How many of you were/are Computer Engineering Majors?

[MiniThug]

Im a senior at high school and considering Texas A&M University. As my major I am thinking of computer engineering, the electrical track. I was just wondering how many of you also chose this as your major and I would like to get your comments and thoughts on it. For those of you out of college, what type of work are you doing? Do you think in 5 years there will be as large of a demand for computer engineers as there is now, or do you think the industry will decline? My second choice would be going into the business school, having a tough time deciding. Please help me out, thanks a lot!

 

[Mday]

if you can't program or do math, don't.

that is all.

personally, i consider the industry to be still in its toddlerhood.

 

[BigSmooth]

I guarantee you that going for the computer engineering degree will mean a lot more work and more sleepless nights, but it will be worth it in the end if you enjoy it and that is what you want for a career.

You will have a lot easier time finding a job and making a lot of $$$ that way as well. I don't think there is any way the market for engineers will go down any time soon.

 

[Ranger X]

Ok, I am currently a senior at my University majoring in Computer Engineering and let me tell you, IT IS NOT FUN! Forget about partying, forget about having a life, forget about enjoying your college life, and look forward to sleepless nights stressing over labs and homework assignments. Oh don't forget, you'll be spending half of your life in a lab working on your assignment. It may pay off at the end but I still think it won't be all that great unless you're able to retain most of the information and obtain a decent GPA.

If you're weak in mathematics or sciences (especially physics), I would do something else. If you like programming, computer science is a better choice. Trust me on this one.

 

[MiniThug]

Well science and math are my strongest subjects and I love computers. Ive had a couple of years of computer science in high school where we worked with C++. I am more interested in the hardware side than the programming though. Im not sure if this goes for all universities, I would suppose it would, but at A&M even the electrical track gets a good deal of programming. Thanks for your comments guys, keep them coming!

 

[BA]

I was CompE until a week ago. At that point, I had had enough of Circuits and Electromagnetics, and hello CS!

 

[nEoTeChMaN]

Got my computer engineering degree last summer and didn't regret one bit!!

I love maths...but, I don't care for Physics....

 

[Dooling37]

Well I'm in the College of Business at my schoool, studying Computer Info. Systems (and Finance). It's alright, doesn't get into that much technical detail, which is good or bad, depending who you ask. It is also alot of programming though, which I despise. The benefits are that you get a great business background which can help you go into careers in areas such as consulting, which I am interested in.
On the other hand, it doesn't give you anywhere near the overall computer knowledge that CS or CompEng would...I guess it all depends what you want.

Good luck.

 

[Wizkid]

I am thinking of taking Computer Engineering at U of T next fall. My strongest subjects are math, physics and chemistry so I think I should be ok, but I was hoping it was going to be more fun.... please someone tell me that it's fun

 

[jmcoreymv]

Ok its fun, but its probably not, i havent majored in it.

 

[Stifko]

I was a CIS major over 10 years ago. they had us writing cobol code on an old IBM, it was an older machine than the 3270s. the professor would give us bad jcl on purpose, so first we had to debug his code !

 

Electrical/Computer Hardware here... I love all that stuff, though, so hey. Lots of math, physics, programming. So much more fun than writing essays and papers all day.

 

[nd]

I'm faced with a dilemna too..

You're scaring me Ranger... I was just accepted to 2 schools for Computer Engineering. I've been programming for MANY years and enjoy it.. however, I thought I'd try to expand my knowledge and dive into Computer Engineering to get more hardware skills to compliment my (already proficient) programming skills. If I took CS I wouldn't learn a whole lot.

EE alone doesn't interest me much, and I'm above average at Math/Science, but not the best Physics student (though I'm sure I can improve).

I'm worried that I'll get into Computer Engineering for a little bit, get my butt kicked, and wuss out and go into Computer Science. I am genuinely interested in more of the low-level embedded hardware oriented programming stuff.

