Great post, TIL I didn't really know the difference between a computer scientist and a software engineer! Okay. I have never used anything I learned in the higher mathematics courses, and outside of a little soldering never used anything learned in electronics, in my career. In fact, according to the National Science Foundation, "[K]nowledge of computer science and computer programming is becoming a necessary skill... in marketing, advertising, journalism, and the creative arts." Computer science or related degree. In practice, the differences between these three things will vary greatly from school to school and person to person. I wasted a lot of time and money on this degree since most of the stuff I learned I will never use. Software Engineering: Want to learn how to program using software and concepts that is probably 4+ years out of date? I think this answer is a bit biased against software engineers in that you focus so much on the difference being "soft skills". This is pretty much right. If I hadn't been chatting up a classmate about majors and found out about this, I wouldn't have known. 4. A game making degree won't be as valuable in general. Then after doing more research, people say if I want to go into a game programming job, just take game programming. A CS degree with a focus on Software Engineering or Games is fine but if you're major isn't CS, be wary. It is very common to pick a specialization or the very least more in-depth courses. Basically, I'm a software guy, through and through, so it was very frustrating to me to have to learn about electricity and low-level hardware when I really wanted to be learning more programming languages and software engineering practices. I am a terrible self learner and find myself needing mentors, so I decided to pursue a BA in CS at UCR. One of the most functional parts of a game is the scripts and codes that do unique and important things. No contest. One interesting thing to note is that computer science doesn't necessarily have anything to do with computers, and in fact was a field of study before computers even really existed! Is there a particular book/website I can read or take a look at to help teach me/give me a better understanding of Computer Science? Be careful even with that. Which is another point, a CS degree won't hold you back in the gaming industry but it is very competitive. I'm really passionate about this stuff. Whether you’re crunching numbers in accounting or writing code in computer science, you consider yourself methodical and computer savvy. CompSci degrees lead to programming jobs, while IT (I think) leads to network management-type jobs. If I lived in Silicon Valley my opinion might be different but opportunities for my knowledge are limited where I live, and a lot of the positions end up being H1B hires paid chicken feed. ProgressiveThinking, MSN, CRNA. No one is going to read that >_<. Cookies help us deliver our Services. It's strange to see and a little tough to grasp, but i know a lot of EE that are struggling to get a job because companies don't know this simple difference. The types of classes you'll be taking really give you the idea of what you'll be learning (and I'm sure school's differ in the classes for each major). Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, or related degree. Posted Jun 24, 2010. It's very difficult to earn the respect of programmers if you aren't one. If you have any questions, please feel free to DM! They all make a lot more than I do and constantly get harassed by recruiters who want to pay them a lot of money. Fuck BaconReader made that a wall of text. Just realized you didn't ask this related to college majors specifically, but if it hopefully some of this helps. It's one CS field where you actually need it. Otherwise, take an engineering major. 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