Computer Science vs Electrical Engineering

[Capone]

How do these 2 compare?

I assume electrical engineering is higher paying. How much higher though?

Which one would be easier to find a job in?

 

[apac]

You might want to use some other metric to decide your career...namely what you like to do...

 

[spidey07]

Do both and then decide.

 

[Capone]

Honestly I found computer science to be very easy. That made it kind of boring. Thinking about switching to electrical engineering.

 

[Aquaman]

Computer Engineer?

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[QurazyQuisp]

Do computer engineering, you can do both sides of things and get paid more!

 

[Leros]

I've been doing CE (computer engineering) and CS simultaneously for the past two years. I just dropped the CS purely because I want to graduate in 4 (not 6) years. I find writing software very boring, but the theory that CS taught me has been very useful for my CE degree (I do a lot of programming with microcomputers and robots, because of CS I know methods most other CE students don't know).

I've found computer science to be much easier, which makes it easier to stand out above the rest. I've had a handful of friends get CS jobs out of college with salaries of $90k - 110k.

Electrical/Computer Engineering is much harder, and the people in the program seem to be smarter which makes it harder to stand out. My EE friends that have graduates make $55k-80k.

This is my experience with a small group of people at a two different schools. It is not a general guideline.

 

[torpid]

As far as I know the salaries are roughly equal, but it might be skewed by the fact that there are a lot of entry level jobs for people without much comp sci knowledge but not (to my knowledge) a lot of jobs for EEs without EE knowledge.

Computer Science education might be easy, but I find it affords the opportunity for a lot more creativity than EE. Why not do a double major EE/CS or EE/CE?

 

[Capone]

Originally posted by: Leros
If found computer science to be much easier, which makes it easier to stand out above the rest. I've had a handful of friends get CS jobs out of college with salaries of $90k - 110k.

Electrical/Computer Engineering is much harder, and the people in the program seem to be smarter which makes it harder to stand out. My EE friends that have graduates make $55k-80k.

This is my experience with a small group of people at a two different schools. It is not a general guideline.

I screwed up my first few years at community college so I am past being able to stand out. CS I was expecting more like 40-45k to start. Thats what my teachers were telling me at the time.

 

[duragezic]

It depends on a lot, but I think overall it would be easier to find a job as a EE. Pay I'm not too sure about. That probably depends more on the position than the major.

I don't have anything to back this up, but if you are doing CS and plan to strictly be a programmer/developer, I'd do software engineering instead (if its offered).

FWIW, my school posts salary data from graduates. So for bachelor's degrees in 2006 to 2008:

CS: 29 offers, $26000/56472/83200 (low, avg, high salary reported)
CompE: 37 offers, $37440/57334/70000
EE: 61 offers, $21840/56604/69393


I know its a small sample size, and I'm guessing people with good offers are more likely to fill out the survey, but just some numbers to look at. But number of offers is mostly due to number of graduates with that degree, not an indication of how easy it is to get a job. But as you can see, the average salary for all three are extremely close.

 

[CanOWorms]

It really depends on the field/niche you want to enter.

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: Capone

Originally posted by: Leros
If found computer science to be much easier, which makes it easier to stand out above the rest. I've had a handful of friends get CS jobs out of college with salaries of $90k - 110k.

Electrical/Computer Engineering is much harder, and the people in the program seem to be smarter which makes it harder to stand out. My EE friends that have graduates make $55k-80k.

This is my experience with a small group of people at a two different schools. It is not a general guideline.

I screwed up my first few years at community college so I am past being able to stand out. CS I was expecting more like 40-45k to start. Thats what my teachers were telling me at the time.

Depends on how desirable you are, the quality of your school, and the companies that are looking at you. I've heard of CS people getting offers in the range of $38 - 120k. It really depends on a lot of things.

 

[Capone]

Originally posted by: torpid
As far as I know the salaries are roughly equal, but it might be skewed by the fact that there are a lot of entry level jobs for people without much comp sci knowledge but not (to my knowledge) a lot of jobs for EEs without EE knowledge.

Computer Science education might be easy, but I find it affords the opportunity for a lot more creativity than EE. Why not do a double major EE/CS or EE/CE?

I've been out of college for 3 years, I need a real job NOW. I don't really have the time or money for a double major.

I was planning on switching majors because in my mind EE is a lot harder, meaning a lot fewer people graduating with it. Hopefully translating in to being something fairly easy to find a job in after.

 

[Capone]

Originally posted by: Leros

Originally posted by: Capone

Originally posted by: Leros
If found computer science to be much easier, which makes it easier to stand out above the rest. I've had a handful of friends get CS jobs out of college with salaries of $90k - 110k.

Electrical/Computer Engineering is much harder, and the people in the program seem to be smarter which makes it harder to stand out. My EE friends that have graduates make $55k-80k.

This is my experience with a small group of people at a two different schools. It is not a general guideline.

I screwed up my first few years at community college so I am past being able to stand out. CS I was expecting more like 40-45k to start. Thats what my teachers were telling me at the time.

Depends on how desirable you are, the quality of your school, and the companies that are looking at you. I've heard of CS people getting offers in the range of $38 - 120k. It really depends on a lot of things.

I don't really know anything about the different schools. Its a local university but the EE degree comes from the University of MD. The CS would just be from the local university.

Money really isn't that big of an issue for me. Anything over $40k and I'd be set.

