<p>well so i know im asking very stupid question but i couldnt find the answer through the google.. sry </p>
<p>so here is the thing</p>
<p>i decided to pursue computer related major when i go to college. i wanted to be a programmer but my parents strongly disagree to my decision (my mom thinks i would be living on a street or with alot of debt if i become a programmer) so im thinkin i should try to be a software engineer or a hardware engineer. much more toward to engineering rather than just a computer programming</p>
<p>the question is, some of the school that i wanna go have only computer informational majors and computer science majors(i.e u of wisconsin-madison), not computer engineering major...</p>
<p>does it mean that in those schools, i cant pursue the dream of the software engineer? im little confused on that. i know it's a very retarded question but please answer with a generousity.</p>
<p>It's okay, judging by the frequency with which similar topics come up here, you're not the only one confused about this.</p>
<p>It sounds like, if you do software, you (or your parents) want you to be a proper engineer and not just a code monkey*. That's good (though I'm not sure how you would have majored in "programming" anyway; I didn't think it was generally offered). But if what you really want to do is program...trust me, software engineers (I am one) do a lot of programming. It's just that they do a lot of other stuff as well.</p>
<p>Now, to address your discipline confusion...software engineering is almost always part of the computer science curriculum (it is occasionally in CompE, but if the schools in question don't have CompE, then it is in CS unless the school offers a separate software engineering major, which most don't. So if you want to be a software engineer, be a computer science major.</p>
<p>The obvious major for a future hardware engineer is CompE. If there is no CompE major, then the CompE curriculum is probably blended in with the EE curriculum, the CS curriculum, or both. So you would figure out which of EE and CS has more of the CompE hardware engineering stuff (usually EE, but not always), and major in that one, and then take any relevant classes in the other one as electives.</p>
<p>*"Code monkey" is a somewhat pejorative term for someone who just gets told what needs to be coded, and codes it, but doesn't get to do design or other non-programming engineering stuff, and frequently doesn't know or care much about what s/he is writing the code for. A software engineer also codes. But a software engineer understands (well, theoretically) principles of good design, testing, etc, and actually gets to do these things, care about what s/he's writing the code for, and in general be an actual engineer. Software engineers are also usually better programmers than code monkeys, because they've been taught how to do things like write efficient code.</p>
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my mom thinks i would be living on a street or with alot of debt if i become a programmer
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<p>ikkim, I don't think your mom knows a lot of programmers :) </p>
<p>i have a lot of friends in that line of work, and the vast majority of them are doing ok, some so much more than ok. a few though are in and out of short-term work, but they always seem to find the next one really quick. granted, there's several factors that would contribute to success, such as your skill set, experience, what's in demand, location, willingness to move around, salary expectations vs job security, etc.. </p>
<p>If you do want to do programming, i think computer science is the way to go.
good luck ikkim.</p>
<p>I just wanted to address the money issue. When my D and I visited Carnegie-Mellon in May we talked to the career counselor for computer science majors. He gave us a summary sheet of the jobs accepted by 2007 graduates. The median starting salary was $71,750 with a range from $42,000 to $86,000. The companies employing the most students were Microsoft and Google. We only picked up information for the school of computer science but perhaps you could contact CMU and ask them how SCS salaries compare to salaries for CE graduates. That would be an interesting comparison. </p>
<p>I'm not really sure what your parents consider to be a good income. A $71,750 a year starting salary sounded really good to my D and I.</p>
<p>Just like Jessiehl stated, big difference between a code monkey(which is most likely what your parents were referring to) and a software engineer or an computer scientist.
At first glance,
Computer science is theory
Software engineering is application</p>
<p>But some schools concentrate on application in their CS curriculum</p>
<p>the computer field is one of the highest paying entry-level fields out there. software engineering is easily attainable with a computer science degree, especially if its from wisconsin madison</p>