CE is still a relatively new degree offering for many institutions and
businesses.  However, there are some muddy distinctions which allow you
to know which may be better for you:

If you want to work primarily in hardware and secondarily in software,
choose EE.  In other words, if you can solve a problem in hardware or in
software and you'd usually choose hardware, EE is it.  (ie, do you want
to build the integrator with an opamp and a few components, or do you do
it in software after A/D)

If you don't want to touch the hardware design, and just program, choose CS.

If you want to have a hand in hardware design in digital electronics,
rarely touching analog stuff, and be able to solve problems in the
digital hardware or software primarily, then CE is for you.

In EE you will not really learn much about writing kernels, and writing
hardened software (such as threading libraries for new processors, or
the actual networking code that links two higher end processors).  Nor
will you find out how caches work in processors, predictive branching,
etc.  This is something you will have to learn when it bites you.

In CE you won't learn about how to correctly choose and use
semiconductor devices beyond the switching (saturation) level.  If you
want to know how to turn a transister into an amplifier instead of just
a switch, you'll have to learn that on your own.  You won't understand
why cmos has certian limitations, you won't really understand how radio
waves get sent and received and how to properly filter and amplify, etc.

I chose CE because I am not very interested in designing analog
circuitry.  I have had to work very hard at times to cover the knowledge
that I've missed when I need to, for instance, interface analog
circuitry to my digital circuit.  I understand a lot about digital
signal processing, so the A/D and amplification are fine, but there is
more to it than that.  This is where you'll see many people use an opamp
(or three) when a single transister would have been fine.

On the flip side, rapid product development has made it easy to purchase
modules you can integrate without the hassle of the analog world.  Radio
modules are a prime example.

But having the EE experience will help you really understand if the
problem lies in the radio module and its usage, or in your circuit/program.

I suspect that since CE is usually the easier program, there will
generally be more CEs, and EEs will generally be prized more highly
since they have done the 'hard' stuff, and the additional CE stuff is
fairly easy to pick up for any engineer.  Ultimately, however, it's your
job experience that will determine future work.  If you choose CE, try
and get internships with companies primarily hiring EEs and vice versa.

-Adam

Robert Ussery wrote:

>Hi, all!
>I'm trying to decide which college to attend, and the decision has come down
>to one that offers Computer Engineering as well as EE, and one that only
>offers CE. I like the one with CE only better for a number of reasons, but
>I'm not sure whether this is exactly what I want to do. As the university
>explains it, CE majors "develop systems containing both hardware and
>software for embedded computer systems and real-time applications."
>I'm mostly interested in embedded systems devel., but on the microcontroller
>level rather than on the "embedded computer" level. I'd like to do both
>hardware and software design, not just coding. If anything, I'd rather place
>an emphasis on the hardware side. As many of you are PIC professionals, I
>thought I'd pose the question to you... Should I go for a EE or CE to be
>qualified to work on embedded systems?
>
>Thanks for your opinions!
>
>- Robert
>
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