't know which major to go with, so I figured I would ask the Neowin community...

I'll be attending the University of Nebraska- Lincoln if that makes any difference...

Thanks

I've been both. Electrical and Computer Engineering is a whole lot of circuits, voltages, currents, and so forth. Computer Science, at least for me, was 95% programming with a little bit of hardware thrown in there for good measure. I was an ECE major for about a year and a half before I switched to CS, and while I don't particularly like either of them, CS is probably the better of the two.

But, really, don't worry about your major. Just pick something you can tolerate for four years; it's going to be completely meaningless when you get out into the real world. At least that's what people keep telling me since I've been stressing about having absolutely no desire to do a CS-related job, but feel unqualified to do anything else. *shrugs*

  Quote
it's going to be completely meaningless when you get out into the real world.

Wow, that's a terrible statement to make. In our generation, it is absolutely all about education. The more the better.

You could be a lot less deserving than somebody else for a job, but if you have your Masters over somebody with only a Bachelors, you will get the job. Just how it works in big business.

You have to find a mix of something you will enjoy and something that will suit the style of living you want to have.

  Escalade_GT said:
Wow, that's a terrible statement to make. In our generation, it is absolutely all about education. The more the better.

You could be a lot less deserving than somebody else for a job, but if you have your Masters over somebody with only a Bachelors, you will get the job. Just how it works in big business.

You have to find a mix of something you will enjoy and something that will suit the style of living you want to have.

No, I mean, yes, education is important and having a degree will definitely help secure a good job, but what that degree is actually in doesn't matter that much for many careers. That's what I meant. College is mostly just to show that you can do something for four years and stick with it to the end, so I've been told.

I major in Info Tech at my uni - currently achieved senior status this semester - may grad this Dec 2009.

Programming - ugh not my thing. Networking, oh yes!

