Can someone give me a brief description of each Major and how they differ? I’m trying to decide between these 3 Majors and I need proper clarifications of each, reasons to choose each degree, and an accurate rank in difficulty. (my guess is EE, CE, then CS?) Also, a friend told me that CE is a dying field, is that true?
I should note that I like both hardware and software, so would EE be the most versatile choice?
You would do well to do a forum search on the topic, as it has been discussed in many other threads. Even if you just search titles in the engineering forum for matches to the title of this thread, it will pop up numerous threads where this is discussed at length.
Thank you, very much! But could you answer me this? What engineering degrees (out of them all) would be best going into the future?
Unfortunately, I don’t have a crystal ball. Have you looked at the projections of the Bureau of Labor Statistics? They are probably the best projections and even they are imperfect. None of those predictions will ever be able to correctly predict something like the recession we had in 2008. Ultimately, it’s best to just pick what interests you the most, because essentially all forms of engineering have good or better job outlooks.
Various topics and the majors that they tend to be included in:
CS theory – CS
cryptography – CS (and math)
artificial intelligence – CS
graphics – CS
databases – CS
compilers – CS, CPE
networks – CS, CPE
operating systems – CS, CPE
embedded systems – CS, CPE
computer architecture – CS, CPE
robotics – CS, CPE, EE (and ME)
integrated circuits – CPE, EE
device electronics – CPE, EE (and materials engineering)
electromagnetic fields and waves – EE
signal processing and communications – EE
power systems – EE
What topics seem more interesting to you?
For each college, you may want to look at the curricula carefully to see which major best fits your interests, because there is some variation across colleges in how they are defined.
These are the most interesting to me:
- computer architecture – CS, CPE
- device electronics – CPE, EE (and materials engineering)
- power systems – EE
Also, I plan on attending VA Tech.
As I recall from when my son was briefly looking at engineering and VT last year, they put all engineers through a common first year program before you can declare a specific major. So you will have time to figure it out. Plus I think EE and CPE may be the same department (but confirm that)
Based on what you’re interested in I’d say that CE is the way to go for you. Based on your last post you don’t seem particularly interested in software, but seen more interested in computer hardware than pure EE.
One of the nice things about CE is that you can (at some schools) choose to focus more on the CS or EE side. So majoring in CE will allow you to pursue both disciplines to some extent but focusing on the one you like the most.
However I feel like I should ask how do you know you’re interested in these topics? Do you have prior experience with computer architecture, electronics, and power systems or are you going off of what sounds interesting? If the later you should probably explore more before making a final decision.