<p>My friend who is going to be a Biomedical Engineer says a lot of "stupid" people sign up for CS and that it doesn't use the harder types of math that's involved with "real" engineering. He doesn't think of it as "real" engineering because it's not hands - on. His evidence is Code Academy where he said learning to program was a lot easier to him than any Physics or math class he had taken. My sister also told me not to major in computer science because she said, like he did, that "stupid" people do computer science. Is there some kind of general misconception about this among non-CS majors or is this actually true? I want to major in CS, and I'm not letting their comments change my decision, nor do I really care if CS is harder or not, but I still want to know since I've always been told that CS and EE were the two hardest majors in engineering(this could also be a misconception, but that's just what I've heard).</p>
<p>I don’t know about that, but ice-cream engineering is said to be the hardest.</p>
<p>Not one company has made the perfect vanilla-caramel ice cream that I want yet</p>
<p>Gonna have to go with ice cream on this one. That question really can’t be answered.</p>
<p>Different majors are going to be harder for some people than others. To say a lot of “stupid” people major in CS is well… Stupid.</p>
<p>DS will be starting in the fall as a BME major although he may change his mind.
He has people telling him that BME isn’t “real” engineering and that Aero is the hardest. lol</p>
<p>@Blue - Buy something like this and you can make it exactly the way you want. No engineering degree necessary.</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> Cuisinart ICE-20 Automatic 1-1/2-Quart Ice Cream Maker, White: Kitchen & Dining](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-ICE-20-Automatic-2-Quart-Cream/dp/B00000JGRT]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-ICE-20-Automatic-2-Quart-Cream/dp/B00000JGRT)</p>
<p>CS uses loads of math, DISCRETE math though, instead of the continuous math that other majors use.</p>
<p>They are basing their opinion on intro online classes and preconceptions. Let’s see them tangle with graph theory proofs, analyzing runtime of recursive algorithms, assembly language, writing a compiler, programming in OpenGL/Direct3D, finding pointer-related bugs, computer vision, natural language processing, fluid simulation, object-oriented design, the list goes on.</p>
<p>Computer science can be hard if you’re not good at math,</p>
<p>Discrete math, cal1-3, linear algebra, cal physics 1-2, engineering stats, are not easy classes. At most DECENT colleges, discrete math/cs101/cal3/etc are considered filter classes. 40% of students usually drop these classes due to the work load and difficulty compared to most humanities classes.</p>
<p>If you go to a state school that doesn’t have a good engineering department then it might be easier. There’s usually a limit for CS students at schools because it costs more to educate a cs student over a liberal arts student, etc</p>
<p>What makes a computer scientist an engineer? Can they be licensed professional engineers?</p>
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Think of it this way: programmers are technicians, software engineers (people who understand problems and develop software solutions) are engineers. Both might share the CS degree (programmers might be able to do without), and many programmers are labeled engineers to feed their ego.</p>
<p>There really isn’t any liability in software, so why would you need a professional license?</p>
<p>Computer science is the in the same field as software engineering in a lot of respects. A computer science studies operations, computations, software, algorithms, data structures And etc. there is no license for computer scientists, it’s only what you know and don’t know, which is an incredibly deep field of knowledge.</p>
<p>Tell your friend that you will graduate with multiple job offers and he will have a hard time getting a job without getting a PHD.</p>
<p>Codeacademy only covers the material of an intro to programming class which is by far the easiest CS class and web programming class. CS is hard even if you are good at math. I took a theory of computation class where even the super smart ones got 10 out of 100 on exams. Im not familiar with BME but difficulty depends on the program and the individual. If BME is harder than CS, then your friend is the stupid one since CS people can easily find jobs before graduating if they are good. BME people have a hard time finding jobs and get paid a lot less. I dont recommend it unless you want to go to medical school</p>
<p>Not sure if this is a ■■■■■ or not.</p>
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What does learning to program mean? If you mean, learning a language, that’s the first week of an introduction to computer science course. </p>
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This reinforces my above assumption that he has no idea what he’s talking about. Computer science heavily uses discrete mathematics and graph theory. CS theory is completely based in mathematics.</p>
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Dunno. To my knowledge at my university, electrical engineering and computer science is considered, by most, to be one of those most prestigious majors.</p>
