Computer Engineering

Overall it's a good field if you're interested in getting into robotics or embedded systems. While what CE is can vary a lot by school it is generally a mix of CS and EE. At my college it's sort of like a CS degree with a dash of electronics/advanced math. The sorts of jobs that "traditional" CS Majors go for are still very open to you (web dev, cloud engineer, etc). No companies are biased against you because of your major (I have an electrical engineering friend who ended up at Roblox and a bunch of other computer engineers I know that ended up at pure software companies like Databricks and Google), so don't worry about that. If you aren't interested in pure software stuff and prefer robotics sort of things, focus a lot on projects and joining relevant clubs/project teams as the "hardware" companies really emphasize that.

Difficulty

4.0

Workload

3.0

Career

5.0

honestly the most true thing i can say about comp eng is nobody's coming to hand you anything. i started a frc team from scratch in richmond and we hit top 20 in the world. i built a neural network in minecraft redstone because i wanted to actually understand backprop, not import it. yann lecun commented on it. that wasn't luck — i just decided the thing was worth building. comp eng at penn state has been less about classes and more about what you do at 2am when nobody's grading you. the externship building rag pipelines. the autonomous off-road research in ros2. flying to cmu and yale on weekends to win hackathons with people i met three hours before submission. handsforhearts.health came out of one of those weekends and now it might be a real thing. the degree is the floor, not the ceiling. the people getting the calls back are all building something visible. ship things. post about it. cold dm people. the worst that happens is somebody says no.

Difficulty

4.0

Workload

5.0

Career

2.0

I was very surprised on how much hands-on projects there are at my school, especially and surprisingly the math classes. Differential Equations and Linear Algebra in particular I found to be fun, when taking it as a laboratory class; I worked in simulation modeling, beam deflection, and circuitry, as well as coding in Python. Future students should know that this major in particular needs lots of patience, problem-solving, and creativity, as well as ingenuity in creating meaningful projects. This major is also a good fit in students already in Physics, Math, or Computer Science, as all those concepts learned are applied in the Engineering field, which could help in future career prospects.

Difficulty

4.0

Workload

5.0

Career

5.0

For me, it’s about taking something from concept to working prototype: whether that’s an embedded system, a robotics platform, or a distributed pipeline. I like seeing how software decisions affect hardware performance, and how constraints like power, latency, and memory shape what’s possible. It feels less like writing programs and more like engineering systems that have to work reliably outside a textbook.

Difficulty

3.0

Workload

4.0

Career

3.0

A lot of self study; the professors for most STEM majors are mediocre. I chose CE randomly when they asked me to declare a major, and it turned out to be the right decision. The major here skews very heavily towards plain comp sci; if you want a bigger emphasis on the engineering part of CE you'll have to stake out your own path

Difficulty

3.0

Workload

3.0

Career

5.0

For me, it’s about taking something from concept to working prototype: whether that’s an embedded system, a robotics platform, or a distributed pipeline. I like seeing how software decisions affect hardware performance, and how constraints like power, latency, and memory shape what’s possible. It feels less like writing programs and more like engineering systems that have to work reliably outside a textbook.

Difficulty

3.0

Workload

3.0

Career

3.0

It is a great fit for people who wan't to gain experience in hardware and software and really understand the full end to end processing of running stuff on your computer. Love the hands on portions of EE labs.

Difficulty

4.0

Workload

4.0

Career

4.0

Computer Engineering interests me because it connects software with the physical systems that people use every day. I like that it is not limited to only writing code or only understanding hardware, but combines both sides to build practical and reliable technology. Through my coursework and projects, I have become especially interested in embedded systems, software development, and how hardware and software interact. I enjoy the process of breaking down a problem, designing a system, testing it, and improving it step by step. Even when the process is difficult, I find it rewarding because I can see how abstract concepts such as circuits, data structures, and computer organization become real working systems.

Difficulty

3.0

Workload

4.0

Career

3.0

It was very surprising just how much flexibility the major has. I am able to choose how much I want to lean into the hardware and software sides so I can really learn anything I want in the field.

Difficulty

4.0

Workload

4.0

Career

4.0

I love hardware and making things that are physical and verifiable with lots of physics. Computer engineering gives me this freedom of expressing my love for hardware by building different components and I feel like in this modern day and age software has upgraded to a much higher level and our concept of hardware still lags behind.

Difficulty

1.0

Workload

2.0

Career

3.0

Computer Engineering interests me because it connects software with the physical systems that people use every day. I like that it is not limited to only writing code or only understanding hardware, but combines both sides to build practical and reliable technology. Through my coursework and projects, I have become especially interested in embedded systems, software development, and how hardware and software interact. I enjoy the process of breaking down a problem, designing a system, testing it, and improving it step by step. Even when the process is difficult, I find it rewarding because I can see how abstract concepts such as circuits, data structures, and computer organization become real working systems.

Difficulty

3.0

Workload

4.0

Career

3.0

Computer Engineering very highly regarded at UC San Diego. Workload can be quite challenging, especially when taking multiple major classes, such as multiple CS or EE classes, but it is not impossible to excel. Managing time wisely to do lots of fun stuff is key to maintaining joy in my major.

Difficulty

4.0

Workload

4.0

Career

5.0

How flexible it is in terms of choosing how much you want to go into software/hardware

Difficulty

4.0

Workload

4.0

Career

4.0

I found myself at a crossroads between computer science and electrical engineering engineering. I loved the hardware and software connections and computer engineering is just that. I love being able to learn about each as I further discern what I want to study and work doing for my career.

Difficulty

4.0

Workload

4.0

Career

4.0

I learned a lot of great things related to technology both from a software and hardware side.

Difficulty

4.0

Workload

4.0

Career

4.0