<p>I am a high school senior looking to go into computer science to become a software developer, but my father is advising me otherwise. He stated that I should get a degree in computer engineering, because I could still develop software, but the title of "engineer" will make me a lot more money. He also stated that a lot of CS grads get stuck in the role of a low-level programmer, while most engineers are promoted up the ranks much faster. I would like to work for a company like Cisco, IBM, Microsoft, etc. Is that still possible with a degree in CE?</p>
<p>i think your dad has no clue what he’s talking about</p>
<p>CS is a really good degree. The pay is comparable to engineering fields, and you can choose to work anywhere in the country, which is more than can be said for a lot of engineering specialties. </p>
<p>I have proven in various threads here that I don’t really understand the division between CS, CpE, softwareE, EE, etc. I think it largely depends on the school and the department what degrees study what exactly, but I am not a good source on that. But I have looked into it enough, and this is the first time I’m hearing anyone speculate that CpE majors are more privileged programmers than CS. If you want to write software, CS seems like the best targeted degree to get you there.</p>
<p>JamesMadison is right. To be bluntly honest, your dad has no idea what he is talking about. A CS grad’s job title in software is going to be “Software Engineer.” </p>
<p>Whether or not you get promoted to management is entirely up to you to determine. Typically programmers enter management by eventually rising up to the point of leading projects/teams, then going beyond that. It is completely false that CE grads have better management opportunities than CS grads.</p>
<p>The difference between CE and CS depends on your school. Generally CE is a combination of EE (electrical engineering) and CS. Some top engineering schools won’t even offer CE! Stanford doesn’t even offer CE or any sort of major that combines EE and CS!</p>
<p>If you only want to work in software, go for CS. If you might want to work on hardware, CE is a good option. It depends on what you’re interested in.</p>