 

[torpid]

Originally posted by: Capone

Originally posted by: torpid
As far as I know the salaries are roughly equal, but it might be skewed by the fact that there are a lot of entry level jobs for people without much comp sci knowledge but not (to my knowledge) a lot of jobs for EEs without EE knowledge.

Computer Science education might be easy, but I find it affords the opportunity for a lot more creativity than EE. Why not do a double major EE/CS or EE/CE?

I've been out of college for 3 years, I need a real job NOW. I don't really have the time or money for a double major.

I was planning on switching majors because in my mind EE is a lot harder, meaning a lot fewer people graduating with it. Hopefully translating in to being something fairly easy to find a job in after.

If you need money now then just get an entry level programming job and skip the degree for now. If you don't have the knowledge required to get an entry level job, it's not that hard to learn them. You won't have high level understanding but you don't really need it to be a grunt.

 

[LS21]

many EE do programming. CS people dont have option of employment for "engineering" work.

 

[imported_Imp]

Engineer cause then you're an engineer. People like the title and think it's really hard (EE definately is).

 

[wwswimming]

if liking a textbook is an indication of whether you're a good fit for a field -

for evaluating EE, Tuttle's Circuit Analysis textbook, Loop & Node Theorems applied
rigorously. i think.

also, Harrington's time-harmonic (dynamic) electromagnetics textbook - if you enjoy
deriving Snell's Law from Maxwell's equations, this is a good one (microwave
circuit theory.)

they're actually kind of pretty.

i would say do both if you can. a BS in one and an MS in the other. there's a fair
amount of overlap, in some curricula.

if you work for a company like Level 3, was Litton Electron Devices, they bend
over backwards to help an engineer with one degree get the next degree.

now i realize that doesn't answer your question.

 

[Leros]

Another thing to think about, this might not apply if you're buckled down and figured out school. But, if you were struggling with community college, then you're going to have a really hard time doing EE. I've seen many intelligent people go into EE and struggle. It is not only very intellectually demanding, but its very time demanding. With an equal number of upper division EE and CS classes, I spent 80% of my time doing EE stuff.

 

[BrownTown]

I would think that an EE degree would be better, you can do any sort of electrical stuff not just computers. Thing is, a computer engineer would probably be fine doing other electrical stuff, but having a CompE degree people will think you only know computers at won't offer jobs in other fields.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: BrownTown
I would think that an EE degree would be better, you can do any sort of electrical stuff not just computers. Thing is, a computer engineer would probably be fine doing other electrical stuff, but having a CompE degree people will think you only know computers at won't offer jobs in other fields.

compE, CSEE, EE they are interchangable.

Your degree doesn't really matter that much past your first job anyway.

 

[duragezic]

Originally posted by: Capone

Originally posted by: Leros

Originally posted by: Capone

Originally posted by: Leros
If found computer science to be much easier, which makes it easier to stand out above the rest. I've had a handful of friends get CS jobs out of college with salaries of $90k - 110k.

Electrical/Computer Engineering is much harder, and the people in the program seem to be smarter which makes it harder to stand out. My EE friends that have graduates make $55k-80k.

This is my experience with a small group of people at a two different schools. It is not a general guideline.

I screwed up my first few years at community college so I am past being able to stand out. CS I was expecting more like 40-45k to start. Thats what my teachers were telling me at the time.

Depends on how desirable you are, the quality of your school, and the companies that are looking at you. I've heard of CS people getting offers in the range of $38 - 120k. It really depends on a lot of things.

I don't really know anything about the different schools. Its a local university but the EE degree comes from the University of MD. The CS would just be from the local university.

Money really isn't that big of an issue for me. Anything over $40k and I'd be set.

You like the topics of both, would be happy with what either pays, and a good candidate with an EE degree or a CS degree is gonna be able to find a job quite easily. If all else were equal, the EE degree would have an edge IMO simply because of where the degree is from.

But in conclusion I would not worry about your major that much. It doesn't guarantee anything and either degree would be desirable. After your first job, you could end up doing something totally in the opposite direction.


But I must say, the real answer is to take computer engineering.

 

[Capone]

Originally posted by: Leros
Another thing to think about, this might not apply if you're buckled down and figured out school. But, if you were struggling with community college, then you're going to have a really hard time doing EE. I've seen many intelligent people go into EE and struggle. It is not only very intellectually demanding, but its very time demanding. With an equal number of upper division EE and CS classes, I spent 80% of my time doing EE stuff.

I was basically partying the whole time, not going to class etc. I've pretty much left all that behind now. At this point in my life I can devote all my free time to studying if I need to. (I've never studied a day in my life)

The actual work was always easy.

 

[BrownTown]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: BrownTown
I would think that an EE degree would be better, you can do any sort of electrical stuff not just computers. Thing is, a computer engineer would probably be fine doing other electrical stuff, but having a CompE degree people will think you only know computers at won't offer jobs in other fields.

compE, CSEE, EE they are interchangable.

Your degree doesn't really matter that much past your first job anyway.

yeah, but how many companies are going to hire a CompE to do electrical power for example? As an EE you could do both. Just think its good to have your options open, If I had by wish I would be a circuit designer for someone like Intel, but that just wasn't in the cards, so instead I'm working on nuclear plant construction. Might seem a little different between designing a tiny circuit verse a large nuclear plant, but with an EE degree you can do both.

 

[evident]

computer engineering is the best.

proof:
my interns were both computer sciencey positions. when i got a full time job, it was an EE position. I didnt work as hard as the EE's in school(comp sci classes are easier imo) and still get paid as much as they do.
win