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Comment Consider Engineering (Score 1) 380

A lot of what has been said about IT vs CS is true, but the spectrum of computing
is larger than just what those two cover.

Like others have said, the main question is "what do you want to do?", not "what tools
do you want to use?".  Then choose a degree on point.

IT for sysadmin, etc

CS for computing systems (compilers, RDBMS, schedulers, etc)

Traditional engineering degrees for engineering research or problem solving (like where
I work which prefers EEs, AEs, MEs over CSs or ITs).

A math major is probably the best jack-of-all-trades degree for the person who just
does not know yet what they want to do.

To abstract a bit, I'd break down the most used basics into the triumvirate of
problem-solving, math, and tools.  Engineering formally covers problem-solving and
pre-reqs the math, and tools are easy (relatively) to pick up.  This is why we prefer
to hire engineers.  In this view, CS is applied math, like engineering, but without
the formal problem-solving.  However, the CS applied math subset is often more on-point
for lots of things computing.  Math covers the largest subset of math, and can be very
powerful in the long run due to that.

                problem-solving     math             tools
engineering     primary             applied          secondary
CS              secondary           applied          applied
IT              secondary           secondary        primary
math            secondary           primary          secondary

My bias is clearly not towards IT since I have engineering, CS, and math degrees, but no
IT degree.  If I had to choose only one of those degrees to build a career upon
it would be the engineering degree...but that suits my taste.

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