<p>When you start taking CSE courses at Stony Brook, it won’t take you long to realize the CSE courses are a lot tougher than your ECE courses. In fact, I was TA’ing a CSE course, and 3 CpE students were weeded out, all in front of my eyes. While in ECE the professor usually has an enormous curve, and you can walk in the park with the degree(I’ve taken several ECE courses, so speaking from experience)in CSE, since it’s a lot stronger and more prestigious on campus, the professors go a lot harder. In fact, since CSE is one of the most popular majors on campus, getting in the major should be your first goal. It won’t take you long to realize the difference between the two, most of your EE courses are theoretical, while in CSE you are applying what you learn in massive projects. In fact, think about it analytically, there is a reason SBU has the 2nd best CSE program in NYS. They go hard.</p>
<p>I’m warning you right now, a double major is impossible, and useless since your GPA will be destroyed and you won’t learn as much. If I were you, major in CSE and pay close attention to your classes. Or choose ECE if you enjoy hardware. You will definitely not be prepared as a Software Engineer if you do decide to take the ECE route.</p>
<p>Let me give you a nice little caveat, did you know that the ECE department had to drop CSE219 from their curriculum because Computer Engineering students couldn’t handle it? To an extent where they had to drop Computer Engineering since they couldn’t pass this CSE course? The ECE program is geared towards hardware, with little to no software classes. In a class like ECE 124, or ESE224, you will learn baby stuff. All in all, if you are interested in Software, Embedded systems, and a load of projects, go for CSE. It is regionally known to be a solid program, which is why Google, Microsoft come on campus to recruit CSE students, and it’s why the department is actively hiring more faculty members.</p>
<p>Faculty shape a curriculum, and just take a look at the CSE faculty(nearly 50 professors)and compare it to the ECE faculty where most can’t even speak English, aside from running a website that looks like it’s stuck in 70’s.</p>
<p>Hear it from the horses mouth, someone who has taken courses from both departments.</p>