<p>Hi I got accepted into Co-op EE and Co-op CS in the University of Waterloo (Canadian university for those who dont know). As most of your are Americans I will give a brief description of waterloo: waterloo has the best CS program in Canada (comparable to the best American programs) Waterloo is the only Canadian university Bill Gates visits in Canada and Microsoft hires more student from Waterloo that any other Canadian university. Waterloo also has arguably the best EE program in Canada (some think Toronto is better for EE but I dont). Both programs have great co-op opportunities (over 90% of students in both programs find placements).
So basically I will have lots of work experience and an outstanding education regardless of which program I go into. Im just not sure which one I should accept. I realize EE is very stable and broad job but programmers make more money and there is more demand for them. I was wondering which would be a better pick.
One last thing: dont say choose whichever one I like better. I like both equally. Also, I dont wanna pick a job just the money however income is an important factor for me.
Thanks</p>
<p>Flip a coin. Heads – EE; Tails – CS.</p>
<p>Do CS, it’s more fun.</p>
<p>Nonono, you aren’t allowed to give that advice! He doesn’t want us to say “whichever one you would enjoy more”. </p>
<p>Seriously, making a decision like this based off the results of a coin toss would rule. You’d have a story to tell . . .</p>
<p>if they are both equally interesting…go EE. You can work in software with EE but can’t really do much in hardware with a CS degree.</p>
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<p>Yeah, if you take a lot of CS-ish classes. But then it’s like you are studying CS-lite. </p>
<p>Just flip the coin, man.</p>
<p>Agreed. The two fields are enough alike that what you don’t learn in school but need on the job you can pick up.</p>
<p>Flip the coin.</p>
<p>are you guys crazy? CS jobs are being outsourced by the day. EE is an ever green major. EE FTW</p>
<p>“are you guys crazy? CS jobs are being outsourced by the day. EE is an ever green major. EE FTW”</p>
<p>To the OP: don’t listen to blatant misinformation.
To greenvision: perhaps you should do your own homework, rather than listening to what confused laymen are saying.
To moderators: is there not a policy against spreading misconceptions? Maybe if things like this were removed from forums, people would stop believing them.</p>
<p>I’d say go with what you like better…If you’re more into hardware go EE, if you’re more into software CS…</p>
<p>What I want to look into personally is major in EE and minor CS…Haven’t looked into it too much yet so I don’t know how feasible it is. I would think an EE with a bit of CS under his/her belt will have a leg up on other EE’s.</p>
<p>Honestly though I would NOT leave it up to a coin toss, but that’s just me.</p>
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<p>aaaa . . . did you read the opening post? We are not allowed to say:</p>
<p>1) choose whichever major that you’d like better
2) go with EE/CS, you’ll earn more money</p>
<p>So that leaves us with the coin flip.</p>
<p>I’ll even flip the coin.</p>
<p>anik333, Heads or Tails?</p>
<p>Go with EE as renewable/alternative energy will be a big deal in the next decade. I think there will be more demand for engineers.</p>
<p>Waterloo has Shallit who is pretty well known in the CS world.</p>
<p>Here’s a question for you: do you prefer math or physics?</p>
<p>“Go with EE as renewable/alternative energy will be a big deal in the next decade. I think there will be more demand for engineers”</p>
<p>Upon what do you base this claim? According to the BLS, jobs for computer software engineering is going to grow by 36% over 2006-2016 (much faster than the average), whereas electrical engineering is going to grow by a paltry 6 percent (slower than the average). I’ll even quote:</p>
<p>ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING:
"Electrical engineers are expected to have employment growth of 6 percent over the projections decade, slower than the average for all occupations. Although strong demand for electrical devices—including electric power generators, wireless phone transmitters, high-density batteries, and navigation systems—should spur job growth, international competition and the use of engineering services performed in other countries will limit employment growth. Electrical engineers working in firms providing engineering expertise and design services to manufacturers should have better job prospects. </p>
<p>Electronics engineers, except computer are expected to have employment growth of 4 percent during the projections decade, slower than the average for all occupations. Although rising demand for electronic goods—including communications equipment, defense-related equipment, medical electronics, and consumer products—should continue to increase demand for electronics engineers, foreign competition in electronic products development and the use of engineering services performed in other countries will limit employment growth. Growth is expected to be fastest in service-providing industries—particularly in firms that provide engineering and design services. "</p>
<p>Also, for electrical AND electronic engineering combined, it can be easily read from the table that only 15,000 new jobs are projected. Compare this to the figure for CSE.</p>
<p>COMPUTER SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
"Job prospects should be excellent, as computer software engineers are expected to be among the fastest-growing occupations through the year 2016.</p>
