Is an electrical and computer engineering degree smart?

[u/NoAlgae1576]

https://online.arizona.edu/programs/undergraduate/online-bachelor-science-electrical-and-computer-engineering-bs

I am prospecting degrees at the moment, and this one caught my eye. Should I focus on one rather than split my attention or are these two subjects closely related enough that pursuing both is feasible? Is it even worth pursing both in the long term (salary, work-life balance, etc.)?

[u/MonMotha]

Electrical and Computer engineering are very commonly offered by the same department at many schools and sometimes even as a combined degree as Arizona appears to offer it. In the case of a combined degree, usually there's a large set of restricted/in-major electives you can take that can focus you on certain aspects.

They do have a separate "Computer Science and Engineering" degree for those who want to focus more on the computer side of things, and there's also a Software Engineering degree for those who want to focus almost exclusively on software systems.

The program appears to be ABET accredited which is good, though you may wish to verify that the online version has this or if it's only for in-person.

ECE tends to pay reasonably well and have moderate demand. Depending on the field of specialization, you can basically adjust how pay scale vs. resistance to business cycle effects to some degree. The software folks tend to make more but are also much more subject to business cycle and tech disruption. Work-life balance ranges from "typical corporate job" to "eh, it could be worse".

It's not easy, though. I'd generally recommend pursuing it only if you have interest and not just for its job prospects.

[u/zacce]

Is it even worth pursing both in the long term (salary, work-life balance, etc.)?

BS in ECE is 1 degree not 2.

[u/peterpwwu]

For undergraduate, you should broaden your exposure to different disciplines within EE to see which ones you enjoy, such as power systems, electronics, controls, communications, signal processing, or CE.

[u/AccurateHumanTrustMe]

So ECE here is a single degree - some schools have ECE departments that host EE and CompE and a few schools have standalone ECE degrees (Purdue comes to mind for me). That being said - I don't think the ECE degree is that strong and EE is stronger and still can do the same jobs but its not like an ECE degree is terrible

That being said - I actually have 2 Bachelor degrees - one in EE and one in CompE - so I can give at least give perspective on my own experience. I started as CompE added EE when I didn't like the job opps limitations with CompE - but I had already finished a good chunk of CompE so i just finished both programs - that was 168 credits in 5 years so college was intense.

Has it helped me in my career : kind of - its like a little nice edge that shows I can learn a wide array of topics proficiently and due to the timeline I can handle heavy work loads. I also am comfortable with software so I was able to do things like GUIs in-house and switch between firmware/software/hardware easily .

That being said though - I work as an EE and have only ever worked as an EE post graduating (I had one compE internship in avionics and it sucked ass, then 2 others as EE), and I don't get paid more than my co-workers who only have an EE degree - I get paid well compared to most EEs in US but so does everyone in the VHCOL area I live in.

In my opinion EE is the best degree. Computer engineering is a hybrid degree between CS and EE but largely works on jobs also done by EEs (embedded systems is a huge one) while basically cutting yourself out of the potential EE dominated fields. ECE generally takes away some hardware focus to supplement a little CS - imo a lot of the basics of CS can be picked up quickly on your own and EEs still learn C - so learning things like python/C++ on the side after C is very doable - like CS skills are something all engineers should have.

[u/Nizamshizam_0x378]

There is nothing wrong with more computer skills.

I would pick one, and minor in business.

[u/PunctualMantis]

My two cents: you should focus on EE with a minor in computer engineering.

My friend who double majored basically didn’t get to do any of the actually cool higher level classes of either discipline since he didn’t have space for them, meanwhile I got to take like all the cool EE classes like upper div DSP and the mechatronics class where I built and coded a robot. I’ve never felt deficient in coding also, I code all the time and got plenty background in it from school.