Computer Science Or Computer Engineering

[Junaid2pac]

I am currently in grade 11 and would like to become a programmer as a professional career. I am wondering wat i should go into, computer science or computer engineering in university of waterloo? I would like to work in the game industry

[Cinjection]

Junaid2pac @ Mon Mar 05, 2007 5:41 pm wrote:

I am currently in grade 11 and would like to become a programmer as a professional career. I am wondering wat i should go into, computer science or computer engineering in university of waterloo? I would like to work in the game industry

Well if you want to get into programming and software/game design you should go into computer science/software engineering. If you want to get into building the physical components of a computer or electronic, you're looking for computer engineering.

Since you're talking about game development, I think you will want computer science and software engineering. I hope you're incrediable at math, because i hear that that's a pretty big part of game development.

I know that some Universities have Game development courses, but i'm not sure whether Waterloo is one of those.

[iluvchairs112]

what kind of marks do you need for computer science and/or software engineering?
i'm also looking at the same area (not in the game industry but computer science and software engineering).

[Junaid2pac]

For Computer Science in waterloo it is low 80s. Don't know about computer engineering, but i think it's almost the same.

[Junaid2pac]

Is it true that computer science has more course selection options for first year students? Also the reason i kind of dont want to go into computer engineering is that there is hardware and software involved and not just software. Is that the case or am i misleading myself?

[Cinjection]

Junaid2pac @ Mon Mar 05, 2007 9:52 pm wrote:

Is it true that computer science has more course selection options for first year students? Also the reason i kind of dont want to go into computer engineering is that there is hardware and software involved and not just software. Is that the case or am i misleading myself?

Computer Engineering might have a small part that teaches programming, but most of the program is about hardware. Likewise, the software program will probably focus on some hardware issues but is mainly about programming. To be sure, talk to your guidance councillers at your school. They certainly know better than I do. (Well hopefully, guidance at my school knows jack-shit).

Mark wise, I'm looking to get into waterloo in a year (me = gr.11) and my research showed that for software engineering, waterloo's admission average was around 85. That is, 85ish is the average mark that people who got in had.

[shorthair]

I dont know who is telling you what.... But here is the truth.

Your going to be doing mostly math and Theory.

You will learn Logic, and Proofs with Logic.

Lots of Calculus and Algebra

Thre will be a small bit of programming , and maybe if your luck you will see a hardware course in your first year.

Im finishing my second year of Comp Sci at U of T. Ive done 10 Credits (20 courses) well (14 actually)

Out of those courses 3 have been programming (2 Java, and one Python)

The main chunk of my courses are
Software Design (Version Control Systems, Regular Expressions, Unit Testing)
Math (Calculus , Linear Algebra, Applied Logic, RayCasting and Shadow Techniques)
2 Ethics Courses (not very fun, but interesting)


You could almost do a Computer Science degree without knowing how to use a computer. College is where you will learn how to use a computer and its tools. University is where you will learn how it works

[haskell]

Thats strange. Usually theory courses have a practical aspect to them, where you apply what you've learned in either a specified language, or a language of your choice.

Math of course does not usually have these programming applications.

Other electives usually don't have programming applications either.

Of course this is different from university to university.

[Skynet]

Junaid2pac @ Mon Mar 05, 2007 9:52 pm wrote:

Is it true that computer science has more course selection options for first year students? Also the reason i kind of dont want to go into computer engineering is that there is hardware and software involved and not just software. Is that the case or am i misleading myself?

Yes, this is correct. The amount of hardware involved is up to you, but there's no escaping the circuits courses. If game development is really what you want, Comp Sci is the way to go. Even though universities usually don't have a "game development program" (that's more a college thing), there are plenty of courses offered for CS students (Graphics, programming fundamentals, graph theory, etc) that usually aren't available to a CE major.