Computer Science vs Electrical Engineering

[duragezic]

Originally posted by: 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.

Yeah that is generally true. A CpE is much less likely to work in some EE areas like power, RF, emag, even controls. But a double major in EE can be just 3-4 more classes for a CpE, so they could still have the degree but not have more than one class in power or emag, or whatever.

Several of my EE friends have admitted that a CpE would be actually be a better fit for some positions at their companies, even though the companies tend to look as it traditional either EE or CS. But I agree that it generally limits your options. Still, we are hard as fuck.

 

[Kirby]

Hardware and I don't get along, so I chose CS.

 

[Gibson486]

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.

that translation does not work in real life. Most EE's get around 60 out of school and most CS people get the same.

Also do not expect getting over 70k right out of college. Yes, those "my friend" stories......they are really rare.

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: duragezic

Originally posted by: 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.

Yeah that is generally true. A CpE is much less likely to work in some EE areas like power, RF, emag, even controls. But a double major in EE can be just 3-4 more classes for a CpE, so they could still have the degree but not have more than one class in power or emag, or whatever.

Several of my EE friends have admitted that a CpE would be actually be a better fit for some positions at their companies, even though the companies tend to look as it traditional either EE or CS. But I agree that it generally limits your options. Still, we are hard as fuck.

I am an EE and I am doing controls stuff now (more towards the EE stuff though). It sucks

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: 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.

Trust me, sometimes yoru wishes are not what is best for you. My last coop was for bose. i was doing circuit design and everything. I fought so hard to get that job... While I did enjoy the job, I realized that smal companies are where i wanted t work. I ended up working for a small consulting firm. While the job is not as exciting as analog design (WTF...how sick am I?? Circuits is not exciting!), i am kind of glad I tried it because it gives me exposure to to marcoE.

 

[BrownTown]

Originally posted by: Gibson486

Trust me, sometimes yoru wishes are not what is best for you. My last coop was for bose. i was doing circuit design and everything. I fought so hard to get that job... While I did enjoy the job, I realized that smal companies are where i wanted t work. I ended up working for a small consulting firm. While the job is not as exciting as analog design (WTF...how sick am I?? Circuits is not exciting!), i am kind of glad I tried it because it gives me exposure to to marcoE.

heh, well I am working for the biggest engineering company in the USA, so kinda the opposite there. But I dfo agree about you never really know about what the job is going to be like until you get there and try it. working on nuclear plants seems cool until you realise that in order to do any work you have to do tons of paperwork. It takes litterally a month of paperwork to approve the changing out of 21 fuses (thats the project I am currently working on).

 

[Special K]

1. Major in CS
2. Create .com in garage
3. Get VC funding
4. IPO
5. Profit

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: BrownTown

Originally posted by: Gibson486

Trust me, sometimes yoru wishes are not what is best for you. My last coop was for bose. i was doing circuit design and everything. I fought so hard to get that job... While I did enjoy the job, I realized that smal companies are where i wanted t work. I ended up working for a small consulting firm. While the job is not as exciting as analog design (WTF...how sick am I?? Circuits is not exciting!), i am kind of glad I tried it because it gives me exposure to to marcoE.

heh, well I am working for the biggest engineering company in the USA, so kinda the opposite there. But I dfo agree about you never really know about what the job is going to be like until you get there and try it. working on nuclear plants seems cool until you realise that in order to do any work you have to do tons of paperwork. It takes litterally a month of paperwork to approve the changing out of 21 fuses (thats the project I am currently working on).

yeah, i also love how you have to go through all this training. I had arc flash training last week. Lets just say that I am afraid to go in any panel over 120V now.

 

[Imdmn04]

the argument that ee can do anything cs is not true. most ee majors only have to take introductory programming classes and don't really know how to write a good piece of software. for example, they dont know the most efficient way of traversing through a particular data structure, and end up writing something that is very expensive in the runtime cost, which is detrimental when the program needs to be scaled to an enterprise level.

not saying u have to be a cs major to write a good program, but i've seen a ton of non-cs majors writing software that end up getting rewritten because they werent designed well in the first place.

 

[Born2bwire]

Originally posted by: 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.

Sigh... I still need to pick up a copy of Harrington's books. My Uni is all about Balanis, Jackson, and Griffith.

