<p>I'm starting school this fall and currently my major is CS. I actually didn't know there was a separate computer engineering degree until I had already made up my mind about CS but now I keep thinking about it.
I love working with computers. Pretty much every aspect of them....I like figuring out issues that come up, whether that involves hardware, software, or network. I like programming, I like building computers....so I'm really unsure of what degree I should go into.
I've been out of school for 6 years (high school) and haven't done math for 8 years. So I'm REALLY behind in all the math classes I'm supposed to take. I have to take a remedial class, then two other math classes before I even get to where I'm supposed to be for the degree. I always enjoyed algebra but I just don't remember any of it so I'm not really worried about the math aspect of the degrees.
However, I do have to work and the CE degree looks way more intensive then the CS degree. It would probably take me 6-7 years to graduate with the CE and that's with taking summer classes.
My husband is going to school as well and if he gets a job within his major I could probably work very little hours or quit but I have no idea when that will happen. He won't be done until Spring 2015.
So with all that can anyone give some advice on which degree to take?</p>
<p>It depends on the specific school and curricula for the majors.</p>
<p>At most schools, computer engineering tends to emphasize more hardware design (with some EE topics as well as some software topics close to the hardware, like operating systems and embedded systems), while computer science is more software and theory oriented. But the specifics depend on the school.</p>
<p>I’d do the CS degree. Back in the 80s, when companies actually designed and built computers in the US, CE would have been more valuable. But now most computer jobs don’t require anything beyond basic knowledge about how computers are engineered, so if you major in CE, you might end up taking classes that don’t directly apply to the job market, while foregoing those that do apply.</p>
<p>I don’t know which school you’re going to, but the CS programs I’m familiar with usually have electives that would allow you to add some CE-type classes if you’re really interested in that topic.</p>
<p>I think that CS is more flexible (in thought and ideas sense), eventhough it’s not “engineering” and eventhough it doesn’t necessarily require any hardware or physics classes (the ones one may take may just be about abstractions of how the computer system works or is laid out). The reasons are a) CS is very applicable in a very large range of activities, because computers are computation are everywhere b) If you supplement the CS degree with a good portion of mathematics (and if you like, physics as well), then you’re covering less of the specific CE/EE ground, but will acquire a more general (we could say theoretical) sense of the area. Thus you can acquire a “hunch” of the topics and can very well develop your understanding further (given that you have interest for it), eventhough you haven’t taken those CE/EE-style classes. I would pick CE over CS only if you have a very strong interest in computer design and the relevant EE topics and hands-on/tangible work and the “theoretical CS” doesn’t sound interesting. Generally the two are quite different, because CE is fundamentally practical (supported by theory), whereas CS can get close to being just about pure mathematics (because it’s all there is in e.g. computability theory, computational geometry, algorithm design and analysis, programming language theory etc.). Surely you can approach both “fields” from eachother, but they’re that far apart, that it’s quite a bit of work (mainly I think, because of the very large amount of mathematics that can be or is “applicable” in CS, depending of course on how far you want to take it).</p>
<p>Thanks for the answers everyone. I’ll stick with the CS degree for now. I have to get all my gen ed classes out of the way anyway. I’m not sure what I want to do but since CS is more flexible I’ll probably just leave it at CS. Also, the university I’m going to the CE credits overall is 139 while CS is 128. Plus I have to take those 3 extra math classes. The CE program seems like it’s a lot more work then CS and I’m not sure if I’m up for that, at least not right now since I’m still undecided and working.
Thanks again for the responses and advice, I have a better understanding of the two now</p>