<p>Employment change. Employment of computer software engineers is projected to increase by 38 percent over the 2006 to 2016 period, which is much faster than the average for all occupations. This occupation will generate about 324,000 new jobs, over the projections decade, one of the largest employment increases of any occupation.</p>
<p>Employment growth will result as businesses and other organizations adopt and integrate new technologies and seek to maximize the efficiency of their computer systems. Competition among businesses will continue to create incentive for sophisticated technological innovations, and organizations will need more computer software engineers to implement these changes.</p>
<p>Demand for computer software engineers will also increase as computer networking continues to grow. For example, expanding Internet technologies have spurred demand for computer software engineers who can develop Internet, intranet, and World Wide Web applications. Likewise, electronic data-processing systems in business, telecommunications, government, and other settings continue to become more sophisticated and complex. Implementing, safeguarding, and updating computer systems and resolving problems will fuel the demand for growing numbers of systems software engineers.</p>
<p>New growth areas will also continue to arise from rapidly evolving technologies. The increasing uses of the Internet, the proliferation of Web sites, and mobile technology such as wireless Internet have created a demand for a wide variety of new products. As individuals and businesses rely more on hand-held computers and wireless networks, it will be necessary to integrate current computer systems with this new, more mobile technology.</p>
<p>In addition, information security concerns have given rise to new software needs. Concerns over “cyber security” should result in businesses and government continuing to invest heavily in software that protects their networks and vital electronic infrastructure from attack. The expansion of this technology in the next 10 years will lead to an increased need for computer engineers to design and develop the software and systems to run these new applications and integrate them into older systems. </p>
<p>As with other information technology jobs, outsourcing of software development to other countries may temper somewhat employment growth of computer software engineers. Firms may look to cut costs by shifting operations to foreign countries with lower prevailing wages and highly educated workers. Jobs in software engineering are less prone to being offshored than are jobs in other computer specialties, however, because software engineering requires innovation and intense research and development.</p>
<p>Job prospects. As a result of rapid employment growth over the 2006 to 2016 decade, job prospects for computer software engineers should be excellent. Those with practical experience and at least a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering or computer science should have the best opportunities. Employers will continue to seek computer professionals with strong programming, systems analysis, interpersonal, and business skills. In addition to jobs created through employment growth, many job openings will result from the need to replace workers who move into managerial positions, transfer to other occupations, or leave the labor force. Consulting opportunities for computer software engineers also should continue to grow as businesses seek help to manage, upgrade, and customize their increasingly complicated computer systems."</p>
<p>In conclusion, there will be more demand for computer software engineers. I think most reasonable people will agree that, while your college major doesn’t dictate what you’ll end up doing with your life, CS or SE is more compatible with writing software than is EE.</p>
<p>Oh, and that’s only <em>one</em> of the categories for CS/SE. Others could include databse administrators or network specialists. Each of those individually does better than EE, as well.</p>
<p>There was a wave of outsourcing of DBAs in my area in the 1990s and a lot of jobs were lost. I don’t track that industry but I wonder if DBAs domestically have made a comeback. There is some benefit to locating that important function domestically. Same thing with network specialists. I’ve worked on multinational teams where the hardware is in one place and the engineers are scattered around the world. It can be a real pain to get a machine rebooted when you need it. You have to figure out where the machine is, what time zone it is and how to get a support person to boot the system for you.</p>
<p>Damn, AuburnMathTutor is shooting down the EE’s. Way to go.</p>
<p>No, not shooting EE down. Just pointing out that the reasons people have been giving to go EE instead of CS are not only bad reasons, but wrong in the technical sense, as in, there is actual data which disprove them.</p>
<p>For the record, I said “flip the coin”.</p>
<p>In the spirit of bashing EE…</p>
<p>In 2016, there will be around 400,000 jobs for computer programmers, the least in demand position in CS related positions. This is after a 4% decrease in total jobs. You see, programming jobs are prone to outsourcing…</p>
<p>However, there will only be around 300,000 EE jobs, after an increase.</p>
<p>So when you talk about outsourcing, you have to be careful not to assume “decreasing” means “less”.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, I forgot about the demand in the computer science areas. I take that back, based on that, then CS is probably the better choice. My personal choice is EE.</p>