Major Name?

[EPhantom]

So This is my fourth semester in college and I thought I was going to get into electrical engineering, but I've been having problems with my physics class (again). But this semester Im also taking CPS180, a basic computer programming class based off of Java. I find it very fun, and right now am trying to make a program to help me memorize formulas for my physics class.

But now I'm thinking about changing my major, due to how much I seem to be enjoying making codes (even though I'm still a grasshopper) But I have NO idea what such a major would be called. I looked at my campus' major listing, and couldn't find anything that seemed like it was talking about programming.

So I guess my real question(s) are what would the major in programming be called, what kinds of programs to programmers work on (general programmers and high grade), and what is the general pay of a programmer?

Thank You :)

P.S. This site is already helping me make this memorization program. :)

[BestJewSinceJC]

The major is more than likely called Computer Science, it is impossible to say what programmers "generally" work on - jobs in computer science vary greatly, pay scale also varies greatly depending on area and individual but right now I think 50K would be considered low for a starting salary. Most people I know have been getting around 60-65K offers, I'm on the east coast US. (Which I think has a lot more jobs in IT right now than most other places, though)

[mrnutty]

Generally there are :

CE : computer engineering
CS : computer science
CSE : computer science engineering

Each one has its own percentage of software and hardware teaching.
For example, in my school CE is about 70% hardware and 30% software. CS is about 10% hardware and 90% software, and CSE
is about 50-50.

[EPhantom]

Okay I found it :) ... Now I'm wondering if my college's degree would actually mean something or not in the employment realm.

So is there a place for me to be able to check where my colleges ranking is or what?

And the Computer Science major has only 40 credits of requirements for it (plus 9 hours of electives in specific fields) , does that seem correct or no?

Edit: I just read over an old post from 2003 about someone wondering if they should major in CS or CE/or the likes. and he said one reason why he was thinking about not getting into it is because not many people were getting jobs in it at the time.

Are people getting jobs in programming easily right now?

[BestJewSinceJC]

Edit: I just read over an old post from 2003 about someone wondering if they should major in CS or CE/or the likes. and he said one reason why he was thinking about not getting into it is because not many people were getting jobs in it at the time.

Are people getting jobs in programming easily right now?

Yes, IT jobs are one of the fastest growing and have been for many years.

[WaltP]

It seems to me you college would have all the answers you are asking. They will know what the major would be called. They will know their industry ranking. They will even be able to tell you what classes you would need to complete the major.

Maybe you should talk to them...

[BestJewSinceJC]

And the Computer Science major has only 40 credits of requirements for it (plus 9 hours of electives in specific fields) , does that seem correct or no?

That actually doesn't seem right to me. If you take 15 credits per semester over 8 semesters (a normal-ish college career) that is 120 credits. If your program only has 40 required credits what are you doing for the rest of your credits? My school requires 45 upper level (300 and 400 level) courses to graduate. Just by completing the cmsc program requirements, I have nearly fulfilled that requirement, to put things in perspective. You need to go talk to someone, like WaltP said. And if your school does only require 40 credits of cmsc it seems like they don't care about cmsc very much.

[jwenting]

Okay I found it :) ... Now I'm wondering if my college's degree would actually mean something or not in the employment realm.

In general experience and motivation mean more than any specific degree.
Most people in software engineering have degrees, but most of those degrees have nothing to do with software engineering.
We're physicists, chemists, biologists, mathematicians, economists even.

So is there a place for me to be able to check where my colleges ranking is or what?

Possibly. Some countries have government agencies trying to do such "rankings" based on things like graduation scores and chances of graduates ending up unemployed after graduation.
Hardly conclusive of course.
Any privately run website claiming to do such a thing I'd mistrust automatically.
They're either a marketing scam by one or more of the most highly ranked (according to them) colleges or are scared to give anyone a low ranking because that might get them sued for libel.
Any site claiming to be a "community run" ranking where anyone can say what they think of something is similarly unreliable as such sites tend to attract only those who have either very strong negative or positive opinions and thus give an extremely crooked score.

Edit: I just read over an old post from 2003 about someone wondering if they should major in CS or CE/or the likes. and he said one reason why he was thinking about not getting into it is because not many people were getting jobs in it at the time.

Are people getting jobs in programming easily right now?

No. The job market at the moment is pretty much flat, which is an improvement over last year when it was in a steep decline.
That means there aren't all that many jobs out there, but there is a large pool of people who recently lost their job and have experience you lack.
Of course by the time you graduate that might well be completely different.

[jwenting]

Yes, IT jobs are one of the fastest growing and have been for many years.

IT is also one of the most sensitive areas when it comes to economic growth and decline.
IT projects (and especially investment rather than maintenance) is usually the first thing that gets axed when companies have to tighten their budgets to make ends meet.
Working in a medium sized consultancy business I saw that first hand last year, as our employment rate (percentage of people on a job for a customer) plumetted from 90%+ to under 70% for a while.
It's slowly going up again, but at the cost of reduced prices and a marked increase in effort on the part of our sales team (it's gotten far harder to get contracts, and the contracts we do get are usually smaller and pay less than those we'd have gotten say 2 years ago).
From elsewhere in the industry I see similar figures.

[Salem]

My name is Major_Tom

For other "military" types...
Who is General Failure, and why is he trying to read my hard disk?

[BestJewSinceJC]

IT is also one of the most sensitive areas when it comes to economic growth and decline.
IT projects (and especially investment rather than maintenance) is usually the first thing that gets axed when companies have to tighten their budgets to make ends meet.
Working in a medium sized consultancy business I saw that first hand last year, as our employment rate (percentage of people on a job for a customer) plumetted from 90%+ to under 70% for a while.
It's slowly going up again, but at the cost of reduced prices and a marked increase in effort on the part of our sales team (it's gotten far harder to get contracts, and the contracts we do get are usually smaller and pay less than those we'd have gotten say 2 years ago).
From elsewhere in the industry I see similar figures.

That is a fair point. Most of my reasoning isn't from personal experience, but from hearing other people and occasionally looking up job statistics. I also looked this up on U.S. gov's dept of labor website and the overall data looks very positive, but as you said, their summary is about the same.

[jwenting]

My name is Who is General Failure, and why is he trying to read my hard disk?

He's a distant cousin of Major Pain