What computer programming language  should I take for my engineering
classes? (I am a freshman majoring on electrical engineering).

I'm kinda of surprised you have much of a choice :). I graduated in 94
and my courses were Fortran and Assembly Language.

I took Electrical Engineering because I thought Computer Science was
going to be too easy :). Now I have a degree in EE, but I love
databases, security, system administration and programming.

I agree with previous comment. I think you won't have too many choices
to fulfill your requirements, but I'm not sure. In general, Electrical
Engineering is either very high level or very low level. Either you're
going to be in CAD to design circuits, or your going to be in a low
level programming language to burn processors and ROMs, probably.

OTOH, if you are looking for languages that people are using, I think
C++ is important, but Perl or Python or PHP is also something to
consider for getting stuff done, especially with web.

I really think that answering which programming language you choose is
about as hard as answering which verbal language you should choose.
Yes, you should learn Spanish, but French and German and Japanese are
also good and important. The real question is -- do you want an easy
language to learn (PHP), do you want a language that is everywhere,
doing everything (C/C++), do you want to go Microsoft route (.NET), or
do you want to learn languages that are used and are powerful in their
own right (PERL/Python/Java).

As you are saying " I love
databases, security, system administration and programming."

Therfore i suggest to go for perl which have strong
1. DBI/CGI programming with Oracle/Mysql etc.
2. It Has security features like SSl encryption/decreyption,
3. Syntax are easy to learn, implement.
4. Similar to C and various online systems are going on these days.
5. Since it goes on both Unix/Window Platform so lot of scope for
system administration scripts/programming.

Thanx

gssjain-ga, thanks so much for the thought, except that I didn't ask the q. :)

I recently graduated from a top university. I graduated in Computer
Science who graduated from CompE and EE.Make sure you take C
programming if you ever want to work for the semi-conductor industry.
Also EE/CompE majors use a lot of Python, and Perl Scripting. Also
make sure you study Computer Architecture with IA32 Architecture,
either with 56K Motorola Instruction Set for Assembly or MIPS. You
also want to take microprocessors

And these things are good if you want to work ine the semiconductor industry

Nowdays, there are so many languages. 

language is just language.

1. C
-> it's a little hard to learn fast. but it's basic of all computer
language. so you feel easy when you learn another language like java,
c++.

2. Python or Perl
-> script language is very useful and powerful. it makes you smart^^

Actaully that depends on your focus to IT.

Since you are in Electrical engineering I think you should have an
option with Assembly Language and as usual IT is moving so fast you
never know what you stepped into and what you are doing!! The bottom
line is you have to prepare for everything that you need to update
your self as it is the minimum requirement to become a PROF in IT
doesn't matter which IT subject you go with!!

Good Luck!!

Java Java Java

Thanks

I would recomend you go with an Object Orientated language, either
C++, Java or C#. These will be more usefull to you in the long run
although PHP and Pearl are great languages for knocking together a
quick algorithm for something.

Personaly I would advise agains Java how ever, it's a good language in
many respects, but it still has many short-comings from its days as a
cellphone language.