<p>I can’t think of anyone I know with a CS degree who’s feather-brained. While they may be bores, annoying know-it-alls, or have no interests outside of computers - they’re not stupid. I consider CS to be a difficult degree to get, and anyone who’s stupid won’t make.</p>
<p>CS probably isn’t as hard as physics or EE, but it’s certainly much harder than subjects like biology, psychology, and sociology.</p>
<p>As for math, there are CS jobs that hardly use any math, and there are CS jobs that use a ton of math.</p>
<p>I have a bachelors in CS and a Masters in IE. The CS degree seemed much harder.</p>
<p>Ur friend was probably too stupid for CS. So now he’s a hater. Lol</p>
<p>I had a roommate in college who was a wildlife biology major. He got a part-time, student job doing data entry, and he thought that was computer science.</p>
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<p>A former neighbor (Food Engineering from Purdue) actually designed ice cream packages - one that was incredibly difficult was an ice cream cone with fudge - which you microwaved to melt the fudge while the ice cream itself did not melt while being microwaved…</p>
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<p>I beg to differ. In the 80’s there was a huge influx of people into grad CS with undergrad majors ranging from Literature to Journalism to nutrition, simply because grad CS paid better. I was in undergrad and grad CS and those people (parachutists we used to call them) could get a grad CS degree in 3 years (1 year prerequisites + 2 years) with minimal programming skills, and hit the workforce, skilled in CS about as much as a dawn feather pillow (skills: coding, design, or architecture skills, not hoity-toity paperwork and powerpoint)</p>
<p>Likewise, in Elbonia in the 80’s, CS was obliterated by the hordes of people with undergrads in some science like biology or math or physics and a 1 year (12 month) MSc. in England. CS skills about as much as a down feather quilt.</p>
<p>Even today, there’s plenty of people with college degrees in Mickey Mouse majors, a minor in CS (5-6 classes), few hard skills, a few vendor classes, and hello ‘Senior IT Consultant Mickey’. (I know IT ain’t CS but HR does not know…)</p>
<p>"My friend who is going to be a Biomedical Engineer says a lot of “stupid” people sign up for CS and that it doesn’t use the harder types of math that’s involved with “real” engineering. He doesn’t think of it as “real” engineering because it’s not hands - on. His evidence is Code Academy where he said learning to program was a lot easier to him than any Physics or math class he had taken. My sister also told me not to major in computer science because she said, like he did, that “stupid” people do computer science. Is there some kind of general misconception about this among non-CS majors or is this actually true? I want to major in CS, and I’m not letting their comments change my decision, nor do I really care if CS is harder or not, but I still want to know since I’ve always been told that CS and EE were the two hardest majors in engineering(this could also be a misconception, but that’s just what I’ve heard). "</p>
<p>Your biomedical engineering friend might try to figure out how to do those calculations that are needed in e.g. biomedical engineering using a computer.</p>
<p>The mindset that he/she displays is typical for someone who’s taken few introductory programming classes or knows a programming language / knows how to program. Or sees CS as the same thing as the things that are done in the IT/software industry. Now, the programming and the computer are fairly irrelevant aspects of what is “true CS”, and computers are designed by stupid engineers (thus we have programming languages that are unsophisticated for expressing anything else than hardware level jargon). True CS can be done with a pen and a paper, because it’s logic and it’s about mathematics. It’s about reasoning abstractly about computation, whereas programming can be viewed just as implementing of those ideas.</p>
<p>Even discrete mathematics is just mathematics that has been discretized, you can discretize a lot of math, even if it’s not known as “discrete mathematics”.</p>
<p>CS is really about ideas (which can be very general), which take the form of “algorithms”. CS is not really about computers, programming or something else that a beginner might associate it to be.</p>
<p>I’ve said the same thing over and over here. The hardest CS class I ever took in maybe 40-42 CS courses does not begin to compare with the rigor of a class like Orgo, Thermo, and the like, and not even in the same solar system as EE major classes like Signals & Systems…</p>
<p>That class would probably be Compiler Design and Implementation, senior level undergrad. Ok, you write a compiler, nothing to it, a sprinkling of theory but most of the grade is project, an easy AIf there ever was one…</p>
<p>Those people do not know what they’re talking about.</p>
<p>Computer Science is a very demanding major, and any reputable CS program in California will require you to take extensive Math courses in order to graduate (Calc 1-3, Linear Algebra, Discrete Math, in B.S. programs Physics as well). The entire process of software engineering is very rewarding but equally frustrating and being a good programmer and graduating with an undergraduate CS degree are two different things.</p>
<p>This is one field that a lot of people aren’t really informed about here so going to a Q&A site like Quora would be more productive and efficient.</p>