<p>I've been browsing these forums for a while and I've noticed that the most popular engineering majors here are civil, mechanical, electric, and chemical. Why aren't there enough computer science and engineering people here? Is it usually considered one of the least popular engineering majors? For those of you who chose not to go into computer science and engineering, what turned you away from it? </p>
<p>Just wanna hear your guys' thoughts.</p>
<p>I was going to, but I failed calc 1 five or six times, maybe seven. Honestly, I have never seen so many weak people in my life. Nothing against weak people, but apparently sitting in front of a computer really does make you a weakling. Also professors expecting you to know everything is prolly worse than in any other field.</p>
<p>You need to know all the way up to calc 3, linear algebra, and differential equations for ANY engineering major.</p>
<p>And the whole weakling thing is a pretty bold stereotype…</p>
<p>I like programming, but I often find it frustrating. So I didn’t want to be locked-in to a career in it.</p>
<p>Thus, I chose EE. If I do end up wanting to do some programming, I have the skills and can probably break into the industry. But I also have the versatility to do other things that I’m interested in.</p>
<p>There are a handful of vocal CS people here (myself among them). But really, there are more non-CS people in the engineering world than there are CS people, so it’s hardly surprising that they aren’t the majority of posters.</p>
<p>Haha, in INDIA, there is a computer science and engineering frenzy, it’s the most sought field. lol</p>
<p>Is it the prospect of working in front of a computer for the rest of their lives what turns them off from CS?</p>
<p>What is THE most popular engineering major here? I would think it’s either mechanical or engineering.</p>
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<p>And that is why I’m terrified of outsourcing.</p>
<p>CS was too hard for me. I didn’t have any pre-college programming experience. Not being able to do well in the CS program worked out well because I prefer working in manufacturing environments rather than doing programming work in an office. I switched to mechanical engineering later on.</p>
<p>But lots of CS people come into college without any programming or coding experience (like myself). The intro classes should have covered all the basics…</p>
<p>^ I took one computer science course and realized programming wasn’t for me. I can’t sand looking at the screen all day looking for bugs in my program. My eyes get tired quickly…</p>
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<p>No, but I’ll give you ten other reasons why I didn’t go into CS.</p>
<p>1) I like my computer to remain on my desk, and not to go through the window, which is where it would be if I had to chase down that one stupid last bug.</p>
<p>2) I don’t believe in electrons.</p>
<p>3) I wouldn’t want my pasty complexion ruined by a monitor tan.</p>
<p>4) I prefer for my toolboxes to contain hammers and screwdrivers.</p>
<p>5) Better food in the construction industry.</p>
<p>6) Ditto booze.</p>
<p>7) Being a member of the “American Welding Society” sounds so much cooler than just being in the ACM.</p>
<p>8) I would not have a hard hat collection if I were a computer scientist.</p>
<p>9) No rappelling off of buildings, either.</p>
<p>10) Better ankle support with steel-toed boots than with Birkenstocks and argyle socks.</p>
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<p>Not better than Google! Seriously though, I’ve never heard of the construction industry having great food.</p>
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<p>I’ve been offered free food on three separate but delicious instances today already.</p>
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<p>Yeah, but people (other than my friends, who are also geeks, and jaded about this sort of thing) look so awed when I tell them that I’m in the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society. Anything involving AI seems to awe people. 
My roommate (also a geek, but not a techie) tells people that I’m working on Skynet.</p>
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<p>I’d buy that, but in CS you get SCA geeks who brew their own mead.</p>
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<p>I’m a big fan of steel-toed boots. Lots of CS people shop out of army surplus stores, at least around here. :p</p>
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<p>You just have to do it on your own time…</p>
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<p>I’ll give you that one.</p>
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<p>My prof. showed us the same one line of code over and over again while giving extremely easy tests. I think I might’ve been going to the lab for the wrong class though because it had nothing to do with the lecture lol. Still wasn’t as hard as calc 1 though. </p>
<p>Seriously, it was one line. We had to write like 100, and he shows us one. Not cool.</p>
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<p>They’re too busy building the next iPhone app, Firefox plugin, etc.</p>
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<p>I’ve been in the computer industry for almost 25 years, modulo some unemployment due to layoffs. (Oh wait, I’m not supposed to say that. Engineers don’t get laid off.)</p>
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<p>For this reason, among others, I recommend that people new to the computer field (even students) read Brooks’ The Mythical Man-Month.</p>
<p>But is this different than debugging in other fields? When taking EE lab classes, I experienced similar levels of exasperation trying to remove noise from circuits, etc. I actually found it easier to use a symbolic debugger than an oscilloscope (granted, the documentation I had on the former was more accessible than the latter at the time).</p>
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<p>No, it’s really not, unfortunately… I said that in jest, since we’re constantly chasing down artifacts in our computer models that cause beams to deflect upwards when everything else is deflecting downwards, or similar craziness. It’s the same beast everywhere.</p>
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<p>We’re also immune to zombie-attacks.</p>
<p>I’ve never been laid off and I’ve been in the industry from about 1980. CS is a great major but, for a lot of people, it’s pretty tough.</p>
<p>Would you guys say it’s up there as the toughest engineering major (along with ChemE)? I guess there is a good reason after all why CS graduates are consistently paid higher than other engineering majors.</p>