To give you the background – There are a number of viable IT majors and I will cover the 3 main ones. These main Computer majors have associated career categories and you need to know these just to get the lay of the land. These degree titles are often found in Associates, Bachelors and Master’s degree programs. Generally most IT employers are looking for a 4 year Bachelor’s degree in an IT related major as a minimum requirement. Certifications (Microsoft, Cisco, CompTIA, etc.) while valuable, should not be considered a substitute for a degree. Picking the right major is important because if you choose poorly you can bury your Grades so badly that you can spend many semesters digging out of that whole. The difference between a 3.0-3.5 minimum GPA and a 2.7 GPA is huge in job finding potential in the Technology job sector.
First, you need to realize that college and universities vary in their course curriculums for the same major title. As an example, one school may have more programming classes in the same major while another school has fewer. Schools may call their general IT program Computer Information Technology, Computer Information Systems or Computer Information Science. To really tell what the major is about you should look at the courses that a particular school offers in that major. Here are the majors and some associated jobs:
Computer Information Systems (CIS) - This may also be called a variety of other names like Information Technology (IT), Information Systems (IS), Computer Applications (CA), etc. This is a general technical degree and is the degree that I have. Holders of these degree work in a variety of technical jobs like these:
Computer Technician, Service Center Coordinator, Help Desk Staff, Storage Administrator, Network Administrator, Systems Administrator, Systems Engineer, Enterprise Administrator, Active Directory Administrator, Exchange and Messaging Administrator, Backup Administrator, Disaster Recovery Specialist, Database Administrator, Computing Security Specialist, Ethical Hacker, Corporate IT Acquisition Specialist and Data Center Administrator, just to name a few. CIS degrees usually have less advanced Math and Programming in the required courses than CS and CE. If a CS or CE student was to find their GPA dropping below 3.0 they might want to switch into this less difficult major. However, before you disrespect people in this area remember that numerically these are the greatest number of jobs and often people you will be working closely with if you are a CS or CE graduate.
Computer Science (CS) - A technical degree which usually has a Programming emphasis - people with this major usually are developing application software, web development, embedded code and robotics. Sometimes, depending on the college, the degree may cover some more general topics as listed under CIS major above. CS is a difficult major and may include a number of advanced math courses. Many CS students find themselves not enjoying programming, not being gifted at it or not having the math and logic skills to be good at programming and they will switch out into CIS. CS majors that are able to graduate can also qualify for jobs listed above under CIS. This is a special calling and not for the faint of heart and all the studying in the world will not make you a Programmer if you don’t have that gifting. People who have a natural gifting for Programming will excel in this degree while others will struggle. Often times after you take 2-3 Programming courses it will become evident if this is the major for you. If you can figure that out before starting college it will save you time and money.
Computer Engineering - This is a highly technical engineering, Programming and design degree. In some schools this may be offered in a joint degree with Computer Science because Programming and Advanced Math are involved in both. These degree holders get jobs related to designing and manufacturing computer related hardware and it may also include Programming. Obviously when you think of hardware you think of laptops and PCs but this might be all kinds of computer devices and components like tablets, processors, memory, storage, networking equipment and components of computers. This will be the highest degree of difficulty in the common IT majors. Take CS and add 10%-20% more difficulty and you have an idea of the challenges in getting a CE degree.
Best wishes!