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Computer Scientist or Engineer?

Aesiir

Aesiir

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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 :)
 
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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.
 
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.
 
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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.
 
wackywamba said:
Be warned, by the definition of computer engineering you have a background in electronic engineering. This means that only a portion of your course will be dedicated towards programming and the vast majority of it towards electronics.

If you're looking at doing straight programming do computer science; this deals with every day programming.

Computer engineering deals with a lower level, i.e. if you have a radar built by an electronic engineer, you would for instance design the software to properly moderate and interpret the radar signals for the user from the hardware.

Having a degree in computer engineering also means you have the professional status of being an engineer which attaches a formal standard of quality that you have to produce. It's a very good degree to have and puts you in a good position to later progress into managerial positions of a company.

Lastly, to address your overall question: there really is a surplus of programmers, you need to be above the rest to make a decent career out of it. However, being a computer engineer you have unique skills that most other programmers won't have and this will help you extend yourself into further fields.

Hope this helped.
Click to expand...

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.
 
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