<p>S has to declare his major shortly, and he's torn between CS and electrical engineering. He's interested in entrepreneurship or finance, but he prefers to not be in a structured environment in either capacity. Says he's a "big picture" guy who wants to understand how things work but prefers to be a manager. He wants a major that is respected as rigorous and good preparation for anything thrown at him. The number of classes that he would have to take for engineering would leave him with fewer electives than CS...if he majors in CS, he can add economics as a second major. He says that EE is a "dinosaur"and dreads some of the classes, but he sees that it is respected and disciplined. Academically, he is a very strong student and he can easily handle either. Thanks for all thoughts and suggestions!</p>
<p>If he wants to be an entrepreneur, does he want to do so with a product or service that is more CS-based or EE-based?</p>
<p>If he dreads some courses in EE, why go that route. At Carnegie Mellon all CS majors have to minor in something else, with the idea that CS can be applied to anything. CS may not be as old a major as EE, but I think it is respected and it seems to fit in much better with his ultimate goals.</p>
<p>He’s not sure what sort of product he will eventually develop, although he’s already created a few apps, and that makes him lean toward CS. He doesn’t particularly enjoy programming, however, and finds it tedious. </p>
<p>H (who has an EE degree) says that just because he’s not been exposed to manufacturing, he shouldn’t rule it out and there may be more opportunity in making a hard product than in software development. If he does CS, he will also add Econ as a second major (no minors at his school, but he is already well on the way to having enough classes for Econ, which he enjoys and finds easy).</p>
<p>I agree with your son. My husband and I are both EE and we can’t find decent work in real EE. Before the tech burst he was already into software at a much higher level, ie not coding but more like system level. We never had to deal with manufacturing products either. But lately I think more or less defense work might need EE. My daughter started out as EECS but dropped to CS. I kind of agree it has more job opportunities. It allows her to take more CS classes, more liberal arts classes that she likes language, Econ, and such. I think she might do an MS if her future employer pays for it and maybe an MBA later. She is good of asking me progress on things so I’m sure she makes a great manager some day. :D</p>
<p>^^^Does your daughter feel that she has less “rigor” with CS? My H’s biggest concern is that CS is perceived to be less rigorous and future employers will wonder if S is a “lightweight.” I think S will be judged on what he can actually do, and not really what his major was…but II really have no idea because I don’t work in any of these areas.</p>
<p>What about math and econ? If he wants to go into finance, with a CS degree he may be pegged as an IT person. My daughter double majored in math and econ, and most interviewers were impressed. She didn’t have the highest GPA (just over 3.5), but she was able to get interviews because of her majors. She took few programming and finance courses to show she had aptitude.</p>
<p>He’s ruled out applied math, which surprised me because that’s his strength. I guess he feels that math will preclude him from tech companies and start-up job that require strong technical expertise.</p>
<p>I have hired physics, math, engineering, even business majors for tech company. I think as long as your son takes few programming courses and get good grades he should be fine. My kid didn’t take applied math. Most people asked her if she wanted to be a math teacher.</p>
<p>My son started out as EE (technically called Electrical and Computer Engineering) and added CS as a double major. That decision allowed him to take CS courses which counted as EE electives. He has been highly sought after for internships. To earn both degrees would actually take him 5 years so, he’s talking about just finishing the EE and graduating in 4. It’s been the best of both worlds.</p>
<p>Gourmetmom, being an EE major I originally thought the same thing but I changed my mind when I read on CC that the CS majors from UCB makes more on average than the EECS. So it’s not all about money ever, but I think there must be a reason for that discrepancy. Also at my daughter’s school the degree is BS CS so I think it’s not lightweighted. It also free her up to take more CS electives like cryptography which is one if her interests.</p>
<p>So I know on CC one poster keeps refer to CS major for IT work. My experience is that you don’t need any training to be doing IT work or merely the training should be community college level. This confirms my experience recently because my daughter has a friend who beat out thousands of candidates with computer background for an IT job when he has no experience. He is well liked as a person and is going to 2 year community college. It’s a pretty big company, very well known in our area.</p>
<p>I think Engineering or CS grads might be able to get jobs leaning more toward “big picture” work. But both majos will require the student be willing to get through some nitty, gritty detailed classes. In CS there is usually room for more non-STEM electives. </p>
<p>Only become any sort of engineer if that is what interests one. Do not major in something because it is “respected” as “rigorous”. Sounds like with his business interests Computer Science plus Economics is a good choice for him. He seems to favor the business side of things unlike my son who majored in math and added a computer science major to work in software development. Tech, not business side, of things for him.</p>
<p>For those who know about CS, do most of the classes require a lot of coding? From what I’ve gleaned, students can focus in a particular area once they take a few foundation classes, and it’s not just about writing programs. Are there many areas of expertise within CS? Please enlighten me!</p>
<p>He does not want to be an engineer or a programmer - he’d like to develop products in a leadership capacity. It’s not clear to me that he fully understands that a low level dues paying job is probably in his future right after graduation, even though we’ve tried to explain the reality of life 
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<p>He may go to business school after a year or two of work experience after graduation. </p>
<p>Really good programmers can make $100,000 a year straight out of undergrad from top programs, however it doesn’t sound like that’s what he wants to do. I think he needs to talk to career services at his school to see what sounds like his best course of action.</p>
<p>I think Computer Engineering (half EE and half CS) suits your son. It will help him learn the low level hardware and the higher architecture of the computer. The elective courses will allow him to take more EE or CS later. He can work in software development after graduation if he wants to.</p>
<p>Is there a major like Science, Technology, and Policy at Harvard similar to Stanford? Because CS and Engineering have to do some grunt work. Lots of coding for CS. Mine is happy to do for a few years, maybe max 5, but who knows how long.</p>
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<p>CS is not just about writing programs, but most courses will have some programming assignments or projects where the students apply the concepts that they learn. The exceptions would be the purely theory courses, which are like math courses. Hardware design assignments or projects can be rather similar to programming in many respects.</p>