<p>I'm taking the freshman courses for both these classes right now but I'm at 19 credits and I'm getting overwhelmed with all the work. I thought I could do both at once for the entire semester and see which one I like more but now it seems like I have to withdraw from one of these two classes and I'm leaning HEAVILY towards dropping M.E. Engineering is not what I thought it was; it seems like you have to come with with innovative ideas and be really creative. I'm more of a black and white person and like things to be ordered so I think that fits with CS. I've only been programming so far in CS and I really like it. Is CS more than just programming? I guess I'm just really confused right now and need some help.</p>
<p>Programming is just programming; actual CS is math (in most cases it manifests as a combination of discrete structures and formal symbolic logic; you won’t be using much of the Calculus or ODE type stuff you’d see or use in Physics and Engineering).</p>
<p>I hate to break it to you, but to be successful in CS (or in the careers that usually result from pursuing CS), you need to be just as creative as you would in engineering, if not more so. Actually, I’ll take it even a step further than that: to be successful in LIFE these days (in a globally competitive world where repetitive tasks can be done very cheaply in areas where there is a lower standard of living), you need to be creative and forward-thinking, or you’re expendable. Look at it this way: your value to your employer or to your customers is directly dependent upon the value you bring to the market. If you can only plug and chug and pull levers, there’s no absolutely no reason to pay you what amounts to a comfortable middle class wage in the US when it’s so ridiculously easy to find somebody in India to do the exact same thing for a fraction of the cost.</p>
<p>The tech industry as a whole relies upon innovation: without it, what are you accomplishing? I think you underestimate your own imagination.</p>
<p>Yeah, if you want to be “black & white and ordered”, that sounds like sustainment and maintenance and trust me, you don’t want to be pigeonholed for that in CS. At minimum-creativity, you have to be able to take a client’s given technology and make the optimal system from that.</p>
<p>If the given technology is relatively new, YOU must learn it…even it it means locking yourself in the room away from wife, kids and the rest of the world and studying it.</p>
<p>That is JUST to stay above water.</p>