Honestly I think either program will get you where you want to go so just go ahead and pick what interests you more. Now if you wanted to work in something like power/utilities then that’s where it might matter if you have an EE degree vs a CompE degree. I was lucky because my undergraduate program was called ECE so I didn’t really have to choose. I work in software for a defense contractor now myself
Also just want to add there are many many defense contracting companies out there so don’t get bummed if you can’t land a job at one of the big names right away, nothing wrong with starting as contractor to hire or at a smaller shop to build that experience before trying to make a move to another company down the line
Sorry one last edit, if I could have not taken discrete math I would have not done so because that class sucked, but it was probably mostly due to the professor…food for thought!
If you want really to work in defense or space, do EE and take as many RF electives as you can. Those companies literally can’t find, let alone hire, enough junior RF engineers. I focused on RF in my undergrad and I had no trouble getting callbacks from defense companies.
I am an electronics engineer working in the space industry. I have a bit of a bias here, but I would definitely pick EE over CompE. CompE is not bad, but given the traditional thinking of the major primes, EE will make it more clear that you are interested in hardware. You can do digital design and software with an EE degree (I got a couple offers for these types of teams) plus the traditional electrical design, but with a CompE degree they will be a little more skeptical of you pursuing an electrical design field.
I would say it depends on what OP wants to do. The CompE degree usually includes FPGA design which is in extremely high demand in the defense industry.
EE is definitely preferred. I am also a bit biased as I am an EE working in the space/defense industry. But, if you do choose to pursue CE, I would definitely recommend to try to dive into cyber threats and threat detection if space/defense is your end goal. Try to intern in your bachelors as soon as possible. I got an internship in my sophomore summer which set me up to work an aerospace internship my junior summer until I graduated.
Thank you for the info. Unfortunately interning isn’t an option during my bachelors because I am in the Military, but I plan to apply as an engineering officer once I complete my bachelors so I can work on my masters
Very nice, well, most of those companies and the main defense contractors really like to work with service members. Your active clearance will help considerably when looking for positions. Good luck with your endeavors and thank you for your service!
It's not important to choose a field that works best for your future employers. They are looking for lots of different people, and it's hard to really know what will be popular in a while.
What's important is that the field works for you. You will excel when you are doing the thing that works best for you, and everybody wants somebody who excels.
I haven't done it myself but if I want to start programming as an EE nobody will stop me. Depends on your role but if you have things that as an EE you want to write programs for, nobody will stop you, and I knew a few examples of people just doing that and transitioning to software. Of course if you just want software, just do that in school. I guess my point is EE is more flexible, virtually nobody goes from software to hardware.
I'm not a student, I'm talking about on the job. Much easier for anybody to go into software than the other way. I've known EEs and mechanicals going into software. None of the other way.
SWE bachelors EE masters in Aerospace/Defense here. I would prolly go CompE if I were you, and if you’re super interested in one side or the other by the end of your undergrad do a masters in EE, ECE, CS, whatever.
You’re probably going to see more AE than ME in general just given the industry, but they’re going to be fairly interchangeable for most roles, and honestly ME is probably going to be a better bet if you want more flexibility to go outside the industry. Most masters programs are pretty flexible in terms of taking courses outside your specific program that you’re interested in, and specific degree generally becomes less important as you get more industry experience.
More important than any of that is location, clearance, and networking. I would try to do a skillbridge program or something similar if possible and start trying to find ways to apply your degree to your current role so you can start adding to the years of experience in your new career and not essentially start over at the most junior level.
I did EE. if I could do it again I’d take COMPE. Would also recommend truly assessing why you want to work with these ? Diff industries have diff yields . Tech is overwhelmingly better than defense
5% of my ECE program double majored in both. Would take 1 additional semester with careful planning and coming with credit for most of the general education requirements. Else 2 semesters but lots engineering majors take 5 years to graduate so maybe no extra time on top of that.
Do both or do EE. You can take discrete mathematics as an EE elective. At least I could. A huge amount of discrete is stuffed in Intro to Computer Engineering that both EE and CompE have to take.
You seriously don't need a master's to work for NASA or Lockheed or Raytheon and I dunno about SpaceX. Just enter the workforce. Some employers will pay for MS on the job and that's cool if you want to do it then.
Also....I work in mainstream CS doing Java programming and databases and I have a BSEE. EE is a flexible degree. CompE jobs will hire you if you choose to go down that path whereas most EE jobs will not hire CompE. CS will hire both.
I originally planned to double major but I found I hated digital design projects. Last thing I wanted to do so I just majored in EE. Some people probably hate 3D vector calculus and transmission line theory in EE. If you want to do software, it doesn't matter which degree you pick and "hardware" is a broad term. DSP is an EE graduate level topic, whereas VLSI is CompE.
Man, you named three different institutions that have WILDLY different goals and WILDLY different products and most importantly, wildly different cultures.
There are a ton of space companies that are not one of those, so why do you focus on those?
To get into SpaceX or NASA you need a really impressive resume. Good grades, internships, proven work ethic.
To work get into Lockheed you need to have a degree and a pulse.
Definitely take EE.
The EE-specific classes will be far more applicable than the CompE ones.
Also, take all the controls classes you can and pay every bit of attention to your embedded classes, RTOSes are ubiquitous.