Originally posted by: duragezic

Originally posted by: 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.

Yeah that is generally true. A CpE is much less likely to work in some EE areas like power, RF, emag, even controls. But a double major in EE can be just 3-4 more classes for a CpE, so they could still have the degree but not have more than one class in power or emag, or whatever.

Several of my EE friends have admitted that a CpE would be actually be a better fit for some positions at their companies, even though the companies tend to look as it traditional either EE or CS. But I agree that it generally limits your options. Still, we are hard as fuck.

CompE can be rather flexible, it really depends on what your specialization via electives is and finding a niche for it. I'm a CompE but I was a shoe in for the computational EM lab at my Uni because of the programming knowledge that was at the core of CompE and the physics/EM electives that I took. Any kind of software design, research, or analysis can benefit from knowing not just programming but basic algorithm design and data structures. Using this as your selling point helps make the CompE more flexible.

 

[LongCoolMother]

I think it really boils down to what you like more. I took some lower div EE classes and didn't find EE interesting in the slightest. CS, on the other hand, was tough, but rocks. Job prospects are pretty similar-- there are plenty of EE and Software jobs out there. Here in the silicon valley, software-related jobs have higher pay on average than EE jobs. That being said, they are both very high paying industries.

 

[A5]

Originally posted by: Special K
0. Build time machine and go back to 1998
1. Major in CS
2. Create .com in garage
3. Get VC funding
4. IPO
5. Profit

Fixed.

 

[dingnecros]

I am an EE in a very niche field jobs are fairly easy to find once you have some experience and are willing to learn fast. First job is hard in EE and the pay wont be great and you have to learn a lot and I do mean a lot. You must be able to co-relate things from your textbook to real world this scares off a lot of fresh off the college guys and they end up doing programming (lower risk) however if you are ready to put up with the initial 1-2 years of crap then the pays go up much faster as the initial harrowing weeds out the weak and few pass through. Plus there is definitely the advantage that your job can never get outsourced moreover if u start specializing in something you have a very good chance of going into consulting.

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: Imdmn04
the argument that ee can do anything cs is not true. most ee majors only have to take introductory programming classes and don't really know how to write a good piece of software. for example, they dont know the most efficient way of traversing through a particular data structure, and end up writing something that is very expensive in the runtime cost, which is detrimental when the program needs to be scaled to an enterprise level.

not saying u have to be a cs major to write a good program, but i've seen a ton of non-cs majors writing software that end up getting rewritten because they werent designed well in the first place.

I would suggest any EE/CE take a handful of CS classes for this very reason. I took the first two years worth of CS classes at my university and, as a result, my programming is much better than the other EE/CE students. There are things than any self respecting CS major can do in O(n) time, but a person not somewhat trained in programming will do in O(n^2) time.

 

[LongCoolMother]

Originally posted by: Leros

Originally posted by: Imdmn04
the argument that ee can do anything cs is not true. most ee majors only have to take introductory programming classes and don't really know how to write a good piece of software. for example, they dont know the most efficient way of traversing through a particular data structure, and end up writing something that is very expensive in the runtime cost, which is detrimental when the program needs to be scaled to an enterprise level.

not saying u have to be a cs major to write a good program, but i've seen a ton of non-cs majors writing software that end up getting rewritten because they werent designed well in the first place.

I would suggest any EE/CE take a handful of CS classes for this very reason. I took the first two years worth of CS classes at my university and, as a result, my programming is much better than the other EE/CE students. There are things than any self respecting CS major can do in O(n) time, but a person not somewhat trained in programming will do in O(n^2) time.

heh. or far worse. think the classical Fib(n)

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: LongCoolMother

Originally posted by: Leros

Originally posted by: Imdmn04
the argument that ee can do anything cs is not true. most ee majors only have to take introductory programming classes and don't really know how to write a good piece of software. for example, they dont know the most efficient way of traversing through a particular data structure, and end up writing something that is very expensive in the runtime cost, which is detrimental when the program needs to be scaled to an enterprise level.

not saying u have to be a cs major to write a good program, but i've seen a ton of non-cs majors writing software that end up getting rewritten because they werent designed well in the first place.

