Hello /g/
Just a quick question regarding CS and CE/EE. Is electrical engineering or computer engineering better to learn in college versus computer science? I know most programming can be learned on your own while something like EE it is more beneficial to learn that in school. I am not trying to spark a CS vs CE debate I am just looking for the most valuable way to spend my time in school.
>>53055118
CS if you have plans to go into academia.
CE/EE if you don't.
both with land you jobs, but one is much more theoretical than the other, proving more useful for academia
>>53055118
They're not even the same thing, so there is no debate. Some might argue that the compsci field is crowded, but that is not quite true.
>>53055159
I do not plan on going into academia
>>53055161
I know they are not the same but from what I understand CompEng is the in between of CS and EE so I feel like if I did EE or CE I could learn any other CS stuff i wouldn't learn in school on my own to have a wider skill set.
>>53055118
If you want to get a job programming at any level higher than code monkey, an engineering, math or hard science degree really helps. It's not that you can't without one, but that you'll have a hard time playing catch-up even if you get the jobs.
More tech industry and academic jobs will be open to you with a CS degree. More jobs period will be open to you with an engineering degree.
>>53055238
That's kind of how I'm feeling about it, like I understand that the starting salary out of school for Computer Science can be very good, however I'm not so sure how the opportunities/advancements with it compare to engineering.
>>53055118
yo who that qt?
>>53055352
Not sure found it somewhere on this website at one point I just had no idea what else to start a thread with so I figured some of you guys might enjoy this qt3.14 instead of a random meme
>>53055387
well cheers m8 I'm enjoying her as we speak
what do you want to do? software engineering?
>>53055118
OP, my BS in in CE, minored in CS.
I got hired writing software right out of college because firms hiring CE's all expected work experience.
I feel like you get a much better grasp with the underpinnings of what's going on with a CE degree, plus you can apply it to a lot of fields. A CS degree just buys you a lifetime of being a code monkey.
I hope to get back to the really interesting and unique problems that a CE can solve. There really is something exceptional about an engineer over being a scientist, in a pure sense.
>>53055118
Software engineering jobs have a bit more opportunity than EE/CE jobs. That said, CS is not software engineering. It's an applied math.
A common misconception is that EE is a magic ticket to easy job hunting and great pay. It's not. It has been a consistently decent market for decades. Engineers are always needed, but there's never really an explosion in popularity for them, however there's also never really a recession for them either.
Software engineering on the other hand is still hot shit right now, for now.
You can do software engineering with a CS or EE or CE degree, but it's hard to argue against a CS degree having a bit of an edge if you are just looking at those three degrees and looking to get into software engineering.
My advice to anyone looking at these three is this:
EE - do it if you actually enjoy EE. You can make a career out of it. Under no circumstance should you do it otherwise.
I am an EE btw, and I do enjoy EE, and I get paid pretty fucking well. However there were a lot of kids that went to school thinking EE is a money train, even though they didn't particularly enjoy it. None of them are very happy, nor doing THAT well. They're merely doing okay, with an okay outlook on their career.
>>53055446
I would like to be more involved in actually designing systems. I enjoy coding but I don't know if I would be willing to do that as a career, entirely at least.
>>53055466
Yeah I am more interested in understanding the fundamentals of how computers/technology works and working on doing things of that nature. As I said before, I like programming but doing just that as a living I don't think I could stomach.
>>53055485
Yeah. You have to love it.
Also, I know NO successful engineer or programmer who doesn't do engineering, programming, and quite often basic science, on their own, as part of their hobbies.
People who thrive at this stuff love it, and can't get enough of it.
>>53055505
>I would like to be more involved in actually designing systems.
I'm an EE and I do design wireless systems (cellular, LMR, public safety, RTLS, point-to-point, etc, and yes, occasionally WiFi). Or at least I used to. I manage and mentor a lot more now. However it is certainly not the systems you think of. Many EE's do system design, especially controls or power EE's.
CE's may do a lot of ASIC design (although EE's do as well) and a lot of embedded design so that could be a decent fit for you.
Getting a job in those areas may be more difficult than simply being a code monkey, but if it's what you want, I highly suggest hacking away at it until you get in there. It is very difficult to switch if you've been doing software engineering for 5+ years then suddenly want to be some entry level ASIC designer.
>>53055595
>as part of their hobbies.
Yeah this is something I noticed too. Successful dudes in these fields aren't 9-5 engineers/software engineers. They're engineers/coders all the time.
For instance I design and build loudspeakers and amps in some of my spare time (less so now unfortunately).
