I know, odd set of very different schools. All things considered equal, if only looking at it purely from the degree perspective (value of the degree, job and grad school opportunities) with a computer engineering degree from one of these schools, which would you pick? USC and Bucknell are higher ranked schools, but Purdue engineering is awesome, and its ranked highly for computer eng. Although Madison is not far behind. Thoughts?
-
ignore the rankings. All are good schools perfectly capable of instructing an undergrad student in engineering. The difference in outcomes among students will be determined by their gpa and work experience such as internships. This is true for grad school or direct employment.
-
since you ask about job opportunities, computer engineering has been a declining field for years. Most of the ASIC vendors have left the business or are quickly consolidating. There are a relative handful of large ompanies hiring digital engineers (Apple, Intel, Nvidia, Cisco, etc) because the costs of producing custom or semi-custom semiconductors is in the tens of millions for most applications, a cost only large companies can bear and justify. Although to be fair there has been a surge in hardware related to AI according to a recent article https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/14/technology/artificial-intelligence-chip-start-ups.html
I don’t have a crystal ball. Maybe HW is turning around, or maybe this is just a temporary spike. But the longterm trend has been down for quite a while. https://www.computerworld.com/article/2896721/electrical-engineering-employment-declines-nearly-10-but-developers-up-12.html
The sister field, so to speak, of computer science has been booming. It is possible for someone with a CE background to look for a job in CS but the CE degree requires so many math/science/engineering classes that few programs offer the exposure to software topics that a CS degree does.
Thanks, the thinking with computer engineering because it’s sort of the cross between EE and CS. However, would try to work in the software development field, not chip design nor hardware. What I like about it it’s core engineering field, which seems like a good undergrad core field. CS seems more math/science oriented, and less engineering. But probably depends on the particular program. Thanks much.
You are right, it depends on the program. You can get a sense of where it lies on the spectrum between a CS and EE major by comparing the pure CS major to the Computer Engineering major at these schools. UCLA actually has a sheet showing the differences for their school at http://www.seasoasa.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/seasoasa/Course-comparison-CS_CSE_CE_EE_2017_2018fall11.17.17.pdf