Andy
What degree is better to have?
I am having a hard time deciding what to major in right now. I am being recommended to major in Electrical Engineer, Computer Engineer, or Computer Science. Though I am being recommended these, I am not entirely sure what they do and what is most useful right now in today's world. So what do you think is better to have right now? #computer-science #science #engineer #computer #computer-engineering #electrical #electrical-engineer
6 answers
Daniel Moy
Daniel’s Answer
My advice would be comp sci, though I may be a bit biased. I have separate undergraduate degrees in all three of these (Bachelor of Electrical Engineering, B CompE, and BS in Computer Science), and work professionally as a software 'engineer' which is most closely related to computer science. (I say 'engineer' because it really doesn't feel like engineering yet, still a young field)
Imo the work available with a comp sci degree is more varied and interesting, but when it comes down to it all of the three are going to be solving technical problems. In EE or CompE you'll likely be solving technical problems much farther away from any end user, but there's also a lot of comp sci positions that don't deal with anything directly user-facing too.
Also, figure out whether or not you like programming, math, etc before you seriously dive into any of the three fields - you may not end up liking it (or maybe you will, who knows).
Greg Roelofs
Greg’s Answer
Certainly in Silicon Valley a CS degree is the most common and arguably the most useful degree--almost everything here is software. Some schools (e.g., UC Berkeley) have combined EE/CS departments, and it's my impression that double majors in those two are fairly common. (My own degrees are physics-related, so I don't have personal experience. I do work as a software engineer, however, despite never having taken a real computer-science course in my life, and I regularly interview candidates and am at least peripherally involved in hiring decisions.)
There are at least a couple other questions on this site that describe the differences between the three fields in detail (with links to additional info), so you should search for them. From memory, computer engineering has to do with building computers and related devices; electrical engineering is more about building the electronic components in such things, including CPUs, memory, and support chips (though there's a subfield devoted to analog devices, which includes radio-bases subsystems like Bluetooth, WiFi, and cell/mobile); and CS is nominally the science of data structures, algorithms, computability, information, etc., but also encompasses software engineering.
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Rebecca Enright, aPHR
Rebecca’s Answer
I remember having a hard time deciding what to major in as well. Here are a couple things to think about:
1. Not all schools (at least in the US) require that you declare your major when you start as a Freshman. This gives you an opportunity to start taking classes to see what fields might interest you. You can then declare your major during your second semester or even during your second year as a Sophomore.
2. If you have an idea of what types of jobs might interest you, take a look at a few job descriptions online and see what degree requirements are listed on the job description.
3. I know A LOT of people who currently have a career in a field that is not necessarily related to the major they selected in college. For example, I went to school for Psychology as I planned to be a Counselor. When I graduated, I ended up taking a job in Sales and learned that I loved it and was great at it. I changed my mind and no longer wanted to do counseling. I went from a job in Sales, to Recruiting, to Human Resources. I felt like my Psychology degree was relevant to all of the jobs that I've had.
4. Have you thought about a degree in Business? This is a good one to think about that would be relevant for many future jobs.
Good luck to you!
-Rebecca
George Taylor
George’s Answer
it can be tricky to decide on the exact degree and qualification you want. I would suggest looking at the most relevant jobs that you would like to apply for after university and work backwards from there. I would suggest Computer Science, although I am biased as that is the degree that I chose to study!
From a personal point of view, I felt that this degree would give me the most options for different careers within the technology space, which is my passion. I actually started by being a manual software tester, which was not the most engaging job. This then led to me being a Solution Architect (Implementing technology at at Large Content Delivery Network). Whilst at this company, I transitioned to be a Technical Project Manager and then into a Sales Engineer job (Help sell software from a technical standpoint). I didn't know that the Solutions Engineer role existed when I was at university, or I would have dived straight into it when I left. You can find out more about this career by Googling Sales Engineer, Solutions Engineer, Solutions Consultant. Wikipedia seems to give a reasonable overview. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_engineering
Computer Science will give you a broad depth of knowledge around programming, technology and solution design. It can also be a very lucrative degree to study given the job options available.
Regards,
George
Polina Vorozheykina
Polina’s Answer
Those degrees share a lot in common. In all 3 you are likely to study data structures, learn a compile time language (java or C), learn class design and often, statistics. They will also likely to have a large overlap on fundamental classes - algebra, differential equations and chemistry. Electrical Engineering (EE) will have more hardware focus - you will study circuit design, signal processing, renewable energy storage, etc. In Computer Science (CS) you are likely to have a deeper focus into operating systems, database design and programming languages. Computer Engineering (CE) lies somewhere in between, and you are likely to be taking classes from both CS and EE curriculums.
All 3 of those will prepare you for a wide range of careers in the tech world. And it is fairly easy to switch majors between those 3 in the first 2 years of your degree, since they have so many overlapping math and sciences prerequisites. When making the choice, I would recommend looking at metrics/reviews of those departments. Does the CS department have better employment rates after graduation? Does CE department have higher dropout rates? What are per class student-to-teacher ratios are you likely to experience in EE classes?
Lastly, even though this seems like a hard choice now, I would like to reiterate that all 3 degrees are able to give you a good foundation to have a career in tech. I graduated with a B.S. in Electrical engineering, and after some career conversations and goal setting landed in a software engineer career that I adore. Even though software engineering is an easier transition if you are coming from a computer science degree, I find that the EE degree helped me form a different perspective on problems, which I wouldn't trade for additional database/ operating system knowledge i would have learn in school if I pursued a CE/CS degree.
