<p>I've been looking at a lot of topics that happen to be offered by both the engeering department and physical science at my school</p>
<p>some example topics:
electromagnetics/electrodynamics (EECS department) vs. E&M theory (physics department)
intro programming [about 2 quarters worth, nothing high level, just enough to get me off the ground] offered by the computer science department vs. the various engineering department's intro programming
stat mech/thermodynamics in physics/chem vs. mech E
would fluid dynamics be covered in an upper div classical mech course?</p>
<p>anyway, the point of the question is: generally speaking how do the two departments compare? ive tried asking various people, but most seem to only know what goes on in their department. they seem to walk out with the same knowledge.</p>
<p>BTW: im also posting this in the science majors forum, so it may look familiar</p>
<p>I think it comes down to theory vs application. EECS E mag is more about how to use it, while physics E mag would be more about the why, if that makes sense. They’ll both give you a decent understanding of it though.</p>
<p>I think the science classes are mainly introduction classes, so they just give you a taste of what you’re going to see in upper division. For instance, I’m taking a circuits class this winter and although it has some things that are similar to circuits I saw in my classical physics class, this goes way more in depth and I’m going to learn things that I have never heard about or seen before.</p>
<p>The intro to programming class will be night and day between the CS and engineering departments. CS majors will undoubtedly take a sequence in OOP using C++ or Java, whereas the engineering departments will probably use C++ (used as C), C (used as Fortran), Fortran (yuck), or Matlab (lazy Fortran). If you want a modern introduction to programming like people who’s business it is to do computer science see it, the sequence in the CS department might be good. If you despise things you don’t have the imagination to realize are important in their own right (sorry I’m a little bitter, I just started reading a book on computational physics where the guy is really thickheaded about CS) and would rather “learn” how to hack out a filthy script to sometimes compute something that might be the answer you want, the engineering courses should be fine.</p>