The degrees are tricky to compare. A good CS degree will take you to places that self study will likely not reach, especially in fields requiring sophisticated algorithms like artificial intelligence. For example, you can very likely walk away with a CE/EE degree not having been exposed to Turing Machines. Conversely, you can walk away with a CS degree not knowing what a Fourier Transform is.
Think about what you want to do and follow that path.
>>53055505
>I like programming but doing just that as a living I don't think I could stomach.
CE opens more doors to you than CS does so you may have your answer.
In college, it seemed apparent to us that CE students were better at CS theory than CS majors. We sometimes took the same courses and answered their questions correctly in class more often than CS students.
Being in the field, I just don't think CS students use their degree. All they remember is how to write a program and then search on google/stackoverflow to supplement. At least a CE is an engineer who solves problems.
BTW next week is National Engineers Week
>>53055665
>dat pic tho
>>53055118
CS and CE are veeeeerrry similar. source:cs student with ce friends
>>53055409
cheers
>>53055485
CS is not applied math.
>>53055665
Yeah so far from what I'm understanding CE opens more doors as well as gives you a better understanding of the nitty gritty stuff with how technology works.
>>53055655
Appreciate the input and yeah I'll definitely be researching more about prospective programs and the like for the schools I'm looking at.
>>53055596
Yeah see that just seems much more interesting to me at least than just doing pure programming
>>53055725
>CS and CE are veeeeerrry similar. source:cs student with ce friends
Really? So you've taken electromagnetic fields/transmission lines? Your CE friends are either in their first two years or they're lying to you.
>>53055760
There's a big debate in the CS community about what it is: an engineering discipline, a subset of math, a science, or some blend. Unfortunately, when a department doesn't take a position one way or another, the education for the students suffers.
Don't do EE it's soul sucking and the job market is horrible
>>53055864
Yeah, I've also heard that in general CS education isn't that great at most schools but I could be completely and totally wrong.
>>53055968
I had a chance to double major in EE (already in CE) and all I'd need to do is take one more semester, but it had Emag and all that crazy EE shit and said no fucking way.
>>53055864
i dont think there's an answer to that, because we have so many schools with different ideology on how CS should be taught. Because different schools teach it differently, online communities will never agree because none of them experience the degree the same way.
on another note, a few weeks ago i did a quick survey for CS courses in the west coast of the USA. I contacted online tutors that said they were really comfortable with first year courses to third year courses in their compsci program. i mainly focused on data structures, and algorithm analysis and design. my cut off was at a 3.3 GPA.
i found that well known schools would just teach sorting algorithms in their data structures and algorithms class. that's all. no algorithm design. no analysis. no optimization. they didn't even understand what dynamic programming is. i had to jog their memory on what a dynamic programming algorithm was. they had no idea how to find out when quicksort would be really fast, or really slow (ie. what kind of input would yield a fast execution of quicksort? slow execution?) these were students that had more than 3.3 GPAs.
>>53055992
lmao @ CE babbies afraid of a little magnetism.
>tfw I still have to do this
>>53055118
>Is electrical engineering or computer engineering better to learn in college versus computer science?
I've had to share classes with electric engineers and even work with them. Fucking retarded people, didn't even know how to change an ip address. I haven't met computer engineering students, i've met software engineers who are either code monkeys or inept, but electric engineers my god they're abyssal.
>>53055968
>>53055992
wow seriously? EE grad here, if you take five minutes to study you can pass and get decent grades.
I had an internship two years before graduating, got hired full time the semester before graduating, and got a raise after showing my degree.
Coding is fun on the side, but not a full time job.
>>53055485
Out of curiosity what exactly do you do for work? I was a fuck up in high school, but I'm trying to turn shit around so I'm going through CC right now just getting some general ed done.
I'm on the fence with EE and ME. I like to work with my hands which I guess is why I enjoyed my time doing carpentry with my uncle and building shit in autism simulators. I'm just not sure what path to take.
>>53056144
>it only takes 5 minutes to study for the final, dude
Maybe you had an easy college then because Emag looked like a hellish combination of chemistry, physics, electrical properties, material science and more. It got worse from there and I really didn't want to go down the pure EE route so why bother?
I doubt a double major makes much of a difference anyway. I'd opt for a masters before a double major.
>>53055655
Maybe if you went to a shit college. We covered Fourier analysis in the first semester of my CS program and use it constantly for things like image processing, compression/encoding, statistics/AI, and a variety of other topics.
CS and CE are the same fucking thing. Some colleges will have a CS program, some will have a CE program, some will have both with slight differences in course requirements, but it doesn't fucking matter in terms of what is covered or what employers think.
