SRL Archive - Discussions & Debates

I am currently finishing up my freshman year in college. A few years back I recall a few people getting CS or CE(Computer Engineering) degrees here at villavu and am started to get interested in switching to do the same. I am currently a communications major. I have been taking a lot of general education classes as of now and am curious if this major is right for me.

I would love to get to major in something like computer science but I am extremely nervous of it being too difficult. I am (or was, maybe a bit rusty now) very affluent in Pascal and could probably master it with not too much further work (because of you knuckle heads here villavu :p ).

For starters, what are some basic differences of these two majors?

Also has anybody taken either and can have any recommendations or tips for me? Are classes like calculus and physics required for CS or CE?

Thanks guys.

Whats up?! Long time no see.

<3

Haha not much, kind of having an end of freshman year crisis. :rolleyes:

When I considered computer science (up coming freshman) courses included Java/Vb net/PHP. I have no idea how hard these woulds be but.. I know @[XoL]; always has Java homework hes posting here :p


Doesn't your school have a website that shows all the credits required for a certain degree? (The ones where I live do that)

From: Robert

Doesn't your school have a website that shows all the credits required for a certain degree? (The ones where I live do that)

This.

When considering changing major, it might be better to just try to work towards two of them (it's extra work, but will pay off if you decide you hate one of them after you graduate). Take a look at your schools website and they should have a list of general degree requirements along with specific major requirements, from these lists you can see how close the two are related via the classes that overlap (if any, in my case I am doing Criminal Justice and Chemistry, so only a statistics course overlapped for me).

I don't know anything about coding, but if it is something you think you would enjoy then it's worth doing. Most people change majors at least once in college, its hard to be 18 and know exactly what you want to do with the rest of your life.

[QUOTE=Camaro';1294057]I am currently finishing up my freshman year in college. A few years back I recall a few people getting CS or CE(Computer Engineering) degrees here at villavu and am started to get interested in switching to do the same. I am currently a communications major. I have been taking a lot of general education classes as of now and am curious if this major is right for me.

I would love to get to major in something like computer science but I am extremely nervous of it being too difficult. I am (or was, maybe a bit rusty now) very affluent in Pascal and could probably master it with not too much further work (because of you knuckle heads here villavu :p ).

For starters, what are some basic differences of these two majors?

Also has anybody taken either and can have any recommendations or tips for me? Are classes like calculus and physics required for CS or CE?

Thanks guys.[/QUOTE]

Lol i am pretty lazy person thus why I always post my homework here :p (Thanks for the mention Robert!, wouldn't of seen this otherwise)

I am a CS major, there is a lot of math and a lot of programming.
It is entirely linear based, all the classes start out easy and progress to more difficult levels. They never throw you under the bus (Well they haven't done it to me yet) and make you learn something incredibly difficult with little to no prior knowledge. I know you can say this about any major, but if you think about it… you really can't. In different majors you learn things that really won't have any use for you in another class but almost all of your CS classes will relate to each other in one way or another (Even if it isn't the same languages, the same methods of programming are always used)

Like wise for the math classes being used in the programming.

There are many high level math courses you need to take (Or at least I do) I took calc 1, calc 2, discrete math, linear alg, I am taking statistical methods next semester.

If you already have a base in programming the first year will be a breeze! I would try it out, it is one of those things you will know almost immediately if it is for you or not.

You are smart, just be dedicated. Nothing is too hard, and this isn't even one of the hardest majors while it is one of the best paying!

Thank you all for such encouraging posts. The problem at the moment is my current school doesn't have either of those two majors so it would require a switch. That's kind of why I wanted the personal opinions rather than reading the list of classes and requirements I'd have to take. I like that it is linear based but even saying that I am still not even sure how my current math skills are. Maybe I'll take one of the math classes next semester at the school I am at and see how I do. I am definitely going to look into computer science / engineering as a possible future.

I took Computer Science at SUNY New Paltz, which has A LOT of professors who used to work for IBM. They are a bunch of old guys, most of them really funny, but they are all really brilliant. The course progresses from one class to the next. So my course work started with programming basics, went into data structures, then OOP, then algorithm design and analysis. Well that was the general flow, there was a million other classes mixed in like Digital Logic, Discrete Math(which is fun), Assembly, Language Processing, Software Engineering, and a bunch of other classes. We primarily programmed in Java, but used Python along the way and C++ for compilers in Lang Proc, as well as some custom assembly language made by my professor for a virtual computer he engineered, some C for some hardware stuff in software engineering, and then PHP for some other projects. Now I loved every single class, and they never just throw something impossible at you(except for Lang Proc). Everything builds off the last thing you learned so as long as you do the work you'll never fall behind.

Never really found myself studying too much if it's something you enjoy the work the should teach you enough. Plus all my professors allowed you to bring books with you to exams though it never helped if you didn't understand the material. I would say the only thing I hated was the Major based Electives. Phys I,II,III, Calc I,II,III, Stat, all the EE classes,and some other meaningless classes were just too work intensive and took you away from the computer science material. I mean Calc was important but the rest had 0 application to the major, and often required the most work for 3 credit classes as opposed to the 4 credit classes for the major.

