Academic path question

College Majors Engineering Majors
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<p>Hi, I'm in a freshman who's doing Electrical and Computer Engineering at a good school. I'm getting anxious about whether its the right major for me.</p>

<p>I have a great interest in programming and computer science. By far, my intro CS class feels the most rewarding of all my classes. So far in my ECE intro class, we've surveyed: 1) Voltage/Current Laws, 2) Circuits and circuit elements, 3) Signals Systems, 4) Logic Gates. I wasn't very moved by the first three. But the last seems pretty interesting. Overall, my grades are slightly above average for that class.</p>

<p>My parents really want me to do ECE because they say that any engineering degree will open more doors than a CS. I've also had people tell me that the ECE department is broad enough that a student can choose to do the "computer software" depth sequence of ECE. In essence, I hear that ECE people can compete with CS people sufficiently for typical CS jobs.</p>

<p>Since I'm a freshman, I can't be so sure what career I will pursue. But I can see myself doing a software related job after college. A job at a company like Google or Adobe or a small startup would be great. I just want to make sure that the major on my college transcript will make me competitive. I really don't want employers overlooking me or paying me less because the similarly-qualified CS grad has a CS degree and I don't.</p>

<p>Also at my college, computer science is by far the most competitive most exclusive. Changing to CS requires a complicated internal transfer.</p>

<p>As far as math goes, I'm in a logic/proof class and I'm really enjoying the material. I find that this material is more interesting than the Calculus I learned in high school, maybe since I wasn't very good at doing calculator math. This probably contributes why I finding logic gates, which dealt with two discrete states, more intriguing than circuitry which required lots of calculator work.</p>

<p>What do you guys think? Will there be a huge difference from whether I transfer to CS or do a ECE Computer Software track.</p>

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<p>Your parents are incorrect. How many doors, and which doors, will be opened with each degree depends on industry and economic conditions at the time; of course, your own interests that appear to prefer the computer engineering (logic gates), software, and math topics can determine which doors you want to go through.</p>

<p>Also, in practice, in the computer industry, employers are often flexible about what degrees they want to see (if they care at all) for experienced job applicants (i.e. not those just graduating college or entering the labor force the first time).</p>

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What? The pay for CS jobs has been standardized for new graduates by most top companies regardless of what college you come from or what major (CS versus ECE, EECS, etc.) you pursued.</p>