Computer Science VS. Computer Engineering at UW Madison

Why I like CS:

• Full flexibility to build my own path — I can take exactly the ECE electives I want (353, 453) without being forced into anything I don't
• Broader internship market — Google STEP, Microsoft Explore, and most big tech recruiting pipelines target CS students specifically

Why I don't like CS:

• The day-to-day sounds isolating — mostly solo work, individual assignments, not a lot of built-in collaboration
• I want my code to actually affect real physical things in the real world, not just exist on a screen

Why I like CE:

• Lab sections and team-based work built directly into the curriculum
• The embedded and hardware-software interface knowledge is foundational, not grafted on as electives
• There's something appealing about being in an engineering cohort with a shared hands-on culture
• Physically making things work with a team sounds like exactly the environment I want
• The engineering school seems to appear more prestigious in UWM

Why I don't like CE:

• Forces me into heavy EE, analog circuits, electromagnetics, math and two semesters of calculus-based physics that have nothing to do with what I actually want to do
• Rigid locked curriculum with very little room to choose my own direction
• Narrower internship market — the big sophomore programs and broad software recruiting don't really target CE
• If I get two years in and realize I hate the heavy hardware side, switching back to CS means I'm significantly behind

What's paralyzing me: I have almost no real firsthand experience in either. I want to write software that controls physical things — robots, embedded systems, autonomous vehicles — but I definitely don't want to be an electrical engineer. I don't know if CE goes too far in the hardware direction for what I actually want, or if CS leaves me too isolated and too software-focused. And whichever I choose, if I'm wrong, switching later is costly. Right now I am heavily leaning CS due to the flexibility. I figure I can gain all I want from CE by taking a couple ECE electives and joining the autonomous vehicles club. I feel I would regret it much more if I was forced into something rigid that I hate. It also really feels like I can gain everything I am missing from the engineering school in CS pretty easily, but with none of the extra rigidity and drawbacks.

Questions:

• CS students who took ECE 353 and 453 as electives — did it actually give you what you needed for physical/embedded work, or did you feel behind CE students?
• CE students — do you wish you had the flexibility of CS? Was the rigid curriculum worth it for the hands-on culture?
• How different is the actual day-to-day experience between the two programs at Madison?