Computer Engineering has hardware and software (know a decent amount of Electrical Engineering), Computer Science is mainly software/design, not too sure about IT but I think it's more like a technician and probably database management. They have plenty of intersections.

Also, a collage is an art compilation of many things, college is higher education. That's something you probably don't want to misspell when you start doing applications.

Unless you're going to take any AP or other classes that will grant you credit in your field for college, it probably won't matter what you do. Take whichever one that interests you more.

In my highschool i did both the engineering academy and the computer science academy. Most of the engineering stuff hasn't been important to my major (electrical engineering) because a lot of it was CAD type stuff that would be important for a civil or mechanical engineer. We did have one digital logic course that helped me have a head-start when i went to college.

For a computer engineer, the most important things to focus on that may be offered in highschool would be circuitry, digital logic, computer science, and math. I doubt your school offers anything on low-level computer design (archatectures, assembly, etc) but if they do that would be great. One other thing that would be helpful is to try to work your way up to taking AP Physics B/C, Electricity and Magnetism, before you graduate.

My advice would be to find out what exactly you will be doing in the engineering classes vs the IT classes. How deeply does the IT work delve into computer science, and how much does the engineering focus on circuits and digital design? Also CE is VERY heavy in computer science. If your school offers CS classes, which most do, take those.

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Are you good at math? Good at math to the point where math is something you really enjoy doing at school?

If yes, then by all means go for Computer Engineering. Like Benk said, CE is very heavy in CS knowledge. From what my old professor told me, IT is less math-intensive than CS but still requires a fair amount of mathematics. Since you have four years ahead of you, make sure that if you really want to get into a computer based field, you have your math sharp and ready at the door.

There are plenty of online resources that can teach you languages such as C++, Python, C#, etc, but the logic and reasoning skills that help you in the field come from the mathematics.

i had a three paragraph post typed up but then firefox fucked up :/ going to summarize

friend is a computer engineer focused on hardware (hardware engineer), they're probably the type of people to work at nvidia/intel/ect working on the cards and chips. right now he is interning in a company that creates high end cameras and software that you may see when watching sports on TV.

i think most people just call themselves whichever one sounds cooler at the time

I went to college for Computer Engineering and dropped out last year :( feelsbadman

Whatever you choose, just make sure you like it and stick to it.

Honestly you can get many of the same jobs with any of the majors. Only the specialization of CE with hardware makes a huge difference if you try for a hardware/firmware related job.

Just go for the title with engineering in it. Pays more. :]

Good site to browse through when looking for tech jobs/internships - http://www.glassdoor.com/index.htm . It will also show you pay for certain job titles at different companies. If you want to base your decision on pay.

IMO, just do what you like. And you can only figure that out by trying different things out (course-work, internships, etc).

PS. AFAIK... Developer/Engineer jobs are generally synonymous in most ways. Jobs with the word engineering typically require people with an engineering background; however, an engineer can do a developer's job, but not always vice versa.

friend came on, asked him what he thought about my post and here's what he said.

hopefully this helps you/anyone who reads it

like browny said
EE is hardware
CE is a combo of hardware software
CS is software

Don't go into IT. Look into Computer Networking, which is lot of system admin/database work.

awful advice, not everyone can do the math required.

i agree with avoiding IT. any of those other degrees are much better imo. Im not sure about CE as far as how much math is required but i know that where i go the CS majors only need calc 1 and 2 which is essentially nothing. i would say CS is a good choice if you dont like or arent good at math. If you do, then any engineering discipline is open to you, pick one that fits your fancy.

I took an engineering class last year, it was miserable due to the teacher being the saddest example of an educator I have ever seen. I think I would have enjoyed the class much more with a different teacher. And yes it was basically just the CAD program.

Ill be a senior in aerospace engineering this fall and if a good teacher is a priority to you, well then maybe consider a different profession aside from engineering. Most engineering professors i have had are great at their focus or what they are doing research on yet are at most mediocre teachers. So while you might have a professor that is doing research on the deformations and performance of new wind turbine design he wont necessarily be a good introduction to engineering structures teacher. Also a lot of the times at my university professors arent teaching the same classes each year so its not like they have an established curriculum that they are just going through the paces like you had in High School.

the cs major in general has some pretty bad consistency issues. ucr requires all the standard lower division stuff calc3, linear, essentially difeq and as far as I know classes like vision or ai build on concepts from there

Same, my CS major required me to take linear algebra, discrete math, differential equations, and calc 3. Would not recommend to non-math people.

CS at any decent school is essentially an applied mathematics degree.

I also personally wouldn't reccommend EE, unless you find a specific subfield very interesting and you are willing (and capable) of going to graduate school. The only sub-field that I know of where you can easily go directly into industry with an undergrad degree is digital electronics, and I'd say this industry is shrinking/getting shipped out to India.

I graduated with an EE degree, did grad school in CS/CE, and I now write software.

enigma went ee and now hes ceo of teamfortress.tv you can do it too

naturalselection.tv doesn't exist yet gogogogo

If you're interested in developing software or designing hardware, definitely go with the CE degree. Just be sure you can put up with a bit of math and physics along the way. Most programming you'll do won't rely on any math beyond simple algebra, but where the math and physics will really come into play is when you look at circuits at a low level -- really low, like how electrons flow through a PN junction. If you switch to CS you can minimize this, but you'll be exposed to more math in other classes, e.g. a computer graphics class that makes heavy use of linear algebra.

I'm assuming IT means administration of machines, and the software that runs on them (web servers, reverse proxies, databases, etc). I've done a bit of that for startups, and there's definitely a good feeling of *owning* something and making it run as efficiently as possible. Personally, I like *building* things more, and I feel that I get more of an opportunity to do that as a developer. But it takes both to make something successful.

tl;dr: With an IT degree, you fix a lot of problems. With a CE degree, I get to create them. Feels good man.

you are right now that i think about it i remember my cs friends taking linear algebra but they didnt have to take calc3

Ok so I forgot that the IT course does a mixture of maya, cs and networking. The engineering course does more robotics and architecture. (I can't remember if I can choose which teacher's class I want to be in). I don't hate math it's just that I suck at it but I can understand how code works how to do the arithmetic required.

Talk to your counselors and they can probably answer any questions you have, if not your programming/tech teacher. At my high school we didn't really have alot of options for tech classes just a programming course and a hardware explanation class.

I want to give you a suggestion to go towards one or the other, but honestly, you have a lot of time to decide. My freshman year of high school I wanted to be a physicist or a math major. Going into college I was still undecided on what type of engineering I wanted to go into. I ended up with an BSEE with focus in computer engineering and I work in Aerospace doing nothing related to VLSI or hardware design.

I would recommend to take the engineering discipline because it will give more exposure to a wider variety of fields. I would also suggest not being afraid to approach family and friends you know and ask if you can shadow them, interview them about what they do and what path they took to get there.