>>13552536Most people associate computer science with muh prongrammin but honestly, anybody can learn how to program because software companies teach you how to write production ready code. What they can't teach you is how to think through problems.
Both the ME and the CS degrees are mostly a function of what you put into them, but ME has a higher skill floor at most schools due to its age and curricular maturity. On the other hand, CS is VERY good at certain schools but mediocre at many other schools. However, both require you to go out of prereqs to get anything of actual use, and at the end of the day, every entry level job is some form of codemonkeying, whether you're in ME or in CS.
As far as pure credentials, ME nets you an ABET accreditation, which is important going forward if you care about having the title of "engineer" in your job progression. But being licensed, while a good career move, isn't strictly necessary as you need only one PE to sign off designs, you'll likely be working with others anyway, your experience matters more, etc etc..
On the other hand, CS intersects with a huge amount of fields and is at the forefront of research / engineering at labs. You have a very easy time staying relevant doing noncoding engineering work in algorithms, methods, modelling, design, etc., at the research level in CS. It's crazy the amount of CS people you see in mechE get in through auxetic designs and then do pure ME work, the people who get into materials research via simulation and then do chemistry/pchem, etc.. and a lot of this happens in national labs.
So my basic advice is this: if you want to work a bit but not go super ham while keeping your options open, and especially if you don't want to touch grad school (except maybe for a funded masters later on), go mechE.
If you want to do research, and you're at a good school, CS will take you far. I recommend at least minoring in math or physics, whichever you find more interesting.
