There is really no one specific term for someone who has studied computer science or computer engineering. In either you could be a computer scientist or a computer engineer. But equally, you may be some something else - a software engineer, a database engineer, a communications engineer, or simply a programmer. What you are (computer engineer/computer scientist/something else) is more defined by the specific studies you made (ignoring what the degree was called), the employment you gain after these studies and how you choose to specialize what you have studied. The content of the university study is far more important than the title of the degree. For instance, a computer science degree at one university may be equivalent in content to a computer engineering degree at another university. For me, if I wanted to differentiate between a computer scientist and an engineer, I would look at what they studied with regards theory and practice. I would expect a computer scientist to have a deeper knowledge of theory, and in contrast, the computer engineer to have a deep knowledge of the real-life application of this theory. ie. the computer scientist to be more a theorist. But this is a generalization and my opinion.

Thanks, Duncan and charlescuy!

Degrees in computer science are famously variable. Some focus heavily on theory, some on practical (programming, hardware configurations), some mix it up. So, I agree with Greg. It's about what you learnt and how you applied it. Generally a software engineer is the same thing as a programmer. A career computer scientist is more interested in theory (algorithm design etc) and often academic. Then you can have electrical engineers and chemists/physicists that actually design and build components. In some cases the terms are interchangeable, but the roles and names can get very specific. In summary: - I would call an academic studying computational theory a computer scientist. - I would call someone that develops software a developer or a programmer / computer programmer (in the US they often call them software engineers). - I would call someone who designs and build components a scientist, an electrical engineer or an electronics engineer.

There are computer science majors. There are computer engineers.