<p>There are a fair amount of posts asking which (engineering) majors are easier. It seems to me that rather than asking which major is easier, one might ask what is a better way to prepare for a major.</p>
<p>Easy and engineering don’t go together. The best engineering major for someone is the one that they are most interested in. It still won’t be easy but it will be easier to learn the material. </p>
<p>I am a CompE major and I know EE’s who would struggle (or have struggled) with some of the stuff we do in data structures, assembly, operating systems, etc. But for myself I think the upper level EE concepts would be much tougher for me. We all take the same physics and math so can’t compare there =)</p>
<p>Do the CompE’s deal with E&M concepts? EE and CompE are in the same department at my school, and I believe they share many of the same classes. How do the majors differ? Are the EE classes focused on stuff that you come across in E&M and are the CompE classes focused on concepts like data structures?</p>
<p>CompE here is a good mixture of CS topics with EE fundamentals. For example we take assembly and C programming for embedded systems, OO programming, operating systems, data structures, and software engineering. We also do circuits analysis for a full year, dynamic systems and control systems. You also get like 4 electives your senior year you can spend on additional EE/CS topics of your choice.</p>
<p>To answer your question we do physics of E&M, along with solid state, quantum, and thermo. So essentially the same physics as EE’s take. </p>
<p>The CompE program here is really strong and is really an engineering program unlike some CompE programs.</p>
<p>CompE’s and EE differ in that CompE’s focus more so on embedded systems, computer hardware and software, and computer systems. EE’s go further into the electronics and power systems. EE’s probably have a wider choice of careers out of college. CompE and EE can do many of the same jobs, CompE will excel in anything related to computer systems or embedded systems. EE will learn topics CompE’s will never touch.</p>
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<p>Of course they do. I mean they design things that WORK on electricity. Faraday’s Law is extremely important in high speed architecture layout.</p>
<p>Yagottabelieve, industrial engineering is known derisively as “imaginary engineering” to some people.</p>
<p>chemical engineering is the easist for sure.</p>
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I picked CivE as my undergrad degree b/c it was the easiest of all engineering… or so the engineering dean said…</p>
<p>There are no “easy” engineering majors son. </p>
<p>Unless of course you’re one of the great many CC prodigies. </p>
<p>There are not enough dead cats in all the world to census all the CC spawn that have been so mightily gifted. </p>
<p><puke></puke></p>
<p>chemical engineering is easy? What school did you study chemical engineering from?..That is one of the hardest major in most engineering schools.</p>
<p>I think he was joking…</p>
<p>industrial engineering, it is so easy it shouldn’t even be included in engineering school</p>
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Out of curiosity, which one would you say is harder: civil or industrial?</p>
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<p>And in the process of preparation, pay attention to where your skills are the strongest. Do you memorize easily? Are you an auditory learner, visual learner, tactile learner? Matching the major to your strengths makes that major ‘easy’ or at least easier.</p>
<p>As an engineering physics major, I was amazed at how differently people felt about the different courses. Some people loved E&M, some hated it. Some loved quantum mechanics, some hated it. Some excelled in lab work, some hated it. We were all in the same major; we had a much easier time with the material that meshed with our strengths.</p>
<p>So which is harder - civil or industrial? I say it depends on the person’s strengths. My guess is that a more analytical person would prefer industrial, a more visual/tactile person civil.</p>
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<p>Yeah, this is the reason why these “easy engineering major” threads frustrate me. There are a lot of people who I’ve watched pick up civil engineering because someone misguided has told them that it’s an easy major, and so they set their sights on something like structural engineering, which is more or less applied mechanics, and they hit the hard stuff and freak out. There’s a lot of dynamics, there’s a lot of signal processing when you get into seismic stuff, but there’s still the “art of design” involved which makes people think it’s a watered-down version of engineering or something.</p>
<p>That said, to prepare for a degree in civ, I’d say that the most important thing is to know what you’re getting into. Make sure your knowledge of mechanics is really strong, and make sure you’re not going to get scared off when you realize you have to take dynamics courses.</p>
<p>^ in the grand scheme of things Civil IS one of the easier engineering majors.</p>
<p>^ in the grand scheme of things on average, I agree civ engineering is considered by general opinion the easiest engineering discipline.</p>
<p>I think in terms of difficulty it goes something like EECS/ChemE/MatSci/NucE then MechE/Bio(med)E/Aero to Civil/Industrial E etc.</p>
<p>Where does CompE fall in?</p>
<p>It isn’t like every eng student goes for the ‘hardest’ discipline they can manage, which is another reason it’s pointless to try to rank this ****. I’m sure most students that can handle civ eng could also handle a major like me or ee if their interests layed there.</p>
<p>I think that it is pointless to try and rank the “difficuilty” of one engineering major with regards to another…</p>
<p>It is not pointless if an entering student who is interested in some sort of engineering but would be interested in knowing what kind of workload to expect from each to help him make a decision to see in his mind if he is just that dedicated to pursue a specific discipline. I mean, when I was an undergrad, simply, I stayed the hell away from EECS majors due to the main factor that EECS was reknown for demanding course work.</p>