I would recommend the major to everyone. I can't speak on behalf of Computer Engineering, but Comp Sci was amazing. Look for a school that has a good program for it and you won't regret it. One of the best parts was going to presentations that were held by IBM, Intel, etc or even some nice guest speakers like Noam Chomsky. It's fun, and it's one of the best degrees you could have right now(both for pay and demand) aside from business, and it's an excellent major to build your Masters Degree off of. I'm only 22 but I'm about to land a job at Oracle(Sun Microsystems former) right by my house on Long Island. I plan to work there as an entry level job for the field and move onto something bigger in either the city(NYC) or Boston or anywhere else along the North East because there are literally thousands and thousands of jobs I can apply for.

Pfft. all you people speak of computer science and computer engineering. Find a place with software engineering bro.

From: Turpinator
Pfft. all you people speak of computer science and computer engineering. Find a place with software engineering bro.

Software engineering is a non-existent field. Just something HR says to pay more. You can't "engineer" software because there is no blue prints for it. When you engineer something, the prints are always finalised then you do your craft. It doesn't change half way through as it does in programming. For example, they don't build a bridge half way and then decide they want to add a bike lane or change it from point a to b..

"Developing" software is nothing like engineering imho.. Not sure where they came up with the idea that software development is "engineering".


@OP.. You don't have to take "insane" math. Just a reasonable amount. I'm not sure why they force anyone to take stats to be honest. For computer science you basically learn at a level closer to hardware and some programming to go along with all the theory. In the US, they seem to mix up and merge programming/software development with computer science: http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/137103/whats-the-difference-between-computer-science-and-programming


Either way, most likely you'll just dabble in multiple languages and a bit of hardware. There's quite a bit of stupid electives.. It's annoying but nothing hard. Most struggle on data-structures and algorithms but that's about it afaik.

I don't know much about it, (I'm just in science, major in math minor in physics) but at my University, Computer Science is somewhat frowned upon by the guys in Software/Computer engineering guys because it's way easier. Obviously not saying that's how it is everywhere, just curious to see what people think about it.

Also @Brandon I have a few friends who just graduated from Software Engineering and all 3 of them got really high paying jobs at Microsoft their first year out of school. I'm pretty sure in most places it just means it has a lot to do with coding rather than the actual hardware of computers.

PS I guess my not knowing how to properly use the @Brandon pretty much takes out any credibility I have in this conversation :p

From: Brandon
Just something HR says to pay more.

So if software engineering is the same as computer engineering or computer science… why wouldnt you do that?

unless… youre biggie smalls? Mo' Money Mo' Problems?

From: Brotein
I took Computer Science at SUNY New Paltz, which has A LOT of professors who used to work for IBM. They are a bunch of old guys, most of them really funny, but they are all really brilliant. The course progresses from one class to the next. So my course work started with programming basics, went into data structures, then OOP, then algorithm design and analysis. Well that was the general flow, there was a million other classes mixed in like Digital Logic, Discrete Math(which is fun), Assembly, Language Processing, Software Engineering, and a bunch of other classes. We primarily programmed in Java, but used Python along the way and C++ for compilers in Lang Proc, as well as some custom assembly language made by my professor for a virtual computer he engineered, some C for some hardware stuff in software engineering, and then PHP for some other projects. Now I loved every single class, and they never just throw something impossible at you(except for Lang Proc). Everything builds off the last thing you learned so as long as you do the work you'll never fall behind.

Never really found myself studying too much if it's something you enjoy the work the should teach you enough. Plus all my professors allowed you to bring books with you to exams though it never helped if you didn't understand the material. I would say the only thing I hated was the Major based Electives. Phys I,II,III, Calc I,II,III, Stat, all the EE classes,and some other meaningless classes were just too work intensive and took you away from the computer science material. I mean Calc was important but the rest had 0 application to the major, and often required the most work for 3 credit classes as opposed to the 4 credit classes for the major.

I would recommend the major to everyone. I can't speak on behalf of Computer Engineering, but Comp Sci was amazing. Look for a school that has a good program for it and you won't regret it. One of the best parts was going to presentations that were held by IBM, Intel, etc or even some nice guest speakers like Noam Chomsky. It's fun, and it's one of the best degrees you could have right now(both for pay and demand) aside from business, and it's an excellent major to build your Masters Degree off of. I'm only 22 but I'm about to land a job at Oracle(Sun Microsystems former) right by my house on Long Island. I plan to work there as an entry level job for the field and move onto something bigger in either the city(NYC) or Boston or anywhere else along the North East because there are literally thousands and thousands of jobs I can apply for.

Oh wow thats awesome. I live in Long Island as well and I actually go to SUNY Cortland as of now. It seems like the electives are the annoying stuff about taking a major like this but I feel if I just sucked it up it would end up being an excellent major. Thank you all for such encouraging posts. I am still on the fence of what my plan is and the such, like if I want to act on this feeling and what school I would choose. Just by chance, where in long island do you live?

[QUOTE=Camaro';1294383]Oh wow thats awesome. I live in Long Island as well and I actually go to SUNY Cortland as of now. It seems like the electives are the annoying stuff about taking a major like this but I feel if I just sucked it up it would end up being an excellent major. Thank you all for such encouraging posts. I am still on the fence of what my plan is and the such, like if I want to act on this feeling and what school I would choose. Just by chance, where in long island do you live?[/QUOTE]

I'm from Merrick.

From: Brotein
I'm from Merrick.

That's funny. I'm a town over in east meadow!

Software engineering is actually what companies want because it is an attempt at standardizing software development. @Brandon I've had like 6 classes already explaining how software engineering is engineering but at the same time isn't.