How much engineering is applied into the computer science field?

Well I will be going into college next year and am thinking about majoring in computer science. In some schools I've seen this field under the science department while in others I've seen it in the engineering department. This year at school I've been taking a college level engineering physics class and found it to be really tough. So my question is how much engineering (as things like vectors and kinematics) is applied to computer science? I'm confused about how the engineering has to do anything with programming and making computers and software...if anyone can clarify all this I would greatly appreciate it.





And does anyone know if majoring in computer science is beneficial in the salary area?

How much engineering is applied into the computer science field?
Computer science is half hard core engineering and half hard core math. Programming is not computer science and computer science is not programming. If all you want to be is a coder, take a class on that and save yourself the trouble of actually having to learn some hard stuff. Of course, all you will be doing in your life is writing and testing other people's code ideas.





Having said that, vectors and kinematics will not be the most important problem areas. Formal proofs and algorithms will be. On the other end you might have to figure out how to design a CPU from basic elements or calculate how cache misses in an imaginary design limit performance. CS has many levels. I have seen the most trivial descriptive stuff to one person writing a 200 page sequence of mathematical proofs in a symbolic language I couldn't even read.





CS is fun (especially if you get to teach like me) but it is also enormously diverse in material and the level of academic challenge.





And in any case... majoring in banking and economics is beneficial in the salary area. Go with that if money is what you want.
Reply:It depends on the school. In some, computer science is more like a branch of abstract math, and the physical facts of the machines are not much dealt with. At the other extreme, computer engineering (what I do) deals with everything from the fussy bits of integrated circuit fabrication to software engineering - plus a lot of the computer science stuff.





I think computer engineers have more fun, but that's just me.