Computer Scientist or Engineer?

I'm not sure which career I want to pursue, I'm sure it's something along the lines of both but I was hoping if anyone had some background or information on either field so I can get a better feel for it. Also would like to know how coding and programming are differentiated and how complex each is. I understand the coding is used for programming but if anyone can give me a more in depth summary, I would really appreciate it

 

I'm not an expert on either subject, but this link might be able to help you. http://www.eng.buffalo.edu/undergrad/academics/degrees/cs-vs-cen

I'm also planning on majoring in CS, if that means anything to you.

 

Awesome, just solidified my choice in CS. Thanks for the link! Much appreciated

 

It really depends on your personality. I took c c++ java and html in high school to see how much I liked it. In high school and my first programming class in college (My second semester Senior year in High School) I enjoyed programming the simple codes and functions..That soon changed. I took college classes early so my first true freshman year in college instead of going to classes, I Co-op'd for a Defense Company. At the company we worked on programs exceeding 200k lines. I could not handle it, the tidiness of it was too much and annoying. My first official major choice was Computer Engineering because I thought of going into the system defense industry. This past fall I decided to work for a different company and I loved it. It was not a grinding on a keyboard with so many problems. The atmosphere was better also. I enjoyed it but once again could not see myself doing it as a career. Now I changed my major to mathematics and a minor in physics. I work for another agency now and as a co-op student get paid a great amount.

Pm me if you have any questions I am extremely knowledgable on this topic especially since I was in your shoes 2 years ago. My experience can help.

 

Yes... It does depend largely on your interest..
Computer science can be helpful, especially if you are going to a graduate school for medicine or law(with a high GPA of course).
Computer engineering, if you go through it all, is rewarding but can leave a financial dent in your wallet.

 

CS is basically only programming related while in CE you will encounter hardware and EE topics too. If you want a cross engg go for CE otherwise choose CS if you have a flair for programming.

 

Basically, if you want to work for a game/software company, get a degree in computer science. If you want to work for Intel, or AMD, get a degree in computer engineering.

 

I wrote this up for a similar question a few months ago.

What noamyoungerm said isn't really true at all - engineers are often found in management, in actual fact only a small percentage of CEs land up designing hardware.

 

Wacky is completely correct. You can also minor in science if you still want to program.