I'm taking a class this semester related to computers - Fundamentals of Electricity and Electronics (ECT174). The remaining 5 classes are electives - History, Tech Writing, Spanish II, etc.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • There are too many people doing nothing and just cruising at MS because of how the previous culture was (rest and vest).
    • AMD Ryzen AM4 16-core 5900XT processor has never been priced cheaper by Sayan Sen While AMD's newest processor platform with DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 goodness is AM5, the preceding Socket AM4 continues to be a great option for gamers shopping on a lower budget. One of the most powerful AM4 desktop chips, the 16-core Ryzen 9 5900XT, is currently priced at the lowest ever at just $230 (purchase links down below). The Ryzen 7 5900XT is based on the Zen 3 architecture supports DDR4, PCIe Gen4, and offers very good performance in both gaming and productivity. While users may not expect the same level of gaming throughput or latency improvement as the 5800X3D, it is certainly possible that titles that utilize more than 16 threads will favor the 5900XT over the 5800X3D. And the 5900XT has plenty of L3 cache as well at 64 MB. So while not 3D stacked V-cache, it should still be a decent gaming chip. And all that cache as well as cores/threads will be excellent for non-gaming tasks of course. The CPU has a base clock of 3.3 GHz and boosts up to 4.8. It has a TDP of 105 watts so the available power envelope certainly helps with that. It can tolerate temperatures of up to 90 °C and there is no boxed cooler with it. So you need an aftermarket one, ideally a 280 mm or 360 mm AIO liquid cooler or an excellent air cooler. Also since this is a 16-core 105-watt chip, make sure to run it on an AM4 board that has good quality VRM and cooling with lots of power (ideally an X570 motherboard). Another consideration is that it does not have integrated graphics so you need a separate dedicated GPU for display out. Get the AMD Ryzen 9 5900XT at the links below: AMD Ryzen 9 5900XT - No Integrated Graphics Desktop CPU Processor - 100-100001581WOF: $229.99 (Amazon US) || : $279.00 (Newegg US + Corsair 32GB DDR4-3200 RAM) This Amazon deal is US-specific and not available in other regions unless specified. If you don't like it or want to look at more options, check out the Amazon US deals page here. Get Prime (SNAP), Prime Video, Audible Plus or Kindle / Music Unlimited. Free for 30 days. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
    • OnlyOffice 9.0.0 by Razvan Serea OnlyOffice Desktop Editors is an open-source office suite distributed under AGPL v.3 that combines text, spreadsheet and presentation editors allowing to create, view and edit documents stored on your computer. The application does not require constant connection to the Internet and allows youto create, edit, save and export text, spreadsheet and presentation documents. It is fully compatible with Office Open XML formats: .docx, .xlsx, .pptx. One pack - five editors - multiple features Create, view and edit text documents, spreadsheets and presentations of any size and complexity. Work on documents of most popular formats: DOCX, ODT, XLSX, PDF, ODS, CSV, PPTX, ODP, etc. Deal with multiple files within one and the same window thanks to the tab-based user interface. Highest compatibility with Microsoft Office formats. Real-time collaboration within your favorite cloud Connect ONLYOFFICE Desktop Editors to the cloud platform of your choice: ONLYOFFICE, Nextcloud or ownCloud to collaborate on documents with your team – co-edit in real time, review, comment and interact using chat. Extending your editing capabilities Take the most of your editing with the collection of third-party plugins. Insert a YouTube video, add special symbols or a ClipArt object, automatically translate any word or sentence, highlight code, etc. Do even more! Create your own plugin using the API documentation and ready-to-use examples available on GitHub. OnlyOffice key features: View, edit, and collaborate on docs, sheets, slides Build fillable PDF forms and fill them in online Read and edit PDFs, export/import to/from PDF Convert docs to Markdown and HTML Turn your textbooks into e-books Generate texts with the AI helper OnlyOffice 9.0 changelog: New features All Editors Redesigned interface of the main application window Added new interface themes: Modern Light and Modern Dark Added saving of the last selected languages in spellcheck lists Added Arabic spellcheck dictionary used in sixteen dialects Added AI-powered macro generation from descriptions and VBA-to-JavaScript conversion Added the interface translation into Urdu (ur-PK, Urdu (Pakistan)) Added support for TextArt text settings inside chart labels Added support for drawing the Up/Down Bars chart elements Merged local and cloud template lists into a unified view The list of templates is now processed on the client side, not on the server The installed system languages are now displayed at the top of the text/document/dictionary list Added a contrast-reducing effect for control buttons in inactive windows Added the option to select a printer in the print preview menu The Print using the system dialog option has been added to the print preview menu The ability to configure format associations for modern Windows OS in the EXE package installation wizard has been unlocked Document Editor Added correct display of previews for paragraph numbers for RTL Improved positioning and settings of TextArt for RTL Improved drawing of borders and fill for paragraphs with RTL direction Enabled accurate cursor navigation with arrow keys based on the paragraph's text direction Added the ability to display numbers using Hindi digits Added a setting in the File menu for selecting the preferred font size: Western/Chinese for the Chinese interface language (Chinese (Simplified)) Added a Borders button to the Home toolbar to quickly set paragraph settings Added support for the MD format for reading Spreadsheet Editor Added support for displaying bidirectional text Added the ability to select external data from another spreadsheet Presentation Editor Added the ability to set the paragraph direction (Text Direction > RTL) on the toolbar and in the advanced settings Added the ability to view animations with text Added the "Preserve" option to the Slide Master context menu Forms Changed the appearance of the Signature and Image fields: the placeholder and signature icon are now always displayed Improved user experience when filling in the Signature and Image fields Added a new "type": "signature" for the Signature field, used in the process of filling out forms PDF Editor Added the ability to set RTL direction for text The Edit Text option is available in the Community Edition build Implemented a PDF form editor Added copying pages between PDF files Diagrams Release of the first version of the Diagram Viewer with the ability to open VSDX files for viewing Convert Added conversion of the XLSB format to the editor's internal format, allowing editing and saving in XLSX without preliminary conversion Download: OnlyOffice 64-bit | 273.0 MB (Open Source) Download: OnlyOffice 32-bit | 252.0 MB Download: Windows XP 64-bit | 467.0 MB Download: Windows XP 32-bit | 457.0 MB View: OnlyOffice Website | Screenshot | Release Notes Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Awesome! Can't wait to get the stable version on my Surface Pro.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Week One Done
      Wayne Robinson earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Karan Khanna earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Week One Done
      Karan Khanna earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • First Post
      MikeK13 earned a badge
      First Post
    • Week One Done
      OHI Accounting earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      687
    2. 2
      ATLien_0
      268
    3. 3
      Michael Scrip
      204
    4. 4
      +FloatingFatMan
      172
    5. 5
      Steven P.
      145
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!