I would suggest any EE/CE take a handful of CS classes for this very reason. I took the first two years worth of CS classes at my university and, as a result, my programming is much better than the other EE/CE students. There are things than any self respecting CS major can do in O(n) time, but a person not somewhat trained in programming will do in O(n^2) time.

heh. or far worse. think the classical Fib(n)

Eek. It was really funny when the EE students started understanding recursion and started using it. Some of their programs got really slow.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: 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

You know what is funny? How people actually still believe their degree and major mean a hill of beans. It's like they are still in college and pumping up "so, what's your major?"

Face it - in the "real world" your degree doesn't mean a lot. What you have done and what you were exposed to does.

What's even funnier is your boss/director has an "easy" business degree and he is the one deciding how much you are worth and if you deserve a 1 or 2 percent raise.

No worry though, I like to give you college kids 70K a year to make you happy and think you're rich.

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: 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

You know what is funny? How people actually still believe their degree and major mean a hill of beans. It's like they are still in college and pumping up "so, what's your major?"

Face it - in the "real world" your degree doesn't mean a lot. What you have done and what you were exposed to does.

What's even funnier is your boss/director has an "easy" business degree and he is the one deciding how much you are worth and if you deserve a 1 or 2 percent raise.

No worry though, I like to give you college kids 70K a year to make you happy and think you're rich.

I don't even have a degree yet, so I can't brag about it. Wanna hire me? Although, as an ATOTer I require at least $100k.

 

[bignateyk]

EE without a doubt. I've seen computer science people get turned aside for EE's because EE's can do both. Most EE's can program just as well, and EE's have a much better systems background.

 

[Special K]

Originally posted by: A5

Originally posted by: Special K
0. Build time machine and go back to 1998
1. Major in CS
2. Create .com in garage
3. Get VC funding
4. IPO
5. Profit

Fixed.

maybe not...

 

[arkcom]

Originally posted by: spidey07

You know what is funny? How people actually still believe their degree and major mean a hill of beans. It's like they are still in college and pumping up "so, what's your major?"

Apparently it matters some. I'm finding my BS in Physics to be pretty useless. I'm just trying for the most basic, entry level engineering jobs in the 45k range and can't find jack.

 

[gamepad]

Originally posted by: 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.

I'm curious, what specifically in CS can pay that much right out of college? That's software engineering? Do you have to graduate from MIT to get a salary like that?

 

[mcmilljb]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: 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

You know what is funny? How people actually still believe their degree and major mean a hill of beans. It's like they are still in college and pumping up "so, what's your major?"

Face it - in the "real world" your degree doesn't mean a lot. What you have done and what you were exposed to does.

What's even funnier is your boss/director has an "easy" business degree and he is the one deciding how much you are worth and if you deserve a 1 or 2 percent raise.

No worry though, I like to give you college kids 70K a year to make you happy and think you're rich.

I do agree with your last part. Most managers = business degreeand get to pull all the strings.

The degree does mean something. An EE isn't going to have the programming background to be as useful as a CS/CE. A CS isn't going to know enough about the different fields that an EE would have studied. Are there exceptions? Yes, but they're not the norm. CE will vary depending on if they want to focus on software engineering or computer hardware or whatever else. Now if the person picks the wrong degree and pursues another subject, then yeah he can be just as qualified as someone with the "correct" degree. But that guy probably started at the bottom AFTER getting his degree. A student who picks the right major and works hard to get experience, that's what you want. You hire a CS/CE/EE that does something similar to what they studied, they won't want to go back to school which will same the employer tuition assistance and time at work missed.

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: gamepad

Originally posted by: 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.

I'm curious, what specifically in CS can pay that much right out of college? That's software engineering? Do you have to graduate from MIT to get a salary like that?

There are a small number of people in CS who just "get it". Good algorithms and design just flow with them. They really do stand out from the crowd. These are the people I've seen get offered these jobs.

 

[mcmilljb]

Originally posted by: gamepad

Originally posted by: 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.

I'm curious, what specifically in CS can pay that much right out of college? That's software engineering? Do you have to graduate from MIT to get a salary like that?

Generally those guys did internships, got work experience, or even did research. They don't get there just being an average student or even having just a 4.0. They usually have something the employer can quickly use. The key to getting the best job is to be the best in that field which means putting in some work. It's some luck to be in the right place at the right time, but these people make themselves valuable. Being valuable is what brings in the big pay check.