>>53056144
>>>53055968
>>>53055992
>wow seriously? EE grad here, if you take five minutes to study you can pass and get decent grades.
You're a savant. Hurray.
In reality, many 101 and gen-ed finals can be studied for in five minutes if you did the homework. Even some entry level math courses like calc 1/2/3. But the bulk of engineering and CS courses can't be treated like that of you want to pass.
is there any hope for computer guys that are just good with computers? like A+ cert kinda guys without the A+ cert, you know oldfags that have been working on computers for twenty years etc but can't code shit?
i don't see my IT guys doing jack shit and half the time they're fucking off talking, smoking, in bullshit 'meetings' or wheeling carts around with 'broken' computers on them while driving new fleet cars, and they're never in a hurry.
>>53056551
Then you were in an engineering heavy CS program. Which is fine, but but common. Most CS majors don't touch Fourier transforms unless they take certain electives that cover signals or image processing.
CS generally stops with hardware after enough digital electronics to throw a calculator and instruction memory on an FPGA. CE keeps going with it.
>>53056638
There's plenty of grunt work, but the pay caps out quickly.
>>53056659
what's your idea of a pay cap for that kinda guy?
i'm pay capped as it is now.
>>53056692
I wouldn't expect it to get much past 40k. Less outside of large metropolitan areas.
>>53056233
I'm the lead wireless engineer of my firm. My job functions include, but are not limited to:
Answering everyone's questions about any sort of wireless technology because it's all magic to everyone (a.k.a. consulting)
Writing RFP's (request for proposals) for both our projects and our clients' projects (a.k.a. more consulting; this means that I write out the document that outlines what a project's scope will be, and contractors will submit designs/bids based on that document; e.g. I write a document that says some 1.5M sq. ft. mixed use facility needs a cellular and public safety DAS and everyone submits designs based on this document).
Sometimes designing shit myself
Mentoring other engineers on the finer aspects of wireless engineering, which include electromagnetics, optics (holy shit do people ask me why wireless systems require so much fiber and coaxial cable), communications theory and application
And overall growth of my department, which is pretty new for this firm.
>>53056233
Oh, I should also mention, in my industry, smart hands are an invaluable resource. I pay good money for a guy who can terminate coax and splice fiber and rack & stack well. It's like a lot of tradeskills, but with far more of a tech focus; makes fucking bank.
Good techs are hard to find, and most companies will train you up in addition to paying you well. However there's a lot of travel involved and long hours, which can both be a good thing since you're making shitloads more money doing overtime in a far away place (since your travel expenses are always covered, or at least on per diem). It's a really good option if you really want to get your hands dirty.
But between EE and ME, they can both do cool shit however a lot of hands-on work is test engineering, which is mind-numbingly boring a lot of the time.
>>53055159
Idk what country you are from but EE easily obliterates Computer meme degrees. In all aspects.
I wonder why people fall for meme degrees like CS
>>53056981
Could you elaborate?
>>53056828
>>53056914
Alright thanks m8. I'll keep checking out my options. I wouldn't mind doing installation shit, but at the same time having my own office and doing 9-5 doesn't sound bad either.
I still have a bit before I can transfer to a university. Hate to keep bugging, but do you recommend anything I should learn that they might not teach in school?
>>53057027
If you're going into engineering, sure. Anything hands on.
Like, for EE, they're not going to teach you soldering. Will you have to solder to complete your senior project? Very likely.
>>53057108
Okay. I already have some training with soldering. I ended up doing a lot of basic electrical stuff while doing carpentry as well. Nothing complicated really just wiring and connectors.
If a customer wanted lights mounted under their cabinets they would usually have us do it.
I just need to fill more my free time with self study. My love for video games is starting to die out now so it leaves me with more time.
>>53055118
Double major. Dumbass
>>53056999
Don't listen to him. I'm a sysadmin making 6 figures been in the field for 6 years.
Currently doing CS degree and its fairly interesting. 1 year left. Looks like how the other guy said, you get up to the point in hardware to make a calculator basically from scratch and the theory of more advanced processors and computer architecture. You get pretty far into algorithms and assembly knowledge as well. Definitely a different experience though when youve basically worked with computers your whole life and now all the gaps begin to fill in.
I'm also doing an MBA too though (already completed first year requirements before obtaining BS) since my goal is upper infosec management positions.
I wanted to do an engineering degree but they are hard to find 100 percent online.. Plus, who goes to an EE interview and has to say they got their degree online.
I plan on getting an MS in something after the MBA. Not sure what tho.
>>53057977
>Double major.
>calling someone else Dumbass
Get a load of this guy.
