Computer science/engineering

[Cold_Snowden]

Well it's just my freshman year of college so I've got a good bit to go. I had considered mechanical engineering for awhile, but I realized other than automobiles, I don't really like that kinda stuff. So one day when installing my new hard drive and another day overclocking my processor, I realized this was the thing for me. I'd like to understand the programing and internal workings of a computer more.

So today I was looking around a book store, saw the huge thick java and C++ books. Having basic programming experience can only help so much, those things scare me to death. I still want to learn it though and I'm sure I'm capable. I believe my first computer science course is java, does that sound accurate?

Overall with my desire to know how it works in the background and component wise, computer science and engineering both appeal. What is everyone's opinion on both?

 

[elitesoldier]

Sweet, I'm a freshman in college as well. I personally prefer computer science. Computer engineering seems like 1/2 electrical engineer and 1/2 computer scientist. Hmm lets see, computer science is almost entirely the study of software where as computer engineering is the study of software-hardware integration. The major difference is that the computer scientist works mostly with high level programming languages (C++, java etc.) and the computer engineer works with low level languages (C, assembly etc.). Computer science seems to have more career opportunities associated with the major, though that gap seems small between the two majors. Really depends on what you want to learn in college.

 

[The Future]

Yeah, I'm an incoming freshman into Computer Science, and my first course is an intro the java, although the primary focus of the course is not the language - it's object-oriented design, the software creation process, and other fundamentals of computer science. Learning Java syntax is just a bonus.

 

[kirab]

If you like both hardware and software stuff then go comp eng. But if programming is more your thing then go comp sci I suppose.

 

[ApolloIV]

well i'm a freshman majoring in computer science and eng. but i'm thinking about switching to Computer Network Administration and Security Technology. They both look really promising but i dont which would be a better career to get into. i know if i go in to computer science and eng. my job choices are larger so if anyone has any opinions on this let me know.

 

[elitesoldier]

well i'm a freshman majoring in computer science and eng. but i'm thinking about switching to Computer Network Administration and Security Technology. They both look really promising but i dont which would be a better career to get into. i know if i go in to computer science and eng. my job choices are larger so if anyone has any opinions on this let me know.

Stay with comp science and eng.

 

[COD2_fanatic]

i'm not in College yet (sophmore in HS) but i plan on taking some sort of computer stuff in coolege. From what i'm gathering from what you are saying, computer engineering deals with both software and hardware (say...a computer technician), correct me if i'm wrong. Another question i have is does it require foreign language (my guess is no)

 

[Quantum Bit]

You do not need a degree to be a computer technician. A computer engineer deals with developing hardware. A software engineer/computer science deals with writing/developing software etc.

 

[COD2_fanatic]

maybe you could explain that in a little bit more of idiot terms, i''m not quite getting you

 

[jaeusm]

Computer engineering is the intersection of computer science and electrical engineering -- that is, it's about half electrical engineering and half computer science. It is an engineering discipline, which is vastly different than a technician's duties.

Computer engineering covers fields like embedded systems, digital signal processing, robotics, etc.

In a nutshell, computer science is more concerned with software, algorithms, and abstraction.

Search these forums. I, and many others, have posted a lot of information on this over the past several months.