Questions about CS and CSE major at RPI from an incoming freshman

Colleges and Universities A-Z Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
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Hi everyone,

I got accepted by RPI in ED1, computer and system engineering. I personally feel fine about my major, however, my parents, especially my dad (he is an electrical engineer, he doesn’t care about his job, but he does suggest that it is not a good optional for me), they really want me to transfer into computer science. We had lots of big arguments on which major I should choose. I am very upset whenever I think about this topic and I still couldn’t make the final decision, need some help from you guys, here are my concerns:

Computer and system engineering
My father said CSE at RPI is just a branch of EE, which I personally disagree, but I do find it under the EE department. I like to learn problem solving skills and I really do want to become an engineer.
Moreover, I wasn’t intended to choose this major. I was forced to choose CS. When I was doing my application on commonapp, I didn’t know school offers CS in Science department, so I choose the most name-related major in engineering department, which is CSE.
I do find them to be very similar. People said CSE is more hardware and little programing is involved. I have asked current students who studies CSE at RPI (he is class of 2019), he said there will be lots of heavy work for CSE students and the main focus was something about “system”. I have no idea what this is, it will be very helpful if somebody could explain it to me. But after my dad heard it, he said this is not something I want to learn. I got very scared

Computer Science
From my understanding and all the research I have done, CS here is more theoretical, mainly focus on programing.

My parents want me to take CS because it has a better career outlook. However, by comparing data, CS and CSE has basically the same career outlook and, most importantly, RPI is famous with its focus on ENGINEERING, not CS. You could say its the same, but thats how they categorize CS major and there must be a reason why they did it. Even though I saw all of those information, I still plan to switch into CS until I saw the class schedule for CS major. I am worried about this major because there are some many electives in the third and fourth year. I really wonder what could I possibly learn after taking so many “useless” electives. Also, CS to me is just too broad, I wonder what I can do with programing skills. CSE to me is just a more reliable skill that I don’t need to worry about my future.

Sorry for writing such a long blog, but it is really hard to make the decision simply because I have never taken any college courses, and I have no knowledge of them. Really need help, if somebody could explain the difference between those two majors (and if CSE is a branch of EE), I will be very happy
and also I am curious dual credit of CS and other majors ( any suggestions and preferences are welcomed)

Thanks a lot !!

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Very good question, it’s a very common question and important one.

I’m the dad of a CSE 2nd semester freshman. My son went into CSE very sure that that was his intended major. In CSE there are plenty of CS courses that are required so he’s been getting a feel for them. He started with Python which, at RPI, is taught extremely well. A person that takes Python at RPI will absolutely know Python to the extreme that you will at any of the greatest colleges. Python was his first CS class that he had ever taken. Before college he dabbled in Basica just to play around with making a small printout but that’s it. After seeing how well RPI’s syllabus for teaching programming languages is, he thoroughly liked it and started to consider dualing a CSE/CS. By having a dual major he’d have to remove 3 of his CSE courses on his curriculum and add 5 in order to dual. That would be a total of 2 more courses by the end of graduation. So with that plan set in his mind I suggested that he take classes every summer at community college in order to transfer those class credits to RPI so that he could graduate on time. That was the plan for a while.

That was first semester. Now in his second semester he is taking a class called Data-Structures. Both CSE and CS majors must take this class. It has a reputation for being difficult. In it they teach you something called OOP (object-oriented-programming). It is taught in the C++ language. The reason it is made to be so rigorous and thorough is not only to continue teaching their CSE languages with such intensity that you really really really know the language well, but also because they see the market for the growth in the CS major. There are just too many people that want to enter that major and don’t realize how difficult it gets on the third and fourth year. It is a far better investment for RPI to actually graduate students, rather than having students pay their tuition but they never graduate or they graduate very late going broke. They’ve set up a system whereby only the truly capable or desirous students that want to study CS may enter the program. This is the same for very many colleges nowadays. You will find that it is very hard to enter the CS program in many higher caliber colleges.

It’s hard to give you an answer as to whether you should transition to CS or not so my advice to you is to look at both curriculums and request to dual like my son. You can then see how well you do with Data Structures and in your sophomore year then decide whether you want to continue with a dual or go full CS alone. I should mention, I’m not for the idea of a dual because although he will have a wider field of employers trying to get him, after he gets whatever job he lands, he will only ever have needed and used that one degree and not the other so that he studied for the other for nothing. My recommendation to him was to get his CSE and then get a masters in CS. By doing that RPI would pay for his masters through his financial-aid, and they change his CSE curriculum of classes partially so that he would be taking courses mutually adequate for that particular coterminal degree. Coterminal degree just means that he gets his undergraduate and graduate degree at the same time as two separate degrees in only 5 years as opposed to the normal 6.

To sum up, class of 2017 earnings in CSE was average starting salary of $74,044, and the lowest accepted salary was $55,000, while the highest accepted salary was $122,000.

The same class of 2017 earnings for CS majors was a starting salary of 83,571, and the lowest accepted salary was $52,500, while the highest accepted salary was $128,000.

The difference between the two in my opinion is borderline not important enough to direct your life passion. Do you really want that extra money and work in some job that you really don’t enjoy for the next 40 years? That should be your deciding factor. Are they both equally enjoyable to where you could do either? If so, then choose the higher paying major and get ready to work slightly harder. If you find that they are not equally interesting majors, then I’d say choose the one that you think you could do for the next 40 years.

Another note; I have been doing searches for the past few months every so often to see what the job market is like in both. There is absolutely no doubt that there are more available jobs in Computer Science than there are in Computer Engineering or Systems Engineering. Sure there were a few in Computer Engineering and some in Systems Engineering but no where near the amount of jobs available in Computer Science.

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My son graduated from RPI last May, 2017. He was an Information Technology & Web Science major. As @reformedman noted, Data Structures, and another course named Foundations of Computer Science, were by far the toughest courses he encountered. He did call home once or twice second guessing his choice to attend RPI! He had no problem finding a job upon graduation. In fact, the COO of the company he works for saw his resume on LinkedIn and reached out to him because he was an RPI student. He works as a software developer.

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Personal preference. I personally switched from cse to cs, not saying that is right for you.
Led me in a totally different career direction many years ago.

Elective freedom is not a bad thing. Only a waste if you choose to make it so.
You can take great classes for your electives.

You could double major even.
If you find one less enjoyable, then drop that one. No need to decide before you start.
My son switched from eng to cs at rpi. Still can graduate on time, no problem.