Is Computer Science the same as Computer Engineering major.?

Kellie Waycott: Computer science majors learn about computer systems and the way humans and computers interact from a scientific perspective. Instruction includes programming and the theory and design of software. Through the study of mathematics, physics, and computer science, computer engineering majors learn to analyze, design, and develop computer hardware and software.So a little different....Show more

Clementina Collelo: It mainly depends on the school, but generally, no, computer science and computer engineering are very different. I don't know if the "computer engineering is just computer science + extra classes" thing is what your college does, but for the vast majority of other universities out there, the two are similar only at the beginning, but then they diverge onto completely different paths.Computer science can be quite theoretical, such as how to improve an algorithm, measure its time complexity, if P = NP, and whatnot. There's some high-level progr! amming (and by high-level, I mean easy-to-use, human readable languages) and some abstract math. In more advanced levels, computer science can cover a wide variety of topics, like parallel processing, compiler optimization design, fault tolerant systems, distributive networks, graphics and animation rendering, artificial intelligence, etc...Computer engineering, on the other hand, focuses primarily on the hardware/software interface. You learn about electricity, circuit design, how computer components work, how operating systems work, different types of architecture, and whatnot. There's a lot more attention towards low-level programming languages (low-level: difficult-to-learn, more machine-readable), such as assembly and C. More advanced computer engineering topics include things like nanorobotics, microelectronics, computer architecture design, embedded systems, electric signals, telecommunication networks, etc...So as you can see, in most cases computer engineering most! definitely is not the same as computer science. (Though it's ! tougher!)...Show more

Fritz Hawkey: The 2 majors are similar. but aren't exactly the same. The way I think about, it is electrical engineering majors study mostly circuits and hardware. Computer science majors study mostly programming. Computer engineers study a little bit of both: hardware/circuit and programming (I would argue more programming than hardware though). That's my opinion from an academic perspective. In the work field however, there isn't really a difference whether you got a comp eng or comp sci degree. Both the degrees are just as good and are eligible for the same jobs. I had a comp science friend get a computer engineering job and vice versa. I even had an electrical engineering friend that got a computer science job! These guys were all out straight out of college with little to no experience). It really shows that it all depends on what you know and how you do on your interview. Pay wise, I would say that's just an average and it shouldn't be more! than a couple thousand difference. It really depends on where you work rather than which degree (comp eng/comp sci) you got....Show more