computer science/engineering - CIT or SCS?

<p>i'm a prospective CS major. but i don't know which program would suit me better. i want a program strong in CS, but geared towards engineering. I don't know the difference btw CIT's CS/EE prog. and SCS's CS prog. - would CIT's EE/CS be better than CS at SCS, or is CS at SCS worth the 'lack of engineering'? also, given that SCS is more competitive, is it a wiser decision to apply to CIT?</p>

<p>kishore</p>

<p>note: i prefer hardware/networking studies rather than a prog. focused on programming. also, focus or potential research in robotics or similar areas is a plus.</p>

<p>just outta curiosity, does anyone know which program is rated by US news as #3 for comp. eng. - the SCS program or the EE/CS prog. at CIT?</p>

<p>CIT doesn't have an "EE/CS" program...It only has Electrical and Computer Engineering as a major.</p>

<p>I was in a similar situation, so I applied to both SCS and CIT (ECE). I put SCS as my first choice since I knew it was harder to get into, but I was accepted to both and decided to enroll in SCS. However, I'm planning to double major in CS and ECE. CIT just started offering ECE as a second major (as opposed to a dual degree) for CS majors this year. It's much more common for ECE students to double major in CS.</p>

<p>Regarding research, I'm doing research in both the CS and ECE sides of robotics. The CS and ECE departments overlap quite a bit, and several professors research and teach in both. So even if you're in CS, you can still do research in ECE stuff, and vice versa.</p>

<p>I'm not sure, but I think the CMU's #3 ranking in computer engineering is mostly for the CIT program. However, the rankings are based on peer assessments, which come from other universities' overall perception of the CMU in this area. Thus it is probably influenced to some extent by our CS reputation. There is no undergraduate ranking for CS programs, but if this ranking were based on CS, our program would probably be ranked higher (consistently), like 1st or 2nd.</p>

<p>thanks for the insightful info...just one question, though - if i also plan to dual major in CS as an ECE student, do i need to mention it specifically on the CMU supplement? or do you enroll in a dual major only in sophomore year?</p>

<p>No, you don't need to mention it in your application. You'll have to apply for the second major/dual degree at some point while you're here.</p>

<p>Many many people go into ECE and decided on a "computer engineering" track. The CE track of ECE overlaps quite a bit with CS and allows you to double major to get a dual degree.</p>

<p>There is a robotics minor available to CS majors and I would assume also to ECE majors. If you want a focus on hardware, I think that ECE would be a better choice. Look at the requirements for the two programs and see what you'd prefer to be taking. <a href="http://www.cmu.edu/esg-cat/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.cmu.edu/esg-cat/&lt;/a> has the whole catalog; look at the minors offered, too.</p>