I am currently a junior in High School and I am increasingly confused by the variety of Computer Science majors that exist. I have taken coding classes, robotics classes and AP Computer Science Principles and having taken those classes, I know I want a career in a Computer Science field. But as I research, I am incredibly confused about the different majors that exist in the field. Could someone explain to me the differences between:
Computer Science
Computer Engineering
Electrical Engineering (is it related to Computer Engineering?)
Information Technology
Information Systems
Cyber Security (is that even a major?)
Cyber Forensics and Technology
Software Engineering
Cyber/Electronic Warfare
I am interested primarily in Cyber Security, having done bits of it in my AP CSP class (things like steganography and the Caesar Cipher) and for the future, would want to work for the government in that field. I also enjoyed the unit on binary. In addition, I really liked working with Arduino as part of my coding class (would that be electrical engineering?) but I also enjoy writing code. Also what would each of these majors translate into careerwise?
In addition, what are some schools that offer such majors? I often see Computer Science, Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering but I am not sure what I am interested in as I do not know the differences.
Also in general, what does engineering entail especially in the case of Computer Science vs Computer Engineering?
I received a 1550 on my SATs and am taking a multitude of AP classes, so I am looking at top schools in the New England, Mideast, Midwest and Southeast regions.
Thank you for the help!
Computer science is the usual type of technically oriented major for computing, typically covering software and theory topics, sometimes hardware. It commonly leads to jobs in technical roles in designing and developing software, sometimes hardware.
Software engineering, if offered, usually resembles computer science, but with more software engineering methods courses instead of some of the computer science topics courses.
Computer engineering tends to have more hardware focus, with some software topics close to hardware (e.g. operating systems).
Electrical engineering is a broad field with many subareas. One subarea is computer engineering, but there are also power systems, communications, and electronics.
Information technology and information systems are typically less technical business-based majors for those who want to manage computers and software, rather than design and develop computers and software. A computer science major will likely be well qualified or overqualified for the technical part of information technology jobs, though there are business aspects as well. An information technology major is unlikely to have strong enough technical background to go into design and development jobs that computer science majors typically go into.
Cybersecurity and similar majors are typically variants of information technology with a particular subarea emphasis.
Be sure to find out from your parents how much they will contribute, and run the net price calculator on each college’s web site before putting it on your application list.
Cybersecurity can also be a more CS leaning major with cryptography / networks / security emphasis. You’ll have to look into specific programs to see what category they fall into.