<p>I believe that I'll be able to admit to college as a "1st semester Sophomore" due to my AP credits. I initially wanted to double major in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, however, that'll take an extra year to complete due to Design and Capstone classes/projects I'll have to do for BOTH majors. So 5 years in total.
So I was wondering if major in Electrical Engineering and taking almost every Computer Science class offered at my school (like basically completing the Computer Science major requirements without doing the Design and Capstone classes) will that be marketable enough? Will I be suitable for a job related to computer science AND electrical engineering?</p>
<p>I'm interested in robotics (medical robotics & humanoids), and artificial intelligence, but I'm sort of growing interested in data security. </p>
Employers are usually interested in credentials and qualifications, and neither of those point to either potential path. If you graduate with a degree, you basically have the credentials - whether it is EE or CS, most employers just want to see that you graduated. After that, they look at the specific requirements of their opening and see how it compares to your transcript. If you have taken all the courses associated with skill A, B, and C, they don’t care what department you graduated from.</p>
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That depends, what kind of job are you envisioning? Most engineering jobs are pretty specialized, and while there is certainly some intersection between CS and EE it encompasses the bulk of neither broad field. It is not like there are many jobs where you spend the mornings doing high-level CS and the afternoons designing circuit boards and IC’s - the intersection is doing code down at the device level, working with individual bits and looking at timing and things like that, and you can get there with a CS or EE degree with equal ease.</p>
<p>In short: The majority of CS courses will not have anything to do with the job of electrical engineering, and vice versa, so if you take a full EE load plus all the CS courses you will definitely have spent a ton of time acquiring breadth that you almost certainly cannot apply professionally. It is essentially the same as double majoring, and will get essentially the same recommendation: picking one thing and focusing on it will almost always work out better.</p>
<p>OP, I like your plan. You will be hunted down and sought after - maybe by me!</p>
<p>You might also like Computer Engineering. Think of EE/CS as a spectrum. There are commonalities that both majors take, but there is plenty of opportunity for you to carve out expertise in the stuff you like. Computer Engineering is kind of in the middle of that spectrum. </p>
<p>@cosmicfish at the moment i’m envisioning a job in creating robots, i’m interested in the electrical side of it, but I also want to be able to program them. </p>
<p>The vast majority of CS courses will not help you with programming robots. All or almost all of the programming at that level will be covered by EE courses or by select courses in the CS (which will often be cross-listed).</p>
<p>My point was that before you embark on such a plan, you really need to be sure that it is taking you where you want to go. I have not seen any real opportunities for a CS/EE double like you describe, but ClassicRockerDad apparently has (or can foresee one) - just make sure that before you put in the time, you know what those opportunities are and that they are worth the effort to you.</p>
<p>I think there is really exciting stuff going on with designing and using systems-on-a-chip, where having both EE and CS background is incredibly useful. Some of the latest designs have general purpose processors, DSPs, along with programmable logic fabric.</p>
<p>We can’t envision what the OP will see over the course of his 40+ year career, but there are fundamental principles in both disciplines that meet on an architecture like that. Having the background that he proposes can propel him to a position where he can ultimately lead a large design and need concepts from both. </p>
<p>Some of the multicore processing paradigms also span both disciplines. </p>
<p>I hire both EE and CS majors. I would consider someone with a EE degree and a very strong CS background to be a very attractive person to hire. I think you are making the right choice in getting the EE degree and not the CS degree. In my experience, EE positions usually require the EE degree, which CS type positions value actual programming experience more than the degree. </p>
<p>I agree with ClassicRockerDad to also look into computer engineering.</p>
<p>However, another option to consider is to finish a single major BS degree quicker, and spend the extra time getting an MS degree. </p>