<p>I am majoring in computer engineering right now. At first, I thought CE major is half EE plus half CS. But after attending UCSD and talked to adviser, CE in UCSD is actually full CS plus half EE. Which leads me to judge if this is really worth it to spend an extra year for those ECE classes for CE degree.</p>
<p>At first, I thought only CE is an engineering major. CS is an science major. This is why I choose CE at first, just trying to get and engineering degree. Is that true? Because I also heard people saying CS is software engineering, which can still be consider as engineering major.</p>
<p>I talked to adviser, she said there are a lot of people majoring CE at first, but switched to CS later. Most of them thinks that's not what they want after taking several ECE classes.</p>
<p>If saying future career, will they have any difference? I am pretty sure I am interested in computer software more than hardware. And it is for sure only going to deal with one of them in a job.</p>
<p>seems to me like you have this pretty figured it out yourself..youve taken both types of classes, talked to the advisor and heard what other people have had to say, and asked yourself what your interests are and it seems to be cs and programming..what you have to ask is the extra year worth it to you? the extra year of tuition and not having a job?? tons of cs kids graduate from this school with amazing job offers every year, 60k plus starting salaries, and all the perks they want. I dunno, id say youve already answered your question but you just havent come to accept it yet</p>
<p>I think you received some incorrect information and need to talk to a different academic advisor. The CE degree isn't a full CS degree plus half EE requiring an additional year of courses. The CE takes fewer CS type courses and more EE courses and the CS is the opposite.</p>
<p>If you look at the courses required, CE has all of the core CS classes along with about 6 EE courses. Another difference is that CEs have the option of taking EE courses for their technical electives.</p>
<p>I think you received some incorrect information and need to talk to a different
academic advisor. The CE degree isn't a full CS degree plus half EE requiring an
additional year of courses. The CE takes fewer CS type courses and more EE
courses and the CS is the opposite.</p>
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<p>No. The course load for a CE degree is larger and is remarkably close to being a strict superset of the requirements for the CS degree. The information he received from the advising staff was correct and you are misinformed. </p>
<p>Please be careful not to contradict information given out directly by a departmental advisor unless you're sure you're right. It ends up only causing more confusion when you're wrong. (And I think you usually will be, the CSE advisors tend to be better than most.)</p>
<p>You're right that the course load is higher for CE vs. CS and my response should have been stated better but my point is that it shouldn't require an additional full year and theoretically could be done in 4 (heavy emphasis on 'theoretically' - it'd be difficult). I don't know if the 'extra year' came straight from an advisor or was the OP's own conclusion.</p>
<p>From the two pdf files, the CSE classes are identical. CE has about 7 more ECE classes. I would say it may take at least two extra quarters. ECE classes are pretty heavy loaded. They have not only lecture, discussion section, but also 3 hours of lab each week. And because of its load, it's really hard to take too many major classes together.</p>
<p>You're right that the course load is higher for CE vs. CS and my response
should have been stated better but my point is that it shouldn't require
an additional full year and theoretically could be done in 4</p>
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<p>Ah, on both of these points we agree. :)</p>
<p>If you hurry you can get through a CS degree in three years, so graduating in four with a CE shouldn't be a problem if you were motivated to do so.</p>
<p>If pre-requisities become a problem and you're confident in your ability to do well in the next course in the sequence without completing the pre-requisities first, you can often ask the professors to let you enroll during the same quarter you're taking the pre-requisities. (Careful with this, it can be very hard on your GPA.)</p>
<p>This is not necessary to graduate on time even with a CE degree, it can just help.</p>
<p>That said, I really would encourage you to major in CS and not CE if you believe software is your focus. No one even really knows the difference between those two degrees outside of UCSD or some odd places in academia.</p>
<p>My uncle works at the industry. He suggest just to get EE or CS degree instead of wasting time on CE. He said most class materials from school will not be used again in future career. Even the job may need some those classes material may still take at UC extension after graduate.</p>