Double Major in Computer Engineering and Physics?

[CharBet]

I am currently a senior in high school and next year I will be enrolling into my freshman year of college. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on doing a double major in Computer Engineering and Physics? For example, would it be worth the time and course load to complete a double major in the two fields? I have always had a love of computers and want to work in the computer industry later on in life, leading me to want to major in Computer Engineering, but after taking Physics and Astronomy classes at my school (the astronomy class covering a lot of basic astrophysics material) I absolutely fell in love with physics as well. Would it make sense or be worth the time to do a double major? Would it make more/less sense to do a major in Computer Engineering and a minor in Physics? Any help/advice would be much appreciated

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Here are a few resources to look over

https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...-computer-science-vs-physics-and-math.526176/

https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/dual-major-in-physics-computer-engineering.499377/

http://calnewport.com/blog/2010/09/...-ruin-your-life-two-arguments-for-doing-less/

 

[clope023]

I am currently a senior in high school and next year I will be enrolling into my freshman year of college. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on doing a double major in Computer Engineering and Physics? For example, would it be worth the time and course load to complete a double major in the two fields? I have always had a love of computers and want to work in the computer industry later on in life, leading me to want to major in Computer Engineering, but after taking Physics and Astronomy classes at my school (the astronomy class covering a lot of basic astrophysics material) I absolutely fell in love with physics as well. Would it make sense or be worth the time to do a double major? Would it make more/less sense to do a major in Computer Engineering and a minor in Physics? Any help/advice would be much appreciated

I did physics and electrical engineering, and in general I would advice people not to do the same thing unless you're in a program that combines the two, like an engineering physics major from UMich: http://eng-physics.engin.umich.edu/. Apart from a program like that I don't think it's generally worth the extra time and money; though the advantages are that you get to be familiar with the profs in both departments and by extension their research. I got a nice slew of research projects under my belt working in both departments. You could a major in CE and a minor in physics or do a major in physics and minor in CS or CE and go to grad school in CE for instance, there also research areas in physics which are completely computational, those options might give you the best of both worlds. It would depend on which you like more, using computers to understand the physics or vice versa.

As a sort of response to Greg Bernhardt, I like Newport but I feel a lot of his article are based off of really big strawmen in his arguments. He's not wrong per se, but I might say he's right for the wrong reasons?

 

[Calion]

One thing to look at is how much overlap there is in terms of courses. I did a double major in physics and computer science, and was able to use a lot of courses for both. I ended up with 153 credits total and needed 124 for each major, so nearly all of them counted double. I also managed to graduate in 3 1/2 years! Of course, this did mean that I was taking pretty much all math/physics/comp sci classes. If you want a more relaxed college experience with room electives that aren't part of your majors (or just want easy semesters), double majoring in two science field might be more of a challenge. I would imagine that both majors would require some math, physics, and computer science courses. You can always drop/change a major if you find that your tastes change after a few semesters.