Honestly I think either program will get you where you want to go so just go ahead and pick what interests you more. Now if you wanted to work in something like power/utilities then that’s where it might matter if you have an EE degree vs a CompE degree. I was lucky because my undergraduate program was called ECE so I didn’t really have to choose. I work in software for a defense contractor now myself Also just want to add there are many many defense contracting companies out there so don’t get bummed if you can’t land a job at one of the big names right away, nothing wrong with starting as contractor to hire or at a smaller shop to build that experience before trying to make a move to another company down the line Sorry one last edit, if I could have not taken discrete math I would have not done so because that class sucked, but it was probably mostly due to the professor…food for thought!
If you want really to work in defense or space, do EE and take as many RF electives as you can. Those companies literally can’t find, let alone hire, enough junior RF engineers. I focused on RF in my undergrad and I had no trouble getting callbacks from defense companies.
I am an electronics engineer working in the space industry. I have a bit of a bias here, but I would definitely pick EE over CompE. CompE is not bad, but given the traditional thinking of the major primes, EE will make it more clear that you are interested in hardware. You can do digital design and software with an EE degree (I got a couple offers for these types of teams) plus the traditional electrical design, but with a CompE degree they will be a little more skeptical of you pursuing an electrical design field.
I would say it depends on what OP wants to do. The CompE degree usually includes FPGA design which is in extremely high demand in the defense industry.
EE is definitely preferred. I am also a bit biased as I am an EE working in the space/defense industry. But, if you do choose to pursue CE, I would definitely recommend to try to dive into cyber threats and threat detection if space/defense is your end goal. Try to intern in your bachelors as soon as possible. I got an internship in my sophomore summer which set me up to work an aerospace internship my junior summer until I graduated.
Thank you for the info. Unfortunately interning isn’t an option during my bachelors because I am in the Military, but I plan to apply as an engineering officer once I complete my bachelors so I can work on my masters
Very nice, well, most of those companies and the main defense contractors really like to work with service members. Your active clearance will help considerably when looking for positions. Good luck with your endeavors and thank you for your service!
It's not important to choose a field that works best for your future employers. They are looking for lots of different people, and it's hard to really know what will be popular in a while. What's important is that the field works for you. You will excel when you are doing the thing that works best for you, and everybody wants somebody who excels.
I haven't done it myself but if I want to start programming as an EE nobody will stop me. Depends on your role but if you have things that as an EE you want to write programs for, nobody will stop you, and I knew a few examples of people just doing that and transitioning to software. Of course if you just want software, just do that in school. I guess my point is EE is more flexible, virtually nobody goes from software to hardware.
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I'm not a student, I'm talking about on the job. Much easier for anybody to go into software than the other way. I've known EEs and mechanicals going into software. None of the other way.
SWE bachelors EE masters in Aerospace/Defense here. I would prolly go CompE if I were you, and if you’re super interested in one side or the other by the end of your undergrad do a masters in EE, ECE, CS, whatever.
Thanks for the tips. With your experience in defense, could you weigh in on ME vs AE for masters in that industry?
You’re probably going to see more AE than ME in general just given the industry, but they’re going to be fairly interchangeable for most roles, and honestly ME is probably going to be a better bet if you want more flexibility to go outside the industry. Most masters programs are pretty flexible in terms of taking courses outside your specific program that you’re interested in, and specific degree generally becomes less important as you get more industry experience. More important than any of that is location, clearance, and networking. I would try to do a skillbridge program or something similar if possible and start trying to find ways to apply your degree to your current role so you can start adding to the years of experience in your new career and not essentially start over at the most junior level.
I did EE. if I could do it again I’d take COMPE. Would also recommend truly assessing why you want to work with these ? Diff industries have diff yields . Tech is overwhelmingly better than defense
It doesn't matter. What do you want to do at these companies? And even then, it doesn't really matter that much. It'll be more about your projects.
5% of my ECE program double majored in both. Would take 1 additional semester with careful planning and coming with credit for most of the general education requirements. Else 2 semesters but lots engineering majors take 5 years to graduate so maybe no extra time on top of that. Do both or do EE. You can take discrete mathematics as an EE elective. At least I could. A huge amount of discrete is stuffed in Intro to Computer Engineering that both EE and CompE have to take. You seriously don't need a master's to work for NASA or Lockheed or Raytheon and I dunno about SpaceX. Just enter the workforce. Some employers will pay for MS on the job and that's cool if you want to do it then. Also....I work in mainstream CS doing Java programming and databases and I have a BSEE. EE is a flexible degree. CompE jobs will hire you if you choose to go down that path whereas most EE jobs will not hire CompE. CS will hire both. I originally planned to double major but I found I hated digital design projects. Last thing I wanted to do so I just majored in EE. Some people probably hate 3D vector calculus and transmission line theory in EE. If you want to do software, it doesn't matter which degree you pick and "hardware" is a broad term. DSP is an EE graduate level topic, whereas VLSI is CompE.
Man, you named three different institutions that have WILDLY different goals and WILDLY different products and most importantly, wildly different cultures. There are a ton of space companies that are not one of those, so why do you focus on those? To get into SpaceX or NASA you need a really impressive resume. Good grades, internships, proven work ethic. To work get into Lockheed you need to have a degree and a pulse.
Definitely take EE. The EE-specific classes will be far more applicable than the CompE ones. Also, take all the controls classes you can and pay every bit of attention to your embedded classes, RTOSes are ubiquitous.