<p>Hey guys! I'm going into my senior year in high school in August. I'm planning on going to Clemson University for computer engineering. However I recently recognized that I don't know squat about any type of programming. I know a good bit about troubleshooting and working with computers but actually programming is a catch. Should I bother even trying to go into software engineering/programming or is it too late to begin to learn these languages. Do I need to have a knowledge of these languages or do colleges teach them from scratch? Also, what's the difference between software engineering and programming. Sorry if any of these questions are stupid or lame. I'm just wondering. :) thanks guys!</p>
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Don’t worry. Computer engineering is not as programming- or software-intensive as CS or SwE… more about architecture and hardware, so you should be OK. None of these kinds of majors - CS, SwE, or CpE - are all about programming, anyway, and in some sense it might be preferable not to have developed bad habits before starting in a university.</p>
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It’s never too late to begin learning something, and lots of good programs take people in CS who haven’t programmed before. Just be ready to play catch up in programming… you should be at least level in the rest.</p>
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Software engineering is the engineering-like discipline of creating software products, and programming is the mechanical or physical action of communicating a computer program (sequence of instructions) in such a way that the machine can do what you tell it to… at least that’s usually how I try to think about it. A useful analogy might be a surgeon… if you look at what a surgeon does, it’s a lot of cutting people open and stitching them back together… but nobody would argue that this is what being a surgeon means. Knowing what to cut and what to stitch in order to solve a problem is what counts. In the same way, anybody can write code. However, being a software engineer entails more… knowing what to write and how to write it, in order to achieve specific ends (cost, time, quality, etc.)</p>
<p>By the way, if you’re mostly interested in software/programming, you might be better off in SwE or CS than in CpE…</p>
<p>Excellent response! Thank you very much! That really explained a lot!</p>
<p>this should be pinned</p>
<p>programming languages are what they tech in college, if you know them already, that is great. If not, that is why you go to college and study. i am about the same level as you do, they wont actually study anything about Engineering or science till the last two years of college. so basically there is nothing to worry about it .</p>