<p>All great recommendations above but I would add BU. They have a test each fall where the top 10 scorers who also apply to BU and get accepted get a full tuition scholarship. BU also provides a good amount of financial aid to well qualified students.</p>
<p>Depending upon what state you live in you may want to check their engineering schools. Some great state schools for CS/EE types are Michigan, UC system, UoIllinois Urbana-Champaign, Penn State, etc.</p>
<p>Good luck in your search.</p>
<p>Thank you for the long reply. Read it twice and appreciate the time you took.
Thank you for the community college (transfer) input, makes sense, and will look at rpi and some of the others as well.. thanks again</p>
<p>My son went into CMU CS. If you have specific questions, feel free to PM. Two other possible schools for CS not mentioned yet (unless I missed the post):
WPI (Worchester MA). Good merit aid and CS. I don't know anything about Physics, however.</p>
<p>Washington U. St. Louis</p>
<p>My son is going to be a HS freshman and has shown an interest in computers. He took the elective in Middle School and his teacher said that he was one of the best students she ever had and should pursue it. Our HS offers an elective in C++ which he will be taking and he will see if it really is his interest.
However, I am unfamiliar with the difference between CS and CE. I work with students from SUNY Stony Brook and they are telling me Computer Engineering is "better" but I have no clue as to why they would say that.</p>
<p>Computer Engineering is more hardware oriented. Some of the courses your son would take would be hardware related. He would also be involved in programming that involves interfaces between hardware and software - sometimes called firmware programming. He would of course be allowed to take software courses as well.</p>
<p>Computer science is more to do with algorithms, software engineering, correctness of algoritms, etc. </p>
<p>There is nothing to say one is better than the other. Just that the jobs he would be aiming for after graduation could be different depending on what his strong interest is. Computer Engineering students could be hired by say Intel to write firmware for their devices. Or maybe Lucent Technologies to write the same. Or maybe program embedded devices. If he went on to get a PhD in computer engineering, hardware, he would be hired by Intel to design integrated circuits, chips that is. Or by Applied Materials to design machines that make integrated circuits.</p>
<p>achat, good description of the difference between CS and CE.</p>
<p>kjofkw, I forgot to mention WPI, another excellent choice for those who have an engineering bent. Tufts and the Olin School of Engineering for those that may want to go to school here in New England. Olin is also "free"!</p>
<p>Actually, with 4 AP course credits and a wee bit of overloading, students can often manage a dual CE/CompSci degree. This should be an option only for those very good students who enjoy both the hardware and software sides of the field. My son didn't, so he isnt.</p>
<p>But Achat has described the differences very well. I would add that engineering is largely an applied science while Compsci is more a theoretical science.</p>
<p>Many people think that Compsci is about learning to program. However, learning programming is merely gaining familiarity with a tool to be used in creating a solution to a theoretical problem much like learning French as a necessity in critiquing French literature.</p>
<p>achat and others - there are several frequent posters who jump in on threads re CE/CS to announce that these are poor fields to enter as it will all be outsourced offshore before these kids get out and seek employment.</p>
<p>What are your thoughts on this?</p>
<p>Absolutely not. There will be a shortage of engineers and software engineers in the future here precisely because the enrollment has dropped. It might already have started. I know what you mean about the discussions...</p>
<p>If you ask Bandit_TX and alongfortheride, they would tell you how the defense industry does not and cannot outsource and will be there as a source of employment.</p>
<p>In fact, at most universities, CompSci and CompEng majors are finding a better job market at graduation this year. In addition CompSci enrollments are down and the bottom w/r to graduating class size will probably be reached in 2008 or 2009.</p>
<p>I believe that while many companies will continue off-shore outsourcing, they are also beginning to recognize that the savings are not nearly as significant as originally projected for a variety of reasons. In addition, the Congress reduced the legal cap on H1B visas from 195,000 to 65,000 in Oct. 2003. I suspect that the effects of this reduction is now being felt positively in the job market.</p>
<p>I have always advised students to persue their interests and be undeterred by the employment situation. There will always be a place for enthusiastic, diligent and capable engineers in any economy. And as we are beginning to see now, employment prospects can change relatively rapidly. If the economy continues to improve and the number of CompSci/Engrs continue to decline in the next few years, job prospects may be quite excellent come 2008.</p>
<p>Thanks, achat and originaloog. S enters Tulane School of Engineering in the fall. He spent his Senior Transition Project job shadowing at a semiconductor firm and really liked it. Those off-shore alarmists seemed a little over the top to me, but I like to raise the topic with folks who seem tapped into the field whenever I can. </p>
<p>H is a BSEE/MSEE, retired (defense industry to boot! obviously that part wouldn't be offshored) and he agrees with you re the field in general, but I guess I've been second-guessing him, since he roamed the earth along with the dinosaurs. I really appreciate your perspectives.</p>