I've finished my B.S. in Computer Science recently, and I am looking for a good place to get my Masters (perhaps in a year or so). The problem is trying to find a program that does not treat computer science as a bunch of skills to "get you a job", but encourages you to want to understand it all from scratch. It's my opinion that a computer science person ought to be making plenty of their own frameworks and other things from scratch (as reasonable) -- not to reinvent the wheel, but somebody has since found something better than wooden spokes!

Anyway, I have opted to look into Computer Engineering for my Masters because (1) I'd MUCH rather be involved in Engineering than Business, and (2) it's been my second biggest interest since I've been exposed to it, and it DOES involve the "kind" of programming (or the programming for it involves the mindset I am after) that I like.

Thus far, my top choice is the University of Idaho, because their CS and CE programs overlap considerably, and the main guy said that you can do about the same with either. I WANT programming with an engineering mindset (or vice versa). After that, I'm looking at the University of Colorado (at Boulder), and the RIAS program at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

(THE QUESTION) ... Does anybody have recommendations for schools with a good Computer Engineering (or perhaps a very engineering-oriented Computer Science) Masters program? Or perhaps anything similar? ... I figured this was a good place to ask

Note: I am currently in Washington, and have lived in Chicago for a long time; but I'll look anywhere if it's good. Also, I need to be economical, and ... I don't have the highest GPA :/

This question interests me as well, as I'll be finishing a BS in Computer Engineering in fairly short order..

I don't have many specific suggestions at this point, but I'll throw in a plug for my current school.

If you want to go somewhere that doesn't treat your degree like "skills to get a job" than don't go into engineering. Period. Engineering is for practical (job-worthy) applications of science and mathematics. Find a school that has dedicated programs for computer science, software engineering, and computer engineering; and stay in the pure CS department. The disadvantage of smaller schools (like where I am) is that they merge the CS and SE into one program. But there are basically no career paths in engineering that don't involve you and a business.

I meant an engineering-based study such as "Computer Engineering". I know just studying "Engineering" is more broad, and that an "engineering degree" (like an M.E.) is just for professional study.

Part of my interest in CE is that I'd like to make my own devices, or program for any custom device. It's been my observation that CS teaches you how an OS works etc., but then never expects you to actually DO it. That is, unless you get a Master in it, and then perhaps you'd take full classes on compiler design and other things, and THEN ... you'd still get the same kind of jobs where they never expect you to actually be an expert at furthering software technology. I was very dismayed to learn that "software engineering" is more "engineering some solution, using software" rather than "engineering (new) software". In CE, you actually become an expert both at making new hardware devices, and then doing all the programming for them. For example, Android development is awesome, because it's just Java; but somebody had to design the android platform for specific devices. I feel that CE would open up those kind of possibilities for me, so that I'm not limited basically to just web/distributed programming, which is what software engineering seems to be all about now.

I know exactly how you feel. Though I haven't graduated yet, I feel like the Course Computer Science is a little misleading. I went in thinking I was going to learn the concept of a computer. Things like what is program, what is memory, input and output, and perhaps even how processors work. Instead I got a class on how to program in C++ (however I consider that an invaluable experience to have a class to teach me how to program rather than try to learn by myself over the internet) C++ simply doesn't teach you those things (at least in my first course) It's a fairly simple language to pick up, but like anything, to be good at it, you have to practice. In the beginning they teach you things like declaring variables, and displaying text, yet they really don't expect you to know how it works. I thought to myself well what happens on the day when all the C++ compiler programmers aren't here anymore and we want to program our new light speed processor in C++. True, you can create a program in C++ that actually compiles C++ code but, in this way, we won't advance

Me personally I always been interested in how a processor works not just how to program it, Like in assembly, but what is actually going on inside, and even how to make one.

As far a school I been told that my school, Missouri S&T is a great one for computer engineering, (apparently one of the best in the Midwest)

Honestly, that's partly to be expected from the first couple classes. Every school will have you take at least 2 "learn to program (with Java or C++)" classes before most anything else. As far as processor functionality, look for a class called "Computer Organization" or "Computer Architecture" (or "Machine" instead of "Computer"). ... I actually was very fortunate to come across the CS program at USD (University of South Dakota), which was better than anything else (affordable) that I had considered for a B.S. I highly recommend it, because they REALLY focus on the theory! It was a bit surprising because it's a "liberal arts" school, and people kept telling me that I should be at one of the "tech" schools in the state -- but after looking at them, I found that they were more gimmicky and "skill" oriented, and USD was VERY theory oriented.

...For me though, I'm not satisfied with just an undergraduate degree. Thanks for the recommendations, all! I'm giving them a look...

Considering the desire for practical and low-level work, wouldn't an electronic engineering course have been a more appropriate choice than a computer science one? That's what I had been hoping to get into, personally, but I ended up at a university that didn't offer electronic engineering so went for computer science as the next closest thing (and by "next closest" I mean it had a tiny bit of electronics that was completely drowned out by tons of pure maths classes with a small amount of programming on top).

At least at my school, the EE students generally get dumped into things like power electronics, to the point where most of them are nearly helpless when instructed to program something (nasty looking Verilog coming out of some labs..).

As a computer engineer, I get the interesting parts of both worlds- basic circuit analysis and signal processing, a variety of programming (thus far, just basic C, Java, and some HDL), and digital logic (both just logic and actual computer architecture).

Does the first E in EE stand for electrical or electronic? Both courses usually share parts over here, but electrical engineers will do more power stuff and electronic engineers will do more computing/communications stuff.

Electrical here. Wikipedia explains this distinction satisfactorily I suppose:
Wikipedia also notes that computer engineering is a further subset of electronics engineering and computer science.

Benryves: My understanding (in the United States, anyway) is that EE is electrical engineering, CE is computer engineering, and CS is computer science. EE is focused on electrical stuff, but hardly covers anything to do with computing (though I'm sure that some digital knowledge is involved academically). CE is focused on computer-electronics (digital devices) and programming for such (embedded programming), but is generally sits right on the line between computer software and hardware. "EE" is going to read as "electrical" in the U.S. -- which is why I was surprised when I read that you took Computer Science as a substitute.

I know that in my college, we basically wrote an OS from the ground up, with just a very simple backbone. I know that's not true for everywhere, but if you find the right program you can do cool stuff. That being said, we also did a whole bunch of math, and about half of my CS classes had little to no programming involved.

I have a Bachelors of Engineering in Electrical Engineering (EE), a Masters of Engineering in EE, and a Masters of Science in CS thus far; if everything goes well, in three years or so I'll have a PhD in CS. At least in my school, you could choose whether you wanted a semiconductor/IC-design centered EE degree, a signal-processing-centric degree, or a Computer Engineering type of degree with a lot of microprocessor architecture and programming classes. I majored in the Signal Processing track, since I do so much programming on my own time, but I also took Compilers, Operating Systems, and several levels of Computer Architecture (microprocessor architecture). I was made to (and enjoyed, of course) write my own complete C compiler, my own operating system, and all that fun stuff. It's too late to recommend that you apply to Cooper Union for undergrad, and they don't yet accept non-Cooper students for the Masters program, sadly. I'm enjoying doing Systems work at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at NYU, and the great thing about EE and CS PhD programs is that they pay you a relatively liveable stipend. It sounds great that you've found choices where you can do a sort of crossover CS/CE, though! I say you pursue that.

Plenty of schools offer EE/CE, ECE, or even EE/CS as a single program.