r/ECE • u/InstructionWinter356 • 4d ago
I don't know what to study Electrical or Computer Engineering
Hi everyone! I'm trying to decide between Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering for my bachelor's degree.
I'm particularly interested in hardware and want to learn how microchips and processors work, including how to design and develop them. However, I'm also concerned about job opportunities after graduation and want to choose a degree that will give me good career prospects.
For these who studying or working in this filed can u give some advise for me.
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u/Ruined_Passion_7355 3d ago
Computer engineering is slightly more optimal for digital chip design career, but beware it's a competitive industry. Likely needs grad school especially for the fun roles.
The only real difference is what you fallback to, computer makes it easier to fallback to a dev job, while EE makes it much easier to fallback to traditional EE jobs.
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u/negativefeed 3d ago
Are you more interested in designing microchips at the transistor and circuit level, or in designing the digital logic and microarchitecture of processors? If you're interested in semiconductor physics and transistor-level circuit design, Electrical Engineering is generally a better fit. If you're more interested in digital logic, CPU microarchitecture, and RTL design, Computer Engineering is often the better choice. Both degrees can lead to careers in chip design, so the specific university curriculum matters more than the degree title.
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u/Likappa 3d ago
EE for sure. Computer engineering is usually on the software side at least on my country. You can talk to claude for your specific condition. Also get ready for masters since those topics are pretty hard to get into
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u/Y0tsuya 8h ago
In the US, CE straddles EE and CS, so CE students have to take many of the same core courses as EE and CS. In some programs EE and CE only differ by a few upper-division electives, since many EE programs are already CS-heavy and courses are taught in a combined EE/CS department. This is why in the US many EEs end up working as SWEs.
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u/1wiseguy 2d ago
You're asking people what they think is a good field of study, and they will tell you, but what you really need to know is what field you like, and that might be different.
You're going to have to figure that out for yourself. Look at the courses and see which sounds more interesting. This might take a while, but not as long as barking up the wrong tree and then changing your mind.
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u/garibaldi_fan 3d ago
I’d say computer. My beef with electrical is the lack of computer science. If the electrical program has some good programming courses you can take as tech electives, that would be fine
Yes, AI makes coding accessible, but you are going to want to know the basics. If you are an engineer that can’t code, you aren’t an engineer. Engineering generates a ton of data, and you need computer skills to make sense of it.
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u/Acrobatic_Charge_489 3d ago
Coding is easy enough to learn independently and electrical teaches you a lot more in terms of theory so it’s a good background
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u/TheFlamingLemon 12h ago
If you would be interested in ever programming microprocessors, do computer engineering. If you are only really interested in hardware and not software, and especially if you are interested in analog hardware, do electrical engineering
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u/Fearless-Hamster-926 2d ago
For many jobs and internships, CE resumes will got directly into the trash. EE can have both worlds.
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u/Y0tsuya 12h ago edited 12h ago
Good thing you don't work for us. The top 3 EE programs in the entire world: MIT EECS, Berkeley EECS, Stanford EE are actually CE degrees, with heavy emphasis on computer engineering. Can't have you tossing those resumes in the trash now can we?
CS/CE/EE span a spectrum with different specializations. You can't really take enough classes to cover it all within the limits of a a degree program.
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u/Remarkable_Bread4656 4d ago
Electrical is stuff like power grids and allat, you just described Computer/Electronics Engineering as your interests.
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u/bgibbz084 4d ago
I currently work in chip design and most of my team are electrical engineers. It truly doesn’t matter.
OP, choose either, there are plenty of opportunities in both fields. I would suggest CE because you have more flexibility to switch to software or EE down the road if you like.
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u/InstructionWinter356 3d ago
I’ve completed courses in backend and fronted development as well as an Arduino course. Since I have a little knowledge in CE, maybe studying EE first would be better option?
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u/bgibbz084 3d ago
What you describe is freshman year classes that would probably be required for both degrees (minus the dev work). As an EE, you will still have to take embedded systems, and still have to complete programming courses that will probably go well beyond the courses you have already taken.
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u/Remarkable_Bread4656 3d ago
Guess it also depends on course content that's covered, EEE is the common course where I live, everyone has the same 2 years then from there specific modules or electives in the final year(s). I've also seen just electrical and they cover the same stuff just the degree title differs slightly.
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u/NewSchoolBoxer 4d ago
I mean, they're identical for the first 4 semesters to this day where I went. You can decide later. I wasn't set on EE versus CE until 3rd semester where I liked DC Circuits and hated Intro to Computer Engineering. If you're split between the two, EE has the better market by a large margin. It's the broader degree, yet with fewer graduates. Not saying everyone got to do EE. You won't do well if you hate it.
For me, I like the "fun" part of microelectronics, doing whatever I want and taking as long as I want. That's not the job, nor is it the classroom. Blinking LEDs with Arduino is not a realistic depiction of either. But then I'm sure there's many a CE major who hated every EE course with 75-100% analog electronics.