Ranger X, I have lots of questions.. would you mind answering some of them ? (e-mail, P/M, whatever, or here even)

 

[Wizkid]

Well, if you want low-level hardware programming than Computer Engineering is what you want (at least at U of T up here in Ontario)

It's pretty scary going into one of the most challenging programs offered in the country, but I think I will like it.

The two schools that I am applying to have entrance requirments of 92% and 95% each (looking at mostly physics, calculus, algebra and chemistry), but the drop-out rate is pretty low...

 

[HigherGround]

Graduated with Computer Systems Engineering degree in '99 ... specialized in digital signal processing ... currently I work as a software engineer for our government. Here's my view on CE/EE corriculum ....

First of all, if you do plan go with CE major be prepared for everything and i mean everything. This is one of those majors that requires very broad knowledge of several subject areas...starting with heavy math ( my corriculum had 6 required semesters of math starting with Calc I/II/III all the way to Advanced Calc II/Advanced Diff. Eq. II), heavy physics ( especially electromagnetism - my corriculum had 7 required semesters of some physics starting with physics I/I/III and ending with F&W II and Plasma Dynamics (I did both)), Circuit Design/Electronics/Microelectronics ( digital or analog - i did digital ), some sort of computer engineering concentration ( like VLSI, DSP, Robotics, Computer Networks etc - I did DSP). Obviously we will have to take several software engineering classes ( Computing/Programming languages, Data Structes, Algorithms and probably a combinatronics class). Additionally my school made us take several general engineering classes, such as dynamic systems, thermodynamics, two semesters of solid state chemistry, statistics, etc. And finally I had to take 6 social science/economics/art classes. Thats about it, as you can tell this major can kick some ass, but if you enjoy this kind of stuff it can be really rewarding. BTW, out of 140 people who started the major with me, only 40 actually graduated on time, most of the rest finished one or two semesters behind as they [CE department] made some radical changes to the corriculum and most students simply couldn't handle the load, and don't worry about market being saturated with computer engineers...if you know your stuff you'll find job in no time.

 

[HigherGround]

one more thing ... computer engineering is not all about "low level harware programming"...you'll definitly have to take an embedded systems class or two, but by now means you are required to keep going in that direction.

 

[Wizkid]

If you guys thought I meant that low-level programming was the only thing that CE teaches then you mis-understood me. It's just that low-level programming is an option of CE and up here CE is the best way to learn that stuff...

But yep, there are tons of other options too. We don't have to specialize until 3rd year here, is it different in the states?

 

[HigherGround]

nope, it's pretty much the same...i knew i was going in a DSP direction during my 3rd semester, but i made sure that my corriculum was not becomming unidirectional by taking classes from other concentrations in the subsequent semesters.

 

[MiniThug]

Keep them coming guys!!!

 

[SUOrangeman]

BSEE George Mason 1997
MSCE Syracuse 1998

I wanted to do CE straight out of high school, but no school I had applied to (basically, those that were offering big-time scholarship money) had a BS program. So, I opted for EE. Midway through my degree, I started looking at the classifieds. There were 10+ pages every Sunday dedicated to network engineering positions, clearly outnumbering all other professions. I figured that I might as well try to head in that direction. I really didn't get into the netowrking side of life academically, until grad school. But, I knew it was a hot field, so I stayed the course.

-SUO

 

[mAdD INDIAN]

Wizkid: Why not goto Waterloo for CompEng?? Instead of UofT?

 

[MiniThug]

Can you guys help me keep this up at the top? I really need help deciding as I am filling out applications as we speak. Thanks!

 

[Handle]

Waterloo is supposed to be very difficult, especially since you have to pick up and move every 4 months because of the co-op program.

 

[LocutusX]

Yuck, Waterloo sucks. Don't come here. Been here for 3 years now and it gets worse as each day passes.

 

[Handle]

But don't all the big computer companies go to Waterloo for their employees. I hear they